Cost Effective..grass....except. it isnt?..

i posted this as a comment reply on a post similar to this one (so i know im not the only one). But i saw the pampas grass posts a while back and loved them theyre right up my design alley so i was in. My fiance and I are paying for the entire wedding ourselves and without going into debt. Although we are budget conscious we new with hard work and planning we could have a beautiful unforgettable wedding without starting out in debt. So we settled on a long engagement, prioritized the purchases and have been taking it one thing at a time. Our venue, photographer, officiant, wedding dress/rings, are paid in full and our caterer reserved and next to tackle is flowers. When we visited the florist before she seemed optimistic about what we wanted falling well within reasonable territory for flowers. Now in the beginning when we discussed money and planning priorities my fiance and I agreed flowers were something we valued over other aspects of a wedding and (despite normal recommendations for budget allowance) we decided we would sacrifice other areas (i dont go to other peoples weddings to eat, im probably not going to eat at mine, i dont even like wedding cake, so why in hell would we waste OUR OWN MONEY on cheese straws??) to splurge a little on whatever we wanted in the floral department. so to the point.... my florist loves the idea, but she is having serious trouble finding pampas grass at all and what there is is staggeringly expensive. She asked me to help find pampas grass to use at my wedding. She seemed stumped as all she can find is 15$ and up for one stem. Pintrest is full of beautiful pictures of pampas grass in weddings (MOST INFURIATINGLY claiming it is a CHEAP alternative to flowers) but without any hint of where it comes from, and how to get it. Looking to actually buy it as i AM using it I I keep finding inspiration posts for where to use it and how trendy it is but no one knows where to buy.. if anyone has suggestions me (and my florist) are looking!!