Real Flowers vs Paper Flowers

I have never seen a fake flower that I like, but I do like the paper flowers.

I just selected my flowers. A florist is doing the ceremony flowers, but Sam's Club is delivering our reception flowers. I am doing a boat load & we got an amazing deal! They are making my centerpieces & then I ordered bulk flowers for projects we are doing.

You can look up 'bulk flower's' on Sam's Club & Costco online. You can see all of the selections & prices. There are tons are choices & great reviews! My Mom orders flowers from them for parties all of the time.

I think you're officially off the hook for this flower shop guy. You've done your part to give him your business, but he's not interested. Go with the grocery store and don't feel guilty.

(Disclaimer: I love real flowers, so when they're an option, I will always pick them.)

I've never seen a paper flower that didn't elicit "oh that's cute' rather than 'oh how pretty'. Just me. I'd go to the grocery store or another town. Florists around here travel; I"m sure yours would too.

One of my couples did 'real touch' last summer, and they were honestly, very, very pretty (I couldn't tell the difference until I touched them) but they are not cheap.

That is so strange the florist never got back to you!! I am a big fan of fresh flowers at a wedding. I'm also doing hydrangeas and roses! I am going to echo Celia - I would go to the grocery store or have another florist do it (they travel/deliver ya know!). If the budget is the issue, do fake. But paper flowers....ehh I am not a fan.

After I posted this, I talked to my sister. Considering I'm not really a DIY kind of a girl, and I'm already doing some DIY (with help from my bridesmaids) I would like to not have the pressure of paper flowers. They certainly not my first choice, and taking into consideration two local grocery store options, I think that is going to be the way to go. I love real flowers to, so I would rather do it the way I want it.

I love paper flowers, but then I also don't like real flowers. I'm doing paper flowers from book pages to bring my love of books into the wedding.

There are my first attempt - I haven't taken any pictures of the latest versions. And these are super easy to make. 3 or 4 minutes each one. Just to give you an idea of what you can do.

I am thinking on paper flowers. This is my inspiration pic.

Nicola, I love flowers made out of books. So pretty!

I'm planning on doing partial paper partial real. Like Celia I never saw paper flowers that made me think (That's gorgeous).... but then I found these and I want to do it so bad.

I'm doing this exact thing.

Our wedding is in July as well... and since we are getting married later in the day, I was concerned about things wilting and not looking the best. So we are doing fresh flower elements for the bouquets, bouts, and corsages for the mamas/grandmas. We will have potted hydrangeas for the reception space. And our centerpieces will be paper flowers. Our ceremony is outside and has a lot of natural beauty so not much needed there.

Making the flowers does take a fair amount of time, but once you get going and get into a rhythm it isn't too bad. Just leave yourself time so you can do it in chunks so it's less overwhelming

We're using paper flowers for our wedding due to allergy and budget issues. It takes a lot of time, but I like the fact that it's something I can easily save after the wedding. We used sheet music from our favorite shows/movies to watch together and sheet music from our wedding songs. FH helped with the flowers. We'd open a bottle of wine, throw something from Netflix on and get to flower making.

I am also on the paper flower train! But, I am not DIYing mine. I considered it and then realized how long it would take, and found an etsy seller to use instead. It worked out to be ALOT cheaper than doing real flowers. (Or the same price as if I had done grocery store flowers and DIY'd them.) This was my latest set of samples, I am still working to tweak them.

And the third picture was the original set of samples.

No offense intended to anyone doing them, but paper flowers scream BIRTHDAY PARTY at me, and remind me nothing of a wedding. Plus I don't think that they look all that great

I'm doing both. FH and I are super nerdy when it comes to books, we just really love reading. We decided to do my bouquet and the BM bouquet as paper flowers from our favorite books (old beat up copies) and then the centerpieces and rest of the floral decor will be normal flowers.

*Side Note: For anyone doing paper flowers from book paper, I have found that older books are easier to work with because the paper is thinner and more flexible.

I can't think of the last time I went to a birthday party with flowers - so I don't quite see what's 'birthday party' about them.

Most of the pictures here are stunning. Makes me want to experiment with some different shapes and styles for mine.

I did fake flowers and had my bridesmaids help me put them together. Got everything I needed from Hobby Lobby for under $100 and the help from my bridesmaids took away a lot of the stress (and one of them ended up having a natural talent for making bouquets) I would at least consider going to a store with fake flowers and playing around with different arrangements. Good luck!

I'm with Celia on this one, I'd reach out to other florists and just have them travel, but that's because I wouldn't have the patience to make all of those paper flowers myself. I'm not a crafty girl, but maybe you're up for the challenge. Plus I love the fragrance of real flowers. Good luck.

I guess you know where I stand on paper vs. real, lol. However, I began floral design with silks. I make a gorgeous silk bouquet (you have to chose the right flowers -- no matter how great the designer is, a cheap fake is fake from fifteen feet away). Future Mrs. JK posted a really beautiful bouquet. The artisan made some excellent replicas of peonies (the roses look real to me) out of paper, but if you can add the real elements -- in her pic, it's the seeded eucalyptus and Dusty Miller -- it goes a long way in fooling the eye with the paper flowers.

@NotAllWhoWanderAreLost, those are beautiful! Who is the Etsy seller?

I made some out of coffee filters and they are super easy. very time consuming though having to dye the filters but I love them.