I’m a girl who loves getting flowers. They don’t have to be big or showy (a fact my first husband never seemed to grasp–he believed that excess is best, how else could he impress those around me if he did send ginormous, obviously expensive arrangements studded with stargazer lilies that perfume the room in less than an hour and give you a headache after that?), but I do love a pretty rose or 3 to sit on my desk or the dining room table.
After the aforementioned first ex, I managed to date a string of men who, more often than not, didn’t believe in giving flowers. One claimed it was rude to cut a flower for private enjoyment instead of letting everyone see it in nature. One thought that giving flowers was a sign of uber-serious commitment along the lines of moving in together.  o_O
The first flowers Mr. RT ever sent me | personal photo
Mr. Road Trip prefers to send flowers on occasion but it’s not his default gift–I’ve got no reason to complain–but usually, if I want flowers, I go buy ’em myself. And I’m okay with that.
It may surprise you, then, to learn that I am jumping onto the no-flowers bandwagon as far as the wedding is concerned. Actually, I made this decision before I knew there was a bandwagon to be on.
See, it’s one thing about buying a $9.99 bouquet at the grocery store to dress up the dinner table and another thing entirely to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on decorations that are so fragile they have to be done at the very last minute, may not be available at all due to the whims of Mother Nature, and will barely last a day past the event. In my mind it is, to put it bluntly, a waste.
But to go straight to silk flowers (which, often, can be just as expensive as fresh blooms) just doesn’t fill me with joy, either.
Ribbon and Paper roses I’ve made–not the ones I’ll be using in my bouquet | personal photo
Instead, I’ll be focusing on paper blooms and non-floral alternatives. I’ve been experimenting with different papers and other materials to decide exactly what I want to construct our simple non-florals with. We’ve got boxes of wine bottles just waiting to be turned into something pretty, accumulated over the last few years by my tendency to save any potential craft supplies. And, thankfully, I’ve already got a pretty broad skill-set to work from between paper, beads, knitting/crochet, and wire-work. I’m really looking forward to the end-result, which will be mixed-media decorations throughout the ceremony and reception.
Would you consider going flowerless if it meant saving your budget?