DIY Brooch Bouquet

DIY BROOCH BOUQUET!!

Remember I mentioned my fiance's family visiting me this weekend? It was INCREDIBLY productive! One of the things I want to share with you today is the brooch bouquet we worked on. Not to sound overly sensitive (okay okay, I am), but it is so amazing how Jose's family AND community are a part of this wedding. What I mean is that Jose's Mom, Mama Nels, is very close to the women at her church. She mentioned my search for brooches in my crazy idea to create a brooch bouquet. They pitched in and donated some brooches! And just this feeling that I'm not only incorporating brooches I find at thrift stores, but brooches that belong to my fiance's family AND the people he grew up with -- is powerful to say the least.

I have felt the support of Jose's family beyond what I can describe. And when I first started putting together the brooch bouquet, Jose was very hesitant. He admitted he liked flowers better. But now that it has become this community collaboration -- it's more than just making a bouquet I saw online. I'll be walking down the isle with pieces of their contribution, tied in with my family's and Jose's.

Let me just throw out there that in the beginning I had some rough trials. And of course, I captured it on film for you ;)

See this mushroom?

My first idea was to use a half sphere styrofoam to stick the brooches into along with a square bottom that I would trim later for the base.

I then wrapped it in tissue paper to cover it up

Then I used these hair pins I bought at a thrift store to hold the half sphere and square (and for decoration)...

Like this

After that I took wire

And wrapped it around the brooches, then stabbed the bottom into the styrofoam.

Which turned into something like this

Not... ugly, but not exactly what would make Jose change his mind about a brooch bouquet.


Enter brainstorm. Mama Nels, Jasmine, and I thought about different ways to approach this. We went to Hobby Lobby and found our verdicts! This was originally going to be a test run but it turned out SO good that I had to share it with you because I think it's the perfect DIY for a brooch bouquet!


Must have: green pipe cleaners (77 cents a pack), floral wire (MUST have), and hot glue! The cherished hot glue :)

And THIS is what you do...

Hot glue your pin shut because you don't want it popping open later. BTW -- I also bought pretty jewelry pieces (not brooches), and just hot glued a brooch-backing on them. You can buy a pack of the things that secure a brooch at any craft store for pretty cheap.

Then bend your pipe cleaner in half (evenly) and slide it behind the brooch securer.

Then take one of the sides and make a knot around the brooch securer

Like this!

If you'd like (to feel secure) you can dab some hot glue on the brooch and knot. After that, take your floral wire and divide it in half like your pipe cleaner.

Bend the tip that will slide into the brooch like so...

Slide it in, then take a stem from the pipe cleaner and tie a knot around the loop of the floral wire

Hot glue those suckers! Remember, this is your BASE. It will support the brooch to stand upright like a flower.

So now that you have that glued, you should have two long floral wires and two shorter pipe cleaners. You will take BOTH pipe cleaners and begin to wrap it AROUND the 2 floral wires like so....

And your final product should look like this:

Ta-da! A strongly supported, upright brooch with a stem! With some help from family, you end up with these!!

We're not done yet, but I wanted to pull them together to give you an idea of what it kind of looks like...

I will be wrapping it with a teal cloth, and clearly do a better job than this :P

Actually, I almost forgot something important. At Hobby Lobby they sell a hand tied bouquet holder that looks like this.

That green stuff is styrofoam and I will be using this to stick my floral stems INTO and then arrange my "flowers"/brooches the way I want them with a sturdy base. It's only $5! Get it!

And that's it!! Mama Nels just told me that we have collected 5 more brooches from the women at Southside Baptist church. Those women are a BLESSING! They feel like family helping me out like they are. Huge thank you to them :)

Sooo, what do you think?! I would LOOOOOVE to hear if you're going to try this! Seriously! The best part is that Jose has now been swayed to "the other side." It just took a few women ... but it happened ;)