Unique alternatives to flowers???

This is why I did my flowers myself. I ordered from fiftyflowers.com and had way more than we needed for a fraction of the cost. If you go this route, make sure to practice & watch lots of tutorials. Also, plan on making arrangements & bouquets the day before. ETA - spelling

I used fake flowers at my first wedding and now me could tell they were fake. It was an evening winter wedding. Another option is making your own arrangements from store bought flowers in season use mostly greenery. This time around I'm using high quality fake flowers and store stocked live greenery

@LeahH, okay, I'm sold on hydrangeas! Thank you!

I am doing dried flowers. I've kept and dried every rose FH has ever given me so I'm using them to create my bouquet and keeping the dried theme with my bridesmaid bouquets as well as the centerpieces. I'm spent about $500 total on dried bunches or flowers/leaves and other centerpiece decor.

I totally get you! I didn't want flowers at mt wedding because of the cost. They were just going to die anyways! (lol) So I am having a flower-less wedding. I made my bouquets out of pine cones, feathers, buttons, and fabric bows. So cheap. I got it all in thrifts stores, nature, or yard sales, and since they don't die, I was able to start super early and search for sales and clearance items at craft stores. My bouquets have been done for a few months now and are sitting in wait for their debut. I say (from my own experience) go no flowers.

Fans are an idea. But then again, my wedding is August.

Single flowers always look lovely and are very cost effective. I also liked the idea of fresh lavender. It's cheap and smells delightful (and goes great with rustic weddings).

Michaels has small bouquets of all colors for cheap! I got mine, and they just happened to have my wedding colors. All i had to to was wrap the stems in burlap and lace. Plus there are alllways coupons for michaels. I got mine for about 6 bucks a piece, and maybe another 10-12 bucks for wrap material and a glue gun

Ecoflowers. Check it out. Not super cheap but are cheaper then the florist quoted me. I think i will go to dollar tree and experiment wirh making my own first

Yes @LeahH. I'm checking them out & also efavormart.com has a nice deal

Pulling the "it's my wedding, I can do what I want" card. If you want them to carry something, they carry it. That's not their decision. They can have their own wedding for their dreams and make their BM's carry whatever they want.

If you're looking for silks, budgetbride.com has packages where you can get all bouquets at once. I have decided on bouquets from them, just not ordered yet. You can individualize things too.

My best friend had fake flowers for her bouquet and the BMs bouquets at her wedding because it was cheaper than fresh flowers. She found a good vendor on Etsy and they were pretty, but she really didn't save anything in terms of "waste." I threw my bouquet out after the wedding--what was I going to do with a bouquet of fake flowers?

The single flower option is very pretty--sunflowers, hydrangeas and calla lilies and peonies are all beautiful.

We are using EcoFlowers - they are made of sola wood and other recycled materials and look SO REAL! plus you can get them in literally any color and smell you can think of. We are having the BP have ecoflowers then the centerpieces and everything else is going to be lots of greens and babys breath - much cheaper than actual flowers.

Have them carry trays of hors d'oeuvres. Problem solved.