When you are thinking about the wedding bouquet you want for your wedding, the first thing you need to consider is whether you want to have fresh flowers, or silk flowers.

Don't just assume that you should get fresh flowers!

There are many good reasons for why you might choose to get silk flowers instead...

Probably the biggest benefit of silk flowers, is the cost. Usually, a silk flower bouquet will end up being considerably cheaper than a fresh flower bouquet. It's much cheaper to make a silk flower, than it is for a farmer to carefully grow a fresh flower in their garden, and then for a florist to look after it!

Another benefit of using silk flowers in your wedding bouquet, is that after you are married, you can keep the bouquet, as a reminder of the happy day. You can also keep fresh flower bouquets, but to do this they will need to be preserved, which can be quite expensive.

Finally, with silk bouquets, you can actually try making the bouquet yourself! Although it's quite easy to make bouquets, it can be hard with real flowers, and it's much easier for beginners if they are using silk flowers instead.

There are a few benefits to using real flowers though...

The main benefit is the smell. Even if you spray them with perfume, a silk bouquet will never smell as nice as a fresh flower bouquet.

Another benefit of fresh flower wedding bouquets is that there are a lot more places to buy the flowers, and it can be easier to get more variety. This depends on where you shop though. If you can find somewhere local to you that sells silk flowers, or you buy them online, then silk flowers can be just as easy to get as fresh.

But wait a second...

Aren't I forgetting the most important thing? That fresh flowers LOOK a lot better than silk?

Well, this may have been true once, but these days, it's quite easy to get beautiful silk flowers, that are indistinguishable from the real thing. I've personally made quite a few silk-flower bouquets that people have tried smelling, because they thought the flowers were real!

Ultimately it's up to you to decide what type of wedding bouquet you want. All I can suggest is that you don't jump into it, and give silk-flowers serious consideration, as they have many benefits. After all, the smell from a fresh-flower wedding bouquet will only last for a few days, anyway!

Peta D'Silva has been making wedding bouquets for over 14 years. Her website at http://www.visionsofsilk.com has lots of information on how to make bouquets, including details on How you can make a candy bouquet.