Wedding Breeze

From the bride’s perspective, the wedding bouquet has a couple of different functions. It has to look good as well as fit into the overall theme for the wedding. And it has to make her look good.

Many professional wedding planners say that wedding flowers shouldn’t be more than 10 to 20 percent of your overall budget. But the costs of weddings are famous for spiraling out of control.

One way to control costs is to make your own wedding bouquet flowers. These can be expensive to buy from florist, but can be made relatively inexpensively if you have a bit of craft talent in your hands and are willing to make it yourself.

Many couples have discovered that using artificial flowers instead of real one is also a great way to help limit spending. For example, silk flowers are much cheaper than real flowers. But artificial flowers have many other advantages as well. Silk flowers don’t wilt or die.  And they can be kept for years as a wedding keepsake. Do you have allergies? If so, this may be another reason why you would choose an artificial floral arrangement instead of real flowers.

It used to be that the most popular wedding bouquets were white based – paper white, cream, ivory, etc. Modern wedding bouquets use a lot more bolder colors than traditional white wedding bouquets of years past. With artificial flowers, you have the entire rainbow of colors to choose from. They can be found in many more colors that real flowers can.

Lastly, the huge benefit of using silk or other artificial flowers is that you aren’t limited to choosing among flowers that are in season. If you go the artificial route, you can practically go with any type of flower you desire.

You can start your search for the perfect wedding bouquet by thumbing through bridal magazines or Internet wedding sites. Fashions are always changing, and this will give you an opportunity to see what is available as well as what is popular this year. Start early and take your time to look at the many options available. All of the research will not be wasted. It will help to give you a better sense of what you really want. Even if you’re using a bridal consultant, don’t rely totally on her to make your bridal bouquet decision. Ultimately, it has to be your choice.

When you order the flowers and floral arrangements always make the delivery date before the day of the wedding (probably one or two days before) and be sure that the delivery site has a refrigerator where the flowers can be stored until the wedding date. Once the flowers have been cut, they need to be refrigerated to keep fresh. For synthetic flowers, of course, this is not an issue.

The wedding bouquet is the focal point of the bride’s dress. But you don’t want it to be so focal that it takes attention from the bride. It should complement the bride, not compete with her. Keep in mind that the wedding bouquet is an accessory, not the main event.