DIY bouquet - opinions please

The forum's playing up again today - this is another post I'm having to redo.

I think it's lovely with the exception of the succulent. I think it's too overbearing for the rest of the flowers imho. Otherwise it's gorgeous.

The beauty with fake flowers is you can have what you want when you want. As long as the rest of your theme/look and feel all tie in then don't worry.You could introduce some winter foliage if you liked. You coulad also add some sparkle like crystals, pearls, brooches, but it doesn't need them by any means.

I think green and white are lovely together like that and quite 'wintery'

I agree with Pammy, the large darker flower doesn't go, and overpowers the others

Totally agree with other posters - I don't think it's a problem having "out of season" flowers, people do that all the time with real ones as well as fake, and the peonies are very pretty indeed.

I also agree about the succulent, it's a nice inclusion for variety but looks just a little too big compared to the others in the bunch.

Thanks for your help everyone! Does it look any better now? Have cut the larger petals off and added more greenery to blend it a bit more? Could go smaller again?!

It looks lovely but succulent is quite dark, could you get a lighter coloured one at all?

Defo looks prettier now it's smaller

I have no idea what different flowers are called, nor when they are 'in season', so this would never occur to me about peonies. I actually just googled peonies so that I knew which of the flowers you were referring to ? Is everyone really that big an expert on flowers that they would think twice about flowers in a bouquet? I could be in an ignorant minority with everyone else knowing, but even if everyone does know they're out of season, why would it be a bad thing?

I also can't tell modern artificial flowers from real until I touch them. And who goes around touching the bride's bouquet at a wedding? That would be odd.

Mmm - looks better but I'm still not sure it's right. But it's a personal taste thing. Overall its a lovely bouquet. Love the blue flower.

I'm with the other posters, you've shaped the bouquet beautifully and the peonies and greenery blend but the larger succulent (dark green leaves) really doesn't lend itself well to the other flowers. It's very similar to this one so I think that you've done an amazing job.

Ah I like the darker flower as it makes it look more interesting - my personal taste though.

Yay one person likes it! lol . Thanks everyone - im going to keep playing round with it till im happy but im determined to have the succulent even if I have to keep cutting all the petals off to make it smaller! Its actually not as dark in real life aa it looks in the pics though!

Stunning! If your happy with then it leave it as it is. You obviously had a vision in your head, and this is it....trust your instincts. I'm all for the subjective - who cares if it "doesn't go?! It goes for you and that's all that matters ?.

P.S. You obviously have a talent for flower arranging too! Possible after-wedding venture?!

From a professional angle, the composition is good in that you have a mix of round shapes (the peonies) and splkey foliage but, as others have said, the succulent is very oppressive and overpowers the other flowers. The succulent comes from a completely different category in the floral world to peonies in that it is dessert like, striking shape and futuristic looking whilst the peonies are vintage, blousey and full of romance so not something a florist would normally mix together in a bouquet unless specifically requested to do so.

The other point that is worth mentioning and the togs on here will know what I mean and that is if you have a very dark flower in this middle of a bouquet or one that dominates the rest of the flowers in the bouquet in a dark colour, this can sometimes appear as a black hole on photographs or in real life too when people are looking at it from a distance. Dark colours recede whereas light colours reflect light. If you have particularly set your heart of having just the one succulent with the peonies, is there one that is lighter in colour you could use so it lessens the density?

At the end of the day though, if you like it, then that's all that matters ?

Another one here that actually likes it, but take on board Brenda's comment about photographs

Thanls for everyone's inputs! After much deliberation I've got rid if the succulent and changed things around and added more greenery!

I really like it, i love the blue flowers too ?

Definitely prettier now. And I didn't object to the succulent, so I'm kinda an unbiased opinion, LOL !

Well done hun

Really pretty and you obviously have an eye for flower arranging. X