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The flowers are such an important part of the aesthetics of your wedding, but they can also be really expensive. (Just check out this post if you're interested in the average cost of wedding flowers.)
For this reason, we opted out of using real flowers for the majority of the arrangements. The only real flowers were used in my bouquet, the altar bouquets and certain floral arrangements at the reception. Otherwise the bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres and flower girl crowns were made with fake flowers.
Reasons to use fake flowers:
1) They're cheaper. Like way cheaper.
2) You can make all your floral arrangements months in advance.
3) You don't have to worry about them wilting.
4) You can have a memory of your groom's boutonniere or your bridesmaid's bouquet that will never fade!
5) In my humble opinion, they can be just as beautiful!
(Oh my heart. How precious is this picture of our sweet flower baby?)
First, I found pictures of bouquets and boutonnieres and crowns that I liked on Pinterest. Then I went to alllll the craft stores to find flowers/greenery that looked similar. I will just tell you right now that out of all the craft stores, Hobby Lobby has the most real-looking fake flowers. They even try to make a more flower-like texture than just the fabric flowers I found at most stores.
Tips for finding real-looking fake flowers:
1) Don't go for bright whites! Unless they are daisies they always tend to look fake.
2) Don't go for any color that is not a natural flower color AKA black roses. Unless that's your thing. Then you go, girl.
3.) Have an assortment of sizes. For example, if you have a couple of fully "bloomed" roses in your bouquet, try to add some more closed-looking ones and a bud. Stagger the levels of "bloom" for each bouquet so no two are the same.
Did you know that Hobby Lobby has a 50% off sale on fake flowers every three weeks? Just call and ask when the sale is and then go buy your flowers during it! You just cut your price in half.
When I brought all the flowers home I arranged them using my Pinterest pictures as inspiration. I tied them with green flower tape and a silk ribbon and then I trimmed them. I wanted my bridesmaid bouquets to be big and loose and wild, which made it pretty easy to just arrange them and tie them. *Please note* I have never done floral arrangements. This is just what worked for me and it really was not that hard! Especially if you have an inspiration picture to model your bouquet after!
The finished product! We spent $200 total on the flowers for the bouquets, boutonnieres and flower crowns.
As for my bouquet, along with the altar bouquets and reception bouquets, we bought real flowers and greenery from Costco and Trader Joe's two days before the wedding and kept them in water. My cousins made the altar and reception bouquets and I made my wedding bouquet the morning of our wedding. One of my favorite memories of the morning was sitting on the floor, making my own bouquet surrounded by my family and best friends.
Quick Note on our bridesmaid dresses and groomsmen suits:
While it may be expensive to have your own wedding, it is also expensive to be in someone else's wedding! We really did not want to ask our wedding party to spend a lot, especially since most of them were already traveling and helping with our wedding.
We used a bridesmaid dress rental website called Union Station for the bridesmaid dresses. Unfortuately, they are no longer up and running but other websites such as Azazie and Birdy Grey would be good options for reasonably priced dress rentals. I love the idea of bridesmaid dress rentals because it's usually really hard to re-wear a bridesmaid dress and they typically end up just taking room in your closet forever!
We went with rentals for the groomsmen suits at The Black Tux for the same reasons. Since most every guy owns a white shirt, we asked that the groomsmen just bring their own white shirts, brown shoes and belts so that the only articles they had to rent from the Black Tux were the suit coat and pants. We then ordered navy ties and American flag socks off of Amazon and gave them for groomsmen gifts! We have been happy to hear that the ties have been versatile enough to re-wear after our wedding day. Who doesn't need a good navy tie and some American flag socks?
Photography: Calley Watters Photography
Flowers: Hobby Lobby, Costco, Trader Joe's
Bridesmaid Dresses: Union Station
Groomsmen Apparel: The Black Tux