Fate of FLowers after the wedding day

You can get fake flower bouquets, feather bouquets, heck, I'm doing Christmas ornament bouquets. You only have a month, so you probably need to do something quick.

I think bouquets usually go home with the girls (you can preserve it for a scrap book or something), and centerpieces will usually be won by guests through some fun little contest at each table (or if they ask you, whichever).

One of the reasons I chose non-flower everything is because everything dies. With Christmas ornaments, they can easily be used straight from the wedding to the home.

P.S. - Google DIY tutorials or check Etsy for vendors on some non-floral bouquets and centerpieces.

You can request that they go to a senior center or a vets home. The elders most often love them. Otherwise go silk.

You can deffinately send them home with guests if you like. As far as alternatives they've got some pretty realistic silk flowers out there now if you look hard enough there is also feathers and alot of people seem to be doing branch tree's with candles I'm personally planning on breaking it up and doing flowers on only half of the tables and getting a bunch of cool lanterns for the other half.

We left our altarpieces at church as a donation for their next day's services.

I placed my bouquet at FMIL's grave after the wedding.

Unfortunately - our centerpieces probably went into the trash. We would have loved to donate them to a nursing home or back to the church, but one of our friends/family would have had to pick them up and deliver them, and we weren't able to make that happen.

Some people dry and preserve at least the bridal bouquet. And some people use silk flowers, which will last. However, in both instances, it's unlikely that more than the bridal bouquet will be preserved.

You might consider using bridesmaids' bouquets as reception decor. And some people also take all the flowers to a nursing home after the reception.

Or you could go with nonfloral decor. For example, we used candle centerpieces rather than flowers. I've seen people have the bridesmaids carry parasols, books, or nothing at all instead of flowers.

And of course, you can do something in between. We had real flowers for the bridal bouquet, MOH bouquet, and bout, but all other decoration was nonfloral.

Almost all of our ceremony flowers (including bouquets) are being re-purposed in the reception decor. We are then using the tops of the flowers for another decor item the next day at brunch. Finally our centerpieces have a base of wheatgrass (pet grass variety) so people can take them home and their pets can munch on them . The excess flowers are getting dumped in the woods on Monday before we leave our venue, I may attempt to dry my bouquet and I know two of my bms will def save theirs, they are crafty like that (We compost so nothing would end up in the trash at any rate). Donating the arrangements to a senior center or church is an excellent way to maximize the usefulness of the flowers!

Those are great ideas!

What would be a good alternative for flower girls then? Because my little cousins have been practicing with paper scraps for months now, don't want to disappoint them.

No flower girls for me, sorry!

All our flowers, except mine and my girls went to our local nursing home. They loved them : ) But I agree, it does seem like such a waste for only one day. If I had to do it again I would not have spent so much money on flowers.

All of our centerpieces went home with guests.

My bouquet stayed with my mom and when it started to look a bit "bleh" she hung it upside down in a window for me and dried them.

Sami B, that is awesome!! the glasses with the candles look fantastic!

Congrats on your super close wedding!!!

Your flower girls can use silk petals

Alina, I didn't know they make those. That's a great idea.

Alina, I didn't know they make those. That's a great idea.

We are having fake silk flower centre pieces, so no worry there. They belong to our decorator so she'll be getting them back.

We'll be having two large flower alter pieces at the church. They will either get re-purposed at the reception or be donated to the church for service the next day.

All other flowers are bouquets and boutineers, so people will get to keep them. I might have some or all of my bouquet dried to save.

We wanted to take our centerpieces to a nursing home. But our guests took them before we could blink. That solved that issue :-)

If you go non-floral, you need to think about what you will do with all those things after the wedding. We only had some vases and candles left over, but it was still a pile of stuff. Of course you can always try to sell them, but people have mixed success with that.