Post # 1
Member
7300 posts
Busy Beekeeper
opy and paste from my blog:
Okay, so for the topic of this post. After my disaster shipment fromafloral.com and their tissue paper looking peonies, I thought that it just wasn’t meant to be. A Pittsburgh florist told me that peonies bloom from May-June around here and they are hard to get cupped and full blooms towards the end of June. Whatever. I know my mother’s peony bush didn’t even bud until the end of May and then bloomed in June. Every quote I’ve gotten has been a bit crazy for flowers that will die after 3 days. I ran my concerns by Mr. Tattoo and I think his default answer for everything right now is, “Whatever you want dear.” Ugh. It’s not that I can’t afford real peonies, it’s just not logical to me. My mind can’t get past, “$250 bouquet that will die.” I guess you could preserve it, but that’s an additional cost. I’m trying not to spend the average $27k that a Pittsburgh wedding costs. So after a few recommendations on the bee, I decided that Real Touch flowers were going to be an option. I stumbled acrossflowerdepotstore.com and they carried Real Touch peonies. They were $7.99 a piece. Sounds much for silk flowers, but I’m keeping these forever or reselling them after the wedding. I figured a bouquet of 15 of them would be $119.85 vs the over $200 quotes I’ve been getting. So instead of placing an order of 12 of them like I did for afloral, I put an order in for one single real touch peony and crossed my fingers. I was nervous because there are no reviews about this website that I could find.
Okay, so here is my review.
Shipping: I placed my order on 2-15 and paid with Paypal. That gets an extra point from me because if they ended up being a flakey company, I could file a claim with Paypal and get my money back. I got an email with my receipt and the thank for your order blah blah blah message. On 2-16 my order was shipped and they provided me with a UPS tracking number. UPS said it would be delivered on Monday 2-21. It was actually delivered on Friday 2-18. Awesome! I would have known if I were stalking the tracker on the UPS website, but I figured I didn’t have to do that until Monday.
Packaging: Standard looking box. Basically the same size as the afloral.com box. Same wrapping and everything. I didn’t take pictures of that.
Product: I must say that I am impressed with these Real Touch flowers. I was almost (okay, I was 99%) expecting to pull back the packaging and see the same flower from afloral.com Instead, I was shocked. Now, they are a bit small. I would have to order 12 or 15 of them to see if they would make a nice full bouquet. They feel like a real peony. It’s weird. I touched it and thought it was real for a second. The petals are so delicate and they even fold and wrinkle like real ones. Even the leaves have detail work on them. The color fades in and out and it’s not harsh at all. All in all I am happy with the purchase. We are meeting with a florist on Tuesday and if she can give me a better price for peonies for my June wedding, then I’ll take it, but if I can get the same result for more than $100 less then I’m going with this company. I think I will order ones in medium pink to see what those look like. The ones I ordered are white with pink touches. It says light pink on the website. OH! And the only con? There was a dirt spot on one of the petals like someone with dirty hands was handling it or it was on a warehouse floor. I hope it’s not the latter. I will email the company and let them know, but overall I give them 5 stars. Okay, so here are photos:
Post # 3
Member
195 posts
Blushing bee
They sound awesome! I really wanted peonies for mine but being we are getting married in October that isn’t going to happen. . They were a favorite of my moms. Anyway would love to see some pictures! It looks like you were gonna post some but I don’t see any.
Post # 4
Member
7300 posts
Busy Beekeeper
The top
Closer shot of the underside. It seems to glow from within.
zoomed out to see the full flower from the side. I love how it cups.
The leaves
Another shot from the top
Sorry about the sun glare. It’s a cell phone camera! What do you want!? It does look nice in the sunlight.
Closer from top
Post # 5
Member
7296 posts
Busy Beekeeper
wow, those are AWESOME! waaaay better than the ones you got from afloral.com!
Post # 6
Member
7300 posts
Busy Beekeeper
@dynamic_duo: I was kinda scared to even open the box. It sucks I wasn’t excited about them getting here. I was just like “Okay…here we go.” But I was shocked. I mean, you have to TOUCH these flowers. It’s amazing how they feel. Like they are soft and just have that I don’t know…velvety flower feel? lol
Post # 7
Member
6351 posts
Bee Keeper
They look awesome. How were they price wise?
Post # 8
Member
7296 posts
Busy Beekeeper
@SoontobeMrsA: i actually checked out the website because i am using silk roses for my BMs bouquets, and it was something like $4.99 per stem (more than what i will be paying at bridesbouquet.com)
Post # 10
Member
241 posts
Helper bee
Miss Tattoo, do consider calling around other florists.
A wedding in early June should not run you $250 for a peony bouquet—the season will change every year, but there should be some available in early June, even if they have to come from Michigan or something.
You should be able to get one for $125-$175.
Post # 11
Member
7300 posts
Busy Beekeeper
@SoontobeMrsA: READ Soontobe! lol They were $7,99 a piece. Michaels has silk peonies and I could get them for half off, but I have gone into Michaels everyday for an effing week and they have been out of them in both locations that I go to!
Post # 12
Member
7296 posts
Busy Beekeeper
@Miss Tattoo: lol, but don’t you have more than a year to your wedding? what about waiting if they are half off at Michaels? 🙂
Post # 13
Member
7300 posts
Busy Beekeeper
I don’t know what they look like at Michaels. lol In fact, I have never seen Michael’s real touch line.
Post # 14
Member
2742 posts
Sugar bee
Wow, those look so beautiful. Ah peonies!
Post # 15
Member
141 posts
Blushing bee
@Miss Tattoo: I almost bought my peonies from afloral after seeing Mrs. Lab’s but I didn’t because they were taking forever to restock the light pink full blossom ones. I’m so sorry to hear about your experience. They look absolutely nothing like Mrs. Lab’s. I ended up finding some really nice ones at Joann Fabric. They are $5.99/stem but they often run specials. I got 30 stems for $140! They only come in white (I used blush to make the other bouquet pink.)
I hope this helps!
Post # 16
Member
7300 posts
Busy Beekeeper
@Ellabellaxo: Those look great!
I don’t know why afloral.com got rid of the ones Mrs. Lab used. Her bouquet was amazing in photos! I start reading her in the middle of recaps, but I went back and read some of her earlier stuff and couldn’t believe her flowers were silks! That’s why I ordered from afloral.com. The rep I spoke with kept saying that while they no longer sold those ones anymore, I could get the same look with the ones they had in stock. Puh-lease.
I’m going to have to check out Joann’s. Thanks for the tip.
I am going to wait until I get a quote on Tuesday from our florist meeting to see what a real peony bouquet would cost. Either way, I think I might still do silks since I would probably go crazy watching a real one die.
