From there I read a few different tutorials on how to go about doing so. There are a bunch of different tutorials out there, all similar, and pretty much start with the direction of "Gather 75-100 brooches or pins", but you can go ask Google how to make one. I'm not going to give instructions, just a few pieces of wisdom. Wisdom? Is it really profound enough to be wisdom? How's this, I'm going to give you a few pieces of knowledge from building my brooch bouquet.
I started with the best part - shopping! Yeay! Shopping! I hit up some thrift stores with good results. I found some inexpensive rings in the dollar bin at Michael's. But then I found ebay. And I proceeded to spend entirely too much money. Which leads me to...
#1 = Brooch bouquets are not necessarily inexpensive.
You might think, oh, I'll spend $50 on brooches, and $5 on wire, and $5 on fabric, and viola! A brooch bouquet! Not so fast, mister... When you're buying on ebay, you can't touch what you're buying. If you don't pay any attention to dimensions, if the description gives them, you might think you're buying 3 butterfly brooches that are good sized, not 1/2 inch wide. You might love the pictures, and then when you get the lot of jewelry, can only use a few of the pieces you purchased. I spent too much time and too much money buying brooches on ebay. So...
#2 = Be very very careful when purchasing brooches from ebay.
They know you're coming. The sellers are aware that brooch bouquets are a thing that that savvy brides are trying to make their own instead of spending hundreds upon hundreds of dollars buying them on etsy. They know how to photograph well in good light, and they use exclamation points! And then you buy them! Oh, how I got swept up in all the nice photographs...
Fast forward to the last weeks following up to the wedding. I FINALLY decided how to make the corsages and boutonnieres. Finally. And I needed some brooches for the center of the corsages. In one of the many visits to the 3 craft stores I frequented during wedding crafting, I found something. Do you know what they have at the craft store? A jewelry making aisle! And do you know what they have in the jewelry making aisle? Items that would work perfectly wonderful to make brooch bouquets! Don't forget to...
#3 = Shop the craft store for your jewelry pieces!
Many very nice items were on sale, or clearance! And many craft stores have great coupons for 40% off one item! Oh man, to be able to buy all the necessary pieces with a stop at each of the 3 major craft stores in the area! I go weak in the knees just thinking about it! *swoon*
Now, I always new I would carry a blue bouquet. It was a given - blue is my favorite color. My sister Tina was my attendant, and her dress was brown (and she looked wonderful btw!), so I figured we would stick with gold jewelry. Accumulating items for my bouquet was coming along great, but Tina's was giving me a hard time. When I finally stopped worrying about her bouquet being made with gold jewelry, it was much easier. Instead of focusing on gold, I noticed I had a lot of pink items that would so NOT go in my blue bouquet. I would suggest that you ...
#4 = Be willing to move from your initial vision of your bouquet if you find a different combo works better.
I asked a lo-ot of people their opinion on the items I picked for Tina's bouquet. If I had just made a decision, it would have saved a lot of time. Who would have known the difference?
I wanted a blue collar and handle for my bouquet. Tina came up to my place to help craft wedding stuff for a weekend (well, more than one, but this one in particular for this story), and brought her sewing machine thankyouverymuch, and we selected some beautiful blue crepe. Gorgeous. Draped beautifully. And then we proceeded to spend entirely too much time trying to make it work for a bouquet collar. It just hung down. Blah. It didn't stay up, like the collar on Tina's bouquet, which had been made with material from my dress. Had we moved on more quickly, we would have saved a lot of time and stress. So do yourself a favor and...
#5 = Use stiffer material for your bouquet collar, if you so choose to have one.
We ended up using the blue, but inside an off-white collar, just like the one on Tina's bouquet. And it was lovely, if I do say so myself.
By the time the bouquets were made, there was a lot of left over jewelry. I sold what I could on ebay, but not for nearly the prices I had originally paid - after all, I used the best pieces. I just didn't use as many pieces as those tutorials had me believing I needed. Seriously...
#6 = You may not need that many brooches.
Most of the tutorials say you will need 75 brooches. Holy cats! Are you kidding me? My bouquet was heavy enough, and it had somewhere around 30-40 brooches/earrings/etc! Tina's bouquet took about 15 pieces. Obviously your style of bouquet will determine how many you need. Just don't over-buy before you make your first attempt at a bouquet. You may be pleasantly surprised. Once you're done, you can just...
#7 = Enjoy it.
Mine is displayed on one of the few shelves in the house, above the TV. I can see it whenever I want. Hmmm, I guess I should probably dust it or something...
 |
| really, isn't it pretty? |
 |
| Eric Lockstein took our wedding photos |
Your bouquets were/are both beautiful and showed what creative genes you have!! :)
ReplyDelete