Weddingbee boards

Bought in some of these to do a mock up. Obviously I need to cut the stems to make them fit the vase, but what do you think, provisionally?

The color is nice, but the flowers look very obviously fake. If you're alright with that, go for it. I personally don't like it in the slightest, but I know not everyone can afford real flowers (Or can, for allergy reasons and whatnot.)

I should say at this point that the point of ordering wooden rather than silk was because silk is supposed to look like a real flower, whereas at least if you get wood then nobody could say you were trying to imitate real flowers and doing it badly.

The other advantage is that it would mean I could do all the flowers months in advance, because the alternative is spending the day before the wedding:

- Driving around to all the local supermarkets and buying every flower in the correct colour they have.

- Making all the bouquets, decorations, boutionnaires, etc.

- ... this would be in addition to icing a wedding cake and a few hundred cupcakes, making a full buffet for 150 people, and making several hundred hors d'oevres.

... now, I COULD still get real flowers. I'm not totally ruling it out. I could also mix the wood with real or silk flowers. Just as long as it costs less that 300US TOPS... preferably no more than about 180US. I could also always cut something else and try to liberate more money.

That's why I need opinions!

EDIT: Could anyone who doesn't like them make suggestions, please? That would really help!

Not making me feel real confident here, ladies...

There is no way I'm going without flowers. I think it just doesn't look right without them. There will also be non-floral decorations, but they're costing me an arm and a leg as well. It's not helped by the fact that we aren't allowed to use candles, which would have been the cheap alternative. So: candles are out. I also loathe glitter, diamantes, and bling, plus it wouldn't go with the look I'm going for. I like the fabric flowers, but they don't match everything else. Sadly, nor do the paper ones.

If these really don't look right, it may have to be supermarket time the day before. However, there are things which I simply cannot make myself the day before if I'm cooking for 150 people. I simply cannot physically make my bouquet, bridesmaid's bouquets, boutionnaires, decorations for the church, or decorations for the cake the day before. There is only one me, and I'm doing plenty already. I could, however, do centrepieces and a few other floral displays with real flowers the day before. I would then have a mix of decorations which were completely wooden, and decorations which were completely real.

The problem is that we want things to be a certain way, but are not willing to pay through the nose for them. The only solution is to DIY. For example, I would rather get my caterer to feed my guests scallops on a rocket and pea puree salad, and then make my own evening buffet and hors d'oevres, than get a caterer to feed them melon followed by chicken and two veg. So that's exactly what I'm doing. Whilst I still have youth (sort of), strength, stubbornness, and time, I am not going to compromise!

EDIT: I'm also considering caviar based hors d'oevres as one of the options. YEAH guys... watch me DIY up some food porn!!!!

I love them!  I did wooden roses at my wedding and they came out so pretty!!  As you said, it was really nice being able to make them in advance so I had one less thing on my plate the week before the wedding.  Here are mine:

Showed the flowers to FI yesterday. He is usually super fussy, but he really liked them, and didn't bat an eyelid at the idea of ordering in a few thousand. I suspect his Mum will be a fan as well, because she's said to me that she thinks I'll be doing too much the day before the wedding, and that I need to try and reshuffle tasks so that I can do them weeks or months beforehand (she may have a point).

 @phoebephoebo: I love your flowers! I really liked the paper flowers too, and the brooch bouquets, but yours are my favourite due to the differences in texture and colour. Once more, they wouldn't fit with the rest of my decorations though. I think they're more "shabby chic" and I'm going for "1940s British patriotic tea party" combined with "traditional British pub" (think blue and white china, bunting, and lots of mismatched silver plate, with ale casks).

@dodgercpkl:  Those are not only similar roses... they are the SAME roses I have, in very slightly different colours! You just can't tell because my rubbishy pic had a flash. I really like what you've done with them. What are the smaller flowers you used for contrast? Are they silk?

My next problem, you see, is that I think greenery really makes floral arrangements pop, but I don't like most of the fake greenery out there. I could use real ivy from the garden if I made up the arrangements a few days in advance though, because ivy is really tough and won't die off. But then I would have to make them up closer to the time...  the alternative would be to use either paper or wooden leaves I made myself, but I have no clue how I would make them...

Definitely going with the wooden roses now, I think. I may still get in some real flowers on the day and do some arrangements with them as well, but only if I have the time.

@Cariad:  You possibly can't see in that pic, but I do have three colours already. I have white, navy, and white with a navy tip (look closer... they are there!). There should have been equal numbers of each, but the company made a mistake with my order. There would be equal amounts of each on the day. I may or may not also order in a small number of red ones, but they wouldn't be used in the centrepieces or bouquets. Our colours will be ivory, navy blue and royal blue, with small touches of red. I'm mostly using ebay to find white and blue stuff, and also mismatched silverware.

That website you showed me is really nice, but the prices put me off. At the moment, I'm trying to haggle in order to get 3,000 roses for £150. Even if I succeed, that is practically the whole flower budget gone. I'll be left with about £50 (max) to get in greenery, which is why that ivy at the bottom of my garden is looking increasingly attractive!

Personally I don't like the look of them. If you really like them though who cares what anyone else things.

I just seen much nicer non floral flowers options. Look in the Diy section there are tons.

I think they're pretty!!  However, I don't like that they are all so "closed".  If you could mix them up with some like the more "opened" ones in  @Azyriah:'s picture, I think it would look much nicer.

I love wood flowers! I'm kinda surprised that so many brides have said they don't like them, but to each their own. I think they're fabulous. I like them much better than silk. I'm doing paper, which doesn't seem to be an option for you, but I considered wood.

I think they are obviously not real, which is a bonus. You'd have to really think your guests were idiots to think that they would pass as real. So I think most people that use them see them as a flower alternative and aren't trying to pull a fast one.

I do agree that I prefer more natural colors with pops of the blue but if you like all blue I think that looks nice too. I also like flowers that are a bit more opened up, but again, if you liked the closed look I think they look great.

And it is a HUGE advantage to be able to put everything together far in advance! So go with the wood flowers and good luck!

Edit: For the record, I think it would look odd to mix and match wood with silk.

I love wooden roses but I'd get them unpainted or just stained so you can see the wood, so I might be a little crazy. 

To everyone who complained about the colours (and I was surprised how many they were, seeing as I thought they were pretty unobjectionable)... yes, those are our colours. Yes, even if we got real roses, they would be those colours. And yes, you can get real roses in those colours in every major florist in the UK. Actually, I really like the colour. There were some lighter ones which we were sent, but I really didn't like them. To be honest, I've also realised that this is not helped by the crappy pic I took and posted here. This is the problem with using flash! IRL they are much more like dodgercpkl's picture. Or more like this:

I will try and get some partially opened ones like the pic above, because I really like the mixture of open and closed. The three colours I currently have are three colours from the RHS bouquet... the blue and white, white, and navy. If I can find another colour which is similar enough then I might add one more, as well.

Those would be the boutionnaires, but with real ivy instead of plastic ferns.

Now this greenery I can afford... I could also maybe make them up and then add ivy around the base two days or so before, because ivy keeps without a fridge.

The negative vibe I got on here almost made me reconsider, so I had another look at silk flowers. The only ones I liked were so expensive, though, that there didn't seem to be much point. I also couldn't find enough nice ones to make anything nice. Then I had a look at the prices of real flowers. The supermarket prices were fine, but I have no friends who live locally enough to store them in a fridge. Literally none. They mostly live in central London or Cambridge, and it's just too far away. Plus, how would they transport them? Most of them don't have cars. I also couldn't use my venue fridge, because that fridge and my fridge will be filled up with food two days beforehand. And FMIL and you guys are right, I can't do my own flowers the day before. I'm doing too much already, and I also have a mentally ill mother, several relatives who don't like each other and will need to be chaperoned, and FIs entire family to arrange transport for, because most of them don't drive (they're from London, where you never drive if you can help it).

I looked at the roses again, and thought... you know what... it's not even about practicality. Practicality is just justification. I actually really like them, regardless (which is just as well, because I seriously actually do think that they are my only option). That doesn't mean that this thread has been a waste of time though... you've reminded me to get a mix of closed, half closed and open, like the pic above, and suggested trying to add a fourth colour (perhaps white with a lighter shade of blue on the tips?). Plus I'm sort of sold on the ivy now, which also has the advantage of being free.

@Azyriah:  I like these very much! Can't find a local stockist though...

@T12ubeauty:  Thanks for the concern... yeah, everyone is worried about this part of it, including me! Actually, we do have a caterer... who we are blowing our budget on. They will provide table service all night, do all the cleaning up, and bring out the buffet etc to be served. They will also provide a three course silver service meal with an award winning menu. However, in order to be able to afford them, we realised that we were going to have to make sacrifices. This included making our own cake, hors d'oevres, and evening buffet.

The buffet is especially important because about half of our guests are only coming to the evening do (we couldn't physically fit them all in the reception venue because of fire regulations). So the buffet is all they are going to eat. FI has said that he will help me (sod not seeing each other the day before... needs must!) and I will use my brother to keep the more difficult relatives out of my way whilst I do it. I've never done anything this ambitious before, but I have done a proper Christmas dinner for 15 before by myself, which sounds a million miles away, but really isn't. By the time you've made all the dressings, sauces, truffles, condiments, stuffings, festive fudge and sweets from scratch, and also cooked four or five courses plus a vegetarian option, you've pretty much made a buffet for 100. It took me about two days of non stop work to do that meal, so I think it will take me about the same for the wedding, just as long as I have FI's help. If I can get my stepmother in on the act as well, we can nail it. She's done buffets for 150 by herself before, as well, and she has won awards for her cooking (they run a B and B). If we can get her friends to shoot us some rabbits and things as well, that would be great. I find gutting game to be very therapeutic, and I have a few ideas for a hot salad with rabbit that might be quite nice.

It will not be easy... but I refuse to pay for food that I could cook better myself, and as I'm a pretty good cook, my standards are high. There were caterers who were so cheap that we could have got the whole lot from them, but I wouldn't have touched their food. I'm not serving melon followed by chicken and two veg... no way! I love my food and my beer far too much (plus, it's one of the things I ALWAYS remember when I go to weddings).

@JenGirl:  Yeah... maybe it's the terrible pic I posted, but I don't think anyone would think they were trying to pass for real either! They look sort of arts and craftsy IRL... they're supposed to have a sort of mismatched, slightly shabby feel to them... at least that's what I'm going for! Something that's supposed to look a bit different. I also agree with your concern about mixing wood and silk, although I think that dodgercpkl made it work when she did it. I think I'm going to use her pics as inspiration as well...

To everyone else who posted, even those who hated them... thanks for taking the time to express your opinions! It's refreshing to see opinions which aren't always the automatic "looks great!" as well. Shows that people can be honest and aren't just telling you what you want to hear!

@Newt:  LMAO! Actually, I was thinking of asking guests if they would like to take a few of these and a bag of Victorian style sweeties in a paper bag home with them, instead of doing favours which nobody really wants anyway. Thinking ahead...

... but yeah, even if I wasn't offered one, I'd totally take one if I were a guest!

... plus, if I made a toss bouquet from these (just in white with greenery... no blue), we could do that thing where you attach a ribbon with your wedding date and names to it, and ask that future brides also use it as a toss bouquet and do the same... so that it could be passed on for luck!

RABBIT! Can I come to your wedding? I totally get where you're coming from with the spending money on what you could do yourself. We're thinking about doing our own hors-devours as well! Good luck with the food and it sounds like you'll have amazing flowers, which I would also steal!

@JenGirl:  Thanks! I think I may be limited by FI's request, food wise, though... he says that buffet food should be finger food for drunk people, so we should keep things like cakes, pies, and salads to a minimum. If I can get the rabbit in, this wouldn't mean the end, however. We could do something like rabbit, basil and wild mushroom sandwiches or crostinis, for example. They also have the advantage of being very easy to prepare the day before (especially the crostinis, because then you don't have to worry about your crusty bread going off).

I've made a potential list of buffet items just now, and it all looks quite easy, to be honest. Finger food is not complicated, and all of the cakes and scones etc can be made two days before. The trick will be sourcing the ingredients and (in the case of the meat) cooking it and stripping the carcasses two days before the big day. The places we are likely to fall down on are the cake and cupcakes. Cupcakes because they will need to be made earlier, frozen, and thawed before being iced (and that could go horribly, horribly wrong, as anyone who has frozen cakes knows). The main cake because it has to be right first time, and all the flavours have to work together.

The temptation will also be to try and make a cake which has quite complex decorations on it. I think I need to stay away from that. Much as it pains me, I don't think we can use fondant, either... it's too complicated to put on the cake, it requires a lot of space to roll (and our kitchen is too small) and it is not very forgiving... one mistake and you have to completely restart the whole thing. Don't know how FI will take that... he loves fondant. But I'm going to push for buttercream and sugar roses.

For hors d'oevres, have you considered blinis? It's such a neutral flavour base, very easy to cook, and they store easily. I think I might do 5 different flavours, because I know I can knock out a few hundred of those in two or three hours or so.

@HisMoon:  Thanks! Yeah, I think food and drink is more important. I also think I should stick to what I know. I mean, I know nothing about flower arranging, so trying to do that the day before could end in disaster. At least with the wooden flowers I will have the time to have a few good runs at it. The one thing I do know is food, so I think I should just play to my strengths. I do need to consider the things I struggle with, food wise, though... for example, I suck at caramelising stuff (I can make caramel just fine, but I can't caramelise, say, scallops, or cauliflower). So easy, right? Who can't caramalise stuff? Well... me. I don't know why. Other people seem to be able to just do it with no effort (like FI). Maybe I try too hard. The other thing I can't do is creme brulee or creme caramel, because I can't get the ******* stuff to set. It's like my nemesis. I've been trying for years and then everyone laughs at me because it's the sort of thing that even a real novice can cook!

I'm sorry I didn't write back sooner.  The additional flowers and greenery are all silk.  Basically it was what I had on hand that I was able to make work.  :)  I think what throws so many people off is seeing the exposed stems and once you have things cut and arranged how you like, it will look hugely different!  I loved my wooden roses.  Loved the color, loved how they looked, loved that I could get them ready well in advance!   

I used flowers for other things too - some of my baskets, card box and other decorations, so I really just tried to utilize whatever I could so that I wasn't buying something and only using like one leaf or flower off of it.  lol

@dodgercpkl:  Know the feeling about using them for everything... I'd use these for the cake, decorating around tables, decorating the wedding car, putting in the card box... the lot!

I think the rubbishy pictures have put people off, you know. Your pics make me feel a lot better. Plus, as soon as my flowers are done then I can concentrate on my food and booze!

@Rachel631:  I have to admit I had to google Blinis but they look awesome!

@bailey12:  Those are lovely. Sort of... ethreal.

@JenGirl:  LOL, I only know what they are because my Stepmum makes them all the time. She can make several hundred in an absolutely teeny amount of time, whilst drinking wine at the same time. She catered her wedding to my Dad as well (completely by herself... she did everything), and they held the reception in their b and b. That was a buffet, and I have no clue how many people were there... a huge number of extended family members, plus the whole village popped in to see them at some point and they all stayed for a bit. So I know that it can be done!

@Cariad:  Excellent idea! I was just thinking of picking a load on the day (we have some wasteland behind our house and there's a ton of the stuff there) but training them into shape with garden wire is an even better idea! It also solves my next problem, which was that the existing ivy is very woody and difficult to manipulate. By using the brand new shooters and cultivating them wth the wire, I will make my life so much easier!