Wood flowers

I haven't used them for *my* wedding, but did create arch decorations and two small bouquets for a friend last year! I'll see if I can find the pics to include later, but my experience was a bit of hit and miss. If you get good quality flowers, they can look amazingly realistic and they are surprisingly lightweight! It does take a bit more work than I originally imagined, especially if you're creating bouquets and want them to look real-ish... we're talking floral wire of various sizes, stem covers or wraps, soooo much hot glue! And dying them can be tricky, thus the hit and miss part; I had to try at least 10 different methods and combos of paints/inks/dyes to get the colors we were aiming for. Depending on the type of flower, dying them can result in straightening out of any curled edges (super detailed, premium roses especially tend to have this problem), which I was not very successful at re-curling by myself. Several of them were nice enough to leave natural off-white, but even the premiums can sometimes have dark spots from knots in the wood or even mold, so having appropriate storage is also crucial!

I am incorporating them and they can look really beautiful. But, boy oh boy, it is a real project to get it all done! I recommend watching YouTube tutorials and trying some painting techniques to make them look more realistic. Mix paint colors! Using dried fillers with them also makes them look better. It's not exactly a quick DIY project to dye and put together your Sola flowers- be prepared to set enough time aside to spread the steps out over multiple days. Dying and gluing take the longest and may take quite a few hours depending on your project size. That said, I think it's a really unique look, and can be much less expensive than real florals if you are on a budget. I like the fact that they last well after the big day!

PROS:

- Inexpensive

- Can be customized and dyed to your color scheme

- Easily found on Facebook marketplace and others, lots of wedding groups have many people reselling theirs since they don't need an absolute buttload of wooden flowers after their big day.

CONS:

- They are pretty clearly not real flowers once you get within 3-5 feet.

- No scents or fresh floral atmosphere.

- It's a ton of work to color/dye them - and you have to use the Sola products to achieve color.

- What on earth do you do with them afterwards?

- Still kinda expensive for a one-day thing!

I went with real flowers for my wedding, with a heavy HEAVY emphasis on greenery instead of blooms. That helped save a significant amount. Honestly, I might do a mix, if I were you! Table decor, background blooms, anything that people aren't spending a ton of time super close to our photographing, Sola makes a ton of sense. Mix them with some real greenery/leaves/stems to help make the look realistic - then splurge on a bouquet for you (and maybe a boutonnière or another bouquet for your spouse) day of. That'd be my recommendation!