Bridal bouquets made from fresh florals are in a class all to themselves. You can weigh the pros and cons of using fresh flowers and discover the best places to buy. With a little planning ahead, you'll end up with a stunning bridal bouquet.
Fresh Floral Bridal Bouquets: Pros
Fresh flowers smell amazing. While you can use fragrance oils to scent your silk bouquet, fresh flowers are almost irreplaceable when it comes to the beautiful scent wafting up from your bridal bouquet. There are many other pros to fresh flowers as well, including:
- Fresh flowers often look obviously fresh whereas some silk bouquets don't. In other words, flowers in the bridal bouquet are arguably more enchanting when they're fresh.
- You can preserve them later to conserve your wedding day memories. With silk flowers, you may find that they take up too much space wherever you store your memorabilia.
- Being tied to the flowers in season at the time of your wedding may push you to create an even more creative bouquet than you would if your options weren't limited.
Cons to Using Fresh Flowers
If you use silk flowers, you can have the flowers on hand months before the wedding. There will be little to no worries about getting the flowers in time, or about them wilting before the ceremony and pictures are over - particularly in a hot climate. If you keep your silk floral bouquet, it will look the same on your fiftieth wedding anniversary as it did on your wedding day, with proper care.In addition, you have to worry about which flowers are in season during the month of your wedding, simply for ease of ordering and your budget. It's a lot cheaper to order flowers that are readily available during a given season! You can get any silk flowers you'd like for your dream wedding, any season.
Some silk wedding flowers look just as realistic as fresh flowers, and they do tend to hold up better over the course of a wedding day. You can even reuse them as arrangements in your home or office.
Planning Ahead
If you prefer fresh floral bridal bouquets, here are a few tips for planning ahead so that the floral part of your wedding can go off without a hitch:
- Give the wedding florist as much notice as possible.
- Find pictures of what you want so that you can accurately describe (or show) your dream bouquet to the florist.
- Shop around for prices for a while before committing to a florist.
- Research the flowers that will be available during your wedding season so that you won't be disappointed when you speak with the florist. Who wants to start again at square one once their mind is made up?
Purchasing Fresh Flowers for Your Bouquet
There are many resources brides can consult for fresh flowers, including:
- Bloominous makes buying fresh flowers for a wedding easy. Browse through their offerings or have one of their designers put together something suitable for your big day.
- Fifty Flowers has incredible blooms, like the rainbow roses that would be at home in a wedding that's designed around the word "fun." Under their Wedding Flowers section, you'll find Made for You packages, DIY packages that cut down on the guesswork for the happy couple, and even ordering guidelines by season. In the FAQ section, there's information about how many flowers to put in a bridal bouquet, different bouquet styles, and ordering information.
If you prefer to go with a local florist as opposed to an online store, check the Flower Shop Network to find one near you. Why go local? You'll cut out the middleman, avoid miscommunications more easily about what exactly you want, possibly get quicker delivery, have them delivered to the wedding site without too much stress because they're familiar with the area.
These are all important factors when you're in a time crunch and you need your flowers to be absolutely perfect for the ceremony. If you're using a local florist, you can also go in with a picture of the wedding bouquet and other flowers and chat about how to achieve just that.
Pressing Your Flowers for Memories
One of the things you can do to preserve your wedding day memories is preserve your fresh floral bridal bouquet. Visit Brides.com for detailed instructions on how to preserve your flowers via air drying, silica gel, pressing, and freeze drying. You'll even find the pros and cons for each method.
Fresh floral bridal bouquets are exquisite, and brides who opt for fresh flowers won't be disappointed with the outstanding color, scent, and luxury of their bouquet.
