Centerpieces: Fake it till you make it.

Ok, so, centerpieces. I feel like we've gotten to know each other fairly well by now, so you can probably tell that I have expensive tastes, coupled with a thrifty (ok, CHEAP) outlook on life. Not a good combo.

With that in mind, here is the thing about flowers: They’re gorgeous. They smell nice. They make everything pretty and girly and soft. They also cost a sh*t ton of money. And then they die. I might as well set 20s on fire like I’m Lil Wayne at a strip club!

image via rollingout.com

Now I’ve already told you about my plan to cut the budget fat in areas that are low priority. Frankly, flowers were an easy area to trim, but I couldn't imagine a flowerless wedding altogether. So, we finally settled on real flowers for the bouquets and DIY silk flowers for the centerpieces and pomanders.

Early on, I fell in love with the look of submerged orchid centerpieces. They were elegant yet modern. 

Image via via lover.ly/ photography by Ira Lippke

What I wasn't so keen on was the price. One florist at a bridal expo quoted me as much as $90 a pop for these puppies! Soooo not happening, I thought. So, I did what any DIYonista (pass it on, I'm trying to make it a thing) would do: I studied them closely and decided I could do them myself. Alas, orchids don’t come cheap, even at flower market prices. Plus, I didn't want to spend the morning of my wedding assembling my centerpieces (3 vases per table x 15-20 tables = A LOT of centerpieces). If this was going to work, we had to use silk flowers.

Now, I’ll admit that I've never been a huge fan of silk flowers because they don’t look, feel or smell like the real thing, but it made the most sense for the budget and allowed us to assemble the centerpieces with plenty of time. Besides, since they will be under water, people won’t be able to feel or smell them. All that was left was finding cheap silk orchids that looked real enough, and some vases to stick them in. Tip: if you’re submerging your flowers, there is no point in spending more on true touch since nobody will actually be touching them. Also, if you’re planning on using silk flowers underwater, be aware that the vase basically acts like a magnifying glass. Inspect the flowers very closely. If there are frayed edges, it will show. If the paint job is shoddy, it will show. Basically, any imperfection will be exaggerated. For this reason, I would not recommend using dollar store flowers if you can afford not to. 

I know you're dying to see what we ended up with, but this post is already running long, and my lunch hour ended 5 minutes ago (whoops!). So, you'll have to wait for the next post to find out what we ended up with!

Did you use real or silk flowers for your centerpieces?