It’s no secret that weddings can be wasteful—especially regarding the flowers that adorn most celebrations from start to finish. As a wedding advising and planning team, we’re on a mission to make this aspect of weddings more sustainable! That’s why we’ve partnered with Something Borrowed Blooms to write this blog, breaking down an often-debated topic: faux vs. real wedding flowers. If you’re an eco-conscious couple planning your wedding, stick with us to discover the pros and cons of each option and which aligns best with your event.

Faux Wedding Flowers

Sustainability Pros

Reusable: The wonderful thing about faux wedding flowers is that they are endlessly reusable if well cared for. You can store yours as keepsakes from your special day, reuse them for another event, or re-sell or donate them to another couple. This also makes them an ideal choice for DIY-minded couples!

Non-Perishable: One of the most wasteful aspects of real wedding flowers is that, well…they die! They’re inherently single-use, unlike faux flowers, which don’t wilt and create massive organic waste after one day of display.

Water-Free: Post-manufacture, faux flowers don’t require water during storage or display. There’s no need for water to keep them looking fabulous—a plus for couples planning a wedding on private property or DIY-ing their flower setup.

Pesticide-Free: By choosing faux flowers, you avoid contributing to the environmental impact of farming and transporting real flowers.

Transport-Friendly: Transporting real flowers requires refrigeration, which leaves a larger carbon footprint than conventional shipping methods. Faux flowers are less sensitive to the shipping process and will still arrive looking lush! 

Sustainability Cons

While faux flowers boast many eco-friendly attributes, they aren’t always the sustainable choice. Let’s look at a few reasons why.

Plastic Materials: Many faux flowers are manufactured from polyester, other plastic-derived textiles, or synthetic blends. These materials aren’t biodegradable, meaning they stick around in landfills forever (yep, they’ll probably still be sitting there when you celebrate your 50th anniversary…yikes!). 

Carbon-Intensive Manufacturing: Many faux flowers are mass-produced overseas using fossil fuels. So, while it’s more eco-friendly to transport them than real flowers, their manufacture leaves a larger carbon footprint.

Non-Recyclable: Most faux flowers can’t be broken down or recycled easily. Since they aren’t biodegradable or recyclable, the most sustainable choice is to reuse them until they fall apart!

Fast Fashion Risk: This leads us to the final con. If faux flowers aren’t resold or reused, they become part of the endless waste stream, like other single-use decor.

Real Wedding Flowers

Sustainability Pros

By now, it may seem like faux wedding flowers are always the sustainable option, despite their drawbacks. However, using real flowers can be more sustainable if the flowers are:

Locally Grown: Locally grown flowers will only have a short distance to travel to your event, reducing emissions. 

In-Season: Using seasonal flowers for your event will reduce its carbon footprint since growing in harmony with Mother Nature requires fewer resources. As a bonus, in-season flowers usually look more vibrant!

Grown Pesticide-Free: Organic flowers grown without harmful chemicals like pesticides are the most sustainable choice.

Composted After the Event: Real flowers are biodegradable and can be composted. This prevents organic waste and enriches soil—a win-win!

Sustainability Cons

Real flowers are a less sustainable option than faux flowers if:

Imported: Importing flowers from other countries leaves behind a massive carbon footprint—all for one day of celebrating that would look just as beautiful decorated with locally grown blooms.

Grown with Pesticides: Flowers grown using pesticides and large amounts of water have a net negative environmental impact.

Thrown Away: Seeing flowers thrown away immediately after the event pains us! It’s so worthwhile to take the extra amount of time and effort to compost them so your celebration ultimately gives back to the planet. 

So, in summary…

Faux flowers are more sustainable if you’re reusing, repurposing, or reselling them.

Real flowers are more sustainable if they’re locally grown, chosen mindfully, and composted.

That brings us to one of our favorite sustainable options for faux flowers: rental flowers from Something Borrowed Blooms!

Something Borrowed Blooms

Something Borrowed Blooms offers faux flowers manufactured from silk—never plastic—to rent for your special day. From bouquets to centerpieces and boutonnieres to statement arches, they have every floral adornment you could dream of! 

Their curated designer collections cover the full range of wedding aesthetics, from classic to modern to boho, so every couple can find flowers that fit their celebration. Your guests will never guess they’re faux, either! 

The ordering process couldn’t be more simple. Better yet? Something Borrowed Blooms ships flowers nationwide, so any couple in the U.S. can take advantage of their services. Once you’re done using your flowers, you just ship them back to be reused and repurposed. 

In addition to being a sustainable choice, renting from Something Borrowed Blooms will help you save on overall floral costs. This will allow you to use the surplus from that portion of your budget elsewhere—whether it’s on the designer gown of your dreams, a mouthwatering gourmet dessert table, or a luxurious honeymoon.

Tips for Renting Wedding Flowers

Have you decided that renting your wedding flowers is the way to go? We advise keeping the following tips in mind.

Book Early: Collections are snapped up quickly for peak dates. So, once you’ve identified your favorite, don’t wait to place your order! 

Coordinate Colors: Find your favorite floral collection first. Then, coordinate the rest of your wedding decor and paper goods with the colors in that collection to ensure a cohesive look.

Mix and Match: Feel free to mix and match floral elements with faux ones throughout your event! We recommend renting your statement pieces and supplementing them with greenery or candles for a fuller look.

Return Logistics: The last thing you want to do after getting hitched is deal with a complicated or expensive return process. Most floral rental companies offer a pre-paid return label or pickup options. With Something Borrowed Blooms, you’ll simply ship back your flowers in one of their pre-paid boxes!

For sustainably-minded couples, using real flowers or faux ones for an environmentally-friendly wedding celebration is possible. If using real flowers, choose locally and organically grown, in-season blooms. Or, if using faux flowers, be sure to reuse, resell, or rent! Something Borrowed Blooms offers premium silk rental flowers at a price point ideal for couples on a budget, so you don’t have to sacrifice beauty, sustainability, or your wallet to plan the celebration of your dreams.

Join The Wedding Duo Membership

Are you and your partner struggling to juggle wedding planning with your jobs and family responsibilities and finding time in between to actually *enjoy* your engagement? Whether your wedding is over a year away or just around the corner, you can benefit from The Wedding Duo Membership! With our DIY wedding planning membership, you access planning workshops and templates, weekly Q&A sessions with us, a virtual community of like-minded couples, and more! 

The best part? It’s all just $27/month—a fraction of the cost of hiring a wedding planner. Are you ready to shed the stress of wedding planning and access the expert advice and supportive community you’ve been craving? Get your membership today! We can’t wait to start planning with you.

Vendors:

Something Borrowed Blooms