As if there are not enough decisions to make with regard to your upcoming wedding… When you work your way down the list to wedding centerpieces, you will be left flabbergasted by the amount of choice you have – flowers, candles, balloons, fruit, candy, tall, colored – and that is just the start.
Flowers are traditional and hence very popular so if you both agree on floral wedding centerpieces to give color to your day, can you then say hurray? Not quite yet – you may have reached that agreement, but now there is yet another decision to be made: to use real or artificial flowers?
Floral Wedding Centerpieces
The real or artificial dilemma… Here are some of the main arguments for each type:
Real flowers
- Their look adds a touch of class to the day.
- The choice and variety of real blooms is immense so by choosing varying types of flower, or shades of color you can enhance the theme or decorative effect that you are hoping to achieve on your tables.
- The size and variety means that you can match items, such as buttonholes, posies and bouquets to the centerpieces quite easily.
- Whilst they may be more expensive, you are paying for the effect when you purchase real flower arrangements. There are less expensive alternatives including just ordering the stems you want from a florist, or buying them from a supermarket and arranging the centerpieces yourself. Just beware that if you decide on the cheaper options, these cannot really be ordered in advance, so you risk not being able to get what you want on the day.
Artificial flowers
- These are much less expensive and, contrary to some opinions, can be of an extremely high quality. They are made from a range of materials which reflect the texture of real flowers too, so they are not just ‘fake-looking.’ This can be particularly important depending on the time of year of the wedding. For example, if you want roses for your Valentine’s wedding, but find the cost of real roses at that time of year too expensive, artificial could be the answer.
- They can be purchased and dropped off to venues well in advance, unlike real flowers which, in order to be at their best, need delivering on the wedding day. Again if you purchase just real stems (to bring down the cost) you will need to arrange these as close to the day as possible – as if you don’t have enough to do already!
- As with real flowers, artificial versions can be purchased as part of a whole matching range of complementary items. The difference is that these arrangements can then act as long-lasting keepsakes or mementos to send to guests who could not attend your big day due to unforeseen circumstances.
So, there you have it, one gently simmering debate that you might want to consider earlier rather than later.
This article was written exclusively for STL Weddings by Chloe Wilson whose Wedding Wedding Centerpieces Ideas website offers help and advice to brides so they can ensure their wedding reception tables are dressed as well as they are! Please visit her website for ideas on cheap, do it yourself and floral wedding centerpieces and much more.
