Probably the most time consuming DIY we attempted for the wedding were the bouquets. Even before Jon proposed I had decided that I definitely wanted to try making a vintage brooch bouquet. Jon and I had talked about marriage and I knew that a proposal would be happening eventually so I thought 'why not start collecting vintage brooches so you are ready?' ;) Being the vintage treasure hunter that I am, this was just another fun thing to look for while out at sales and thrift shops!
So that is what I did. At first I was just collecting any floral looking pin in any color. I started purchasing some off of Ebay as well. And then I realized...I don't really know what color scheme we are going with for our future wedding...but it probably won't be rainbow! So I then decided to just start collecting rhinestone 'starburst' type brooches.
Jon proposed at the end of August and by mid September we had decided to get married at the end of December (just a few short months away!). I realized then that I probably wouldn't really be able to collect enough brooches to do a whole 'brooch bouquet'. I was finding that coming across enough that I liked at a reasonable price just wasn't going to happen. I had also hoped to incorporate brooches in to my girl's bouquets so I had to get enough for them as well. Luckily, the amazing Pinterest came to the rescue. I came across this pretty DIY bouquet (first photo below - but the link doesn't appear to work anymore and I can't remember where it went to exactly) that incorporated vintage brooches into a faux flower arrangement. I am normally not a big fan of fake flowers but I thought this bouquet looked pretty and we were trying to cut costs where ever we could - so I hadn't really planned on using a florist.
So I went out and bought a couple fake blooms to give a 'brooch and fake flower bouquet' a try. I experimented with wiring a few brooches and placing them in between the flowers and was pretty happy with the way it looked. I also found the DIY shown below to be helpful as well.
My only issue was that some of the brooches were fairly heavy and even a fairly heavy gauge floral wire didn't want to hold them up. I also ran into a few brooches whose backs did not want to stay pinned. My mom and sister helped me to hot glue the ones I was having issues with. They also helped me secure everything well with floral tape. AND they came to the rescue when I was having Bouquet DIY burnout! LOL. They made my bouquet look awesome by finishing it off with pretty black sparkly ribbon around the stems and hot gluing leaves around the bottom of the flowers to make a sort of 'boarder' that made the flowers stand out better and look a little more polished.
The photo below shows the girls bouquets laying around mine. We finished off the 'bridesmaids' bouquets by using wired ribbon to make a sort of collar boarder around the bottom of the flowers. Again, like my bouquet, it made the flowers stand out more and make the whole bouquet looked more polished. Each of the girls got 3 brooches and we wired a few black beads in as well just to add a little more interest.
I am super happy with the way the bouquets turned out. They are a great keepsake for myself AND the girls. A few days before the wedding I found the most perfect vase at Target. It held my flowers on our table at the wedding and I now keep it on my nightstand at home. A beautiful decoration in our bedroom at home and a lovely reminder each day of our wonderful wedding :)
Hollie, your bouquet is gorgeous. I love the sparkle from the brooches. It was perfect for your wedding!
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