10 daring alternative bouquets for the non-traditional wedding - lanterns, swords, and Pikachu?! • Offbeat Wed (was Offbeat Bride) (2024)

Mushrooms, metal flowers, and viking horns?! Just when we've thought we've seen all the alternative bouquets out there, our Offbeat soonlyweds surprise us! We've seen y'all rock cannabis bouquets, lanterns, swords, fruit bouquets, axes, dried flower bouquets, Sola wood flower bouquets, paper flower bouquets, and even no bouquet! And that's just the tip of the iceberg, folks.

We've been obsessing over alternative bouquets since 2006, but it never gets old! Nontraditional bouquets used to be a hallmark of what used to be called alternative weddings… AKA what we USED to call weddings that deviated from mainstream wedding traditions. But now unique wedding bouquet alternatives are showing up in all sorts of weddings, from the wonderfully weird to the effortlessly classic themes.

There are all sorts of reasons marriers choose to use an alternative bouquet, whether they're seeking a sustainable alternative or their budget/priorities don't include fresh flowers. Some soonlyweds prefer to have a bouquet that can be preserved long after the celebrations, and some just want to switch things up and surprise their guests by holding a nontraditional bouquet.

We asked the members of our Offbeat Wed vendor community to share the most amazing unique bouquet alternatives they'd seen… and the results astounded us…

1) I choose you! How's Pikachu for a nontraditional bouquet?!

2) This alternative wedding had a metal bouquet

I had a bride in 2019 that had a cool metal bouquet (and the guys had metal buttonholes). It even had its own cool granite rock stand during the ceremony as it was so heavy!

See Also

15 Trending Wedding Bouquet Ideas for Brides in 2023How To Make A Wedding Bouquet: DIY Guide And Design IdeasWedding Bouquet Ideas & Inspiration [2022 Guide & FAQs]60 Beautiful Bridal Bouquets from Real Weddings

Sarah Craig, Joy Story

Now let's see those metal boutonnieres aka BUTTONHOLES!

3) When the couple carries a sword and spear as their alternative bouquets!

4) Add a teeeeny bit of weed in your nontraditional bouquet!

Now that cannabis is legal in many states, this idea is less scandalous that it used to be, but some folks might still want to be a little sneaky about it…

Sophie's bouquet included a few stems of cannabis, enough to get the bridal party excited, but not enough to make gran gasp.

Meghan, Twisted Bramble

5) Viking horns have been a bad-ass addition to the alternative bouquets movement!

This whole photo is making us feel things — even the wobbly little house in the background!

6) Lanterns are also a classic for alternative bouquets.

7) Category is… Sola wood flower bouquets, but make them SPOOKY!

Yes, those are handpainted Sola wood flowers!

8) Adding mushrooms to nontraditional bouquets is our new favorite trend!

Don't forget mushrooms look great as boutonnieres too!

9) You can't go wrong with balls of fairy lights as an alternative bouquet!

10) Nontraditional bouquets can be sentimental, like this fabric bouquet!

Need more ideas for alternative bouquets? Welcome to the goldmine.

• Check out our extensive archive for nontraditional bouquets here.
• Here are a few of the bouquets that are trending right now with our readers
• We love these bouquet makers!