My niece will be getting married at the end of June. When she started thinking about planning for her wedding, she decided she wanted a vintage wedding because of her (inherited) love for vintage. She asked me to think of ideas. After looking around on the internet, I ran across vintage brooch bridal bouquets. I'm sure if I had been looking at wedding stuff before, I would have seen them because they're evidently a big thing in weddings right now.
If you haven't seen the variety of bridal brooch bouquets, run a search on Etsy. There are some really lovely ones and they come in all colors.
After showing my niece the bouquets, she fell in love with them - no surprise, of course. I decided I would try to make her one. There are also instructions and tutorials on various websites. The good news is that I had a stock of vintage brooches and earrings that I had bought for other projects.
I went to work on wiring the jewelry and wrapping the wire with tape for added strength. It took me awhile to get a system down but once I did, it wasn't so bad. The worst part was using the floral tape. It sticks to everything and leaves a residue on your hands forever. I hated that part of it.
IN PROGRESS
I'm posting a picture of my end product but will have to tell you that I am going to deconstruct it. I have decided that I want the jewelry to be less spread out over the hydrangeas that I used as a base, so that the flowers will be barely noticeable. Also, my niece has since purchased her dress and it has ostrich feathers on it. She wants me to add some to the bouquet. I have bought an ostrich feather trim from a seller on Etsy that I will wrap around the bottom of the bouquet. I sure hope it will work.
Her colors are yellow and red. So, I tried to find brooches and earrings with those colors but I also included pearls and lots and lots of rhinestones. They really make it sparkle.
Once I'm ready to reconstruct the bouquet, I will post pictures of my process in case there are others of you out there who would also like to try your hand at it. In some ways, it was harder than I thought it would be and in some ways easier. I made some mistakes that were costly in terms of time so I hope I can help someone else avoid those.
OTHER PROJECTS
I have other projects going for the wedding. I'm painting candles for the table centerpieces using paper doilies. I'm making the bridesmaids' bouquets and corsages for the mothers and grandmothers. I am using vintage plates to make serving stands. And I will be making some soap wedding favors.
OK - now I've stressed myself out talking about it all so I think I need to stop writing and start working.
Mary, it's beautiful! I'd love to see what else you do with it. I would also love to see pics of the other items you're making for the wedding!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words, Dorothy. I plan to post a tutorial once I deconstruct the bouquet. Hopefully, I'll get started on that this weekend. I'll try to post pictures of other things, too.
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