Frugal Me #2 - A Flowerless Wedding

I know it is very early on to choose such a big thing, but here is a very brief summary about my relationship with flowers you help you understand why.

1. I receive the gorgeous arrangement 
2. I put them in water (the arrangement suffers drastically)
3. I forget to change the water (or that they are there in general)
4. They Die
5. 3 weeks later I finally notice and throw out the smelly science experiment they have become

On top of that if you look at my general wedding pinterest board it is seriously lacking in flower inspiration. Even the newly created bouquet board has almost no flowers on it. So clearly my subconscious couldn't care less about flowers. AND! Flowers are REALLY expensive! So I saw an opportunity to save some cash by not having any flowers at my wedding.

Now let's talk numbers for a sec. I used http://www.costofwedding.com/ to do their default calculation for a wedding of 100 guests with a total cost of $21,851 (this is basically the average cost for a typical wedding) Here is the section on flowers.

-Bride's Bouquet - $167
-Bridesmaids & Groomsmen - $284 + $146 = $430
-Centerpieces & Decor - $355 + $471 = $826
-Ceremony Flowers - $471
-Flower Petals - $103 (this seems like a silly category to me, but whatever!)
Average cost of flowers total - $2,025 (9.3% of total average wedding cost)

Via

A quick pinterest search brought up this gem (Right) that I can do a basic estimation from.
1 Flower = 1 Yard of 1 inch ribbon
50 yards = $20
Supplies needed & costs:
Needle & Thread - $3
Wire - $40
Main Bouquet Ribbon - $ (50 Flowers)
Bridesmaids & Groomsman (10 total) Ribbon - $ (160 Flowers)
Centerpieces Ribbon - $ (200 Flowers)
Ceremony Ribbon -$ (200 Flowers)
Extra Ribbon - $12 (30yrds)
Supplies total: $299 (610 Flowers)

Cost difference of fresh flowers vs super basic ribbon alternative: $1,726!

Also this will take a lot of time so you would have to decided if the time it would take to make all of these is worth the $1,726 difference. For me that was a pretty obvious decision since I would spend my TV watching couch potato time making them. I don't plan on just using ribbon flowers either. I want to have a mix of several things keeping with my vintage carnival theme.

Via

Hate ribbon? Here are some other options I came across when looking for ideas.
-Broaches
-Pin Wheels
-Candy
-Paper/Origami
-Silk or Fake Flowers
-Feathers
-Fabric & Lace
-Toys!

This list could really go on forever depending on how crazy you wanted to go with your decor. And keep in mind this is a great and unique opportunity to insert some of your personality into your wedding. On the right is a fun example of boutonnieres I found in my flowerless search.

What other ideas are out there? What cool flower alternatives did you use or plan on using? Let me know in the comments!

Also I will be doing a Pin Party! later this month on my favorite non flower options I found so stay tuned!