It's not your mother's wedding, so stop worrying about doing everything her way. This is a time for you to express your individual taste and style. So what if she never would have dreamed of carrying "fake" flowers in her bridal bouquet. In her generation fake flowers were plastic. Of course she wouldn't have used them!

This is a new generation and silk wedding flowers are the rage! Not only have "fake" flowers evolved in leaps and bounds, but they have also become very popular as alternatives to fresh flowers for wedding bouquets, flower girl baskets, corsages and boutonnieres. From the exquisite cascading bridal bouquet to the simplistic hand-tied wedding bouquet, silk wedding flowers lend themselves to every style imaginable!

Elegant silk calla lilies look lovely, whether cascading downward intermingled with ivy, or when in a hand-tied bridal bouquet. Silk roses in a rainbow of colors combine nicely with a variety of other flowers in a clutch bridal bouquet or in a cascading wedding bouquet. The look is so close to that of fresh flowers that most people will never even know the difference. But your checkbook will!

Purchasing silk wedding flower packages is what many smart brides are doing. Eliminating the stress of last-minute florist mix-ups, ordering your silk wedding flower sets from one of the online merchants is convenient and cost-effective. With packages starting under $300, silks have made wedding flowers affordable.

Beware of low-quality silks, however. Make sure that you're getting top-of-the-line silk flowers if you want to fool everyone that they're real. Quality silk wedding flowers are so realistic that people will want to smell your bridal bouquet! To fool them, try spritzing your wedding bouquets with rose oil or another floral fragrance.

Flower girl baskets can carry a stationary arrangement or an assortment of silk rose petals to be scattered down the aisle for the bride to walk upon. Walking on rose petals is symbolic of both beauty and of the bride walking down the path of a new life that is about to begin. Another alternative for the flower girl is for her to carry a silk floral pomander. The flowers can match those in the bridal bouquet and your little flower girl will look adorable swinging her beautiful pomander to and fro as she heads down the aisle. This is especially conducive to very young flower girls.

The ring bearer's pillow has an alternative as well. A fabric covered ring box can be carried down the aisle by your young attendant. This is a more contemporary look for the ring bearer, who often balks at carrying a lacy pillow.

In lieu of traditional corsages, consider giving the special women at the wedding small hand-tied bouquets for them to carry. With today's flimsier fabrics, pin on corsages are sometimes too bulky to wear. However, by using silk flowers, the weight of the corsages is dramatically decreased. Maybe you could point that out as a benefit to your mother as you gently remind her -- this isn't her wedding after all.

Bonnie Goodwin Ray has more than sixteen years experience in the wedding industry. She is the author of Wedding Planning Made Easier and has become a leading expert in silk wedding flower design. Visit her site at http://www.mysilkweddingflowers.com