Flower Ball Centerpiece - Silk, Real, or DIY?

I used to think I didn't like silk flowers, but they sure have improved over time. I think silk flowers can be gorgeous, and honestly unless the stems (which always look a lot more unrealistic) are showing, in some photos I can't tell if they're silks or real at all. I've seen so many beautiful silk bouquets on wedding wire to know that a good silk flower can look amazing.

I personally don't understand how a clump of baby's breath can cost $65. Plus, do you remember how they smell? Baby's breath doesn't have the nicest smell when it's in bulk. I vote silks!

Silk

I ordered flower balls off of dhgate.com. They come from China so I was nervous about it, but they showed up and were exactly what I expected. 8 12" ones cost me $72 total.

Thats great @Brianna! Do you mind sharing the vendor or link? I would love to take a look!

Good point @AMW I didn't even consider the smell of baby's breath.

I just got them off here: http://www.dhgate.com/?f=bm|aff|wg|us|24172&utm_source=webgains_us&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_content=0&utm_campaign=58329

And I didn't mention they were silk, but I figured you would assume I didn't buy real flowers to be shipped from China lol. They have a lot of wedding decoration stuff on there.

I say silk! I went through the same decision and decided silk was the best way to go; although I did DIY them. I got the flowers on sale right before winter so that helped as well. DIYing them also allowed me to work on them leaving me with one less thing to do.

Brianna thank you for the link!!! I have been searching for wedding balls in my Bollywood wedding colors.

Thanks ladies sounds like silk is the way to go! I still have a few inquires out with florist so I will see what quotes I am given but I will not pay $65 for baby's breath flower balls so unless something amazing happens silk it will be! @Brianna when i click on your link it takes me to the dhgate main page :-( do you have another link to the flower balls or what the title of the listing was?

Im normally a fan of real flowers... But in this case think the silk accomplish the look much better than the babies breath does. As someone else said its really the stems that are a give away these days if flowers aren't real.

I paid $170/ea for my centerpieces, so I would pay more for real flowers. I love the look of the rose balls over the baby's breath for usre! But if real is not in your budget, do the fake. If you buy quality flowers, your guests will probably not be able to tell.

Real or silk

Thanks @Kels and @annakay511!

OP - http://www.dhgate.com/product/12-inch-wedding-silk-pomander-kissing-ball/252232299.html#myaccount_orderdetail-1-null

I bought the champagne and pink ones. One trick to see the thumbnails bigger when selecting your color is to right click and open in a new window/tab. You can also just do your own search on their website because there are tons of vendors that make flower balls.

Thanks so much @brianna! Thats a great price. When you received them did they arrive in 1 or 2 pieces?

They arrived in two halves. I "fluffed" them up as they got a little smushed in the box, but they attach really easily by just snapping the two halves together.

@Brianna & Beautyofdreams- Do you just put the flower ball on top of the vases? Or did you secure them somehow?

Thanks @Brianna! I may order those. It puts my mind at ease knowing someone has already ordered from the company! Not to mention the price is great! I just not sure if I should get 10" or 12" since my vase is pretty wide! @Christina I didn't secure mine. They held pretty tight to my vase without anything because my vase is wide.

Hey @Brianna can you tell me which ball in the picture is the 10" and 12"? I know that probably sounds like a dumb question but the largest one looks much bigger than 12". Based off of you ordering the 12" which one matches your size? FYI, i would have tried to message you this question but I believe WW has done away with private messaging...ughh.

Babies Breath is often mentioned when it comes to inexpensive centerpieces. The truth is that you need quite a few bunches of them to recreate the images the OP posted. In the pro column, the last for a very long time. In the con column, they do have an odd smell (and the fake ones are obviously fake).

I'm not a fan of the wide mouthed cylinder vases with balls sitting on top of them, whether the flowers are real or silk. There's something about them that always seems off kilter to me -- as if the opening of the vase should be smaller or the flower ball should be bigger.

My preference is the first picture -- the one with the white roses and the pearls in the vase. It's very pretty, and when I think of an entire reception area featuring these pieces, I think you have a winner.

ETA: If you use good silk roses, they'll be gorgeous. Remember, silks are not some kind of consolation prize. They are an art form in and of themselves -- an inanimate object ( like a lantern, candles, a globe, a pile of books) is absolutely acceptable to use as a centerpiece as long as it is aesthetically pleasing, which the white rose/pearl piece certainly is.