Wedding DIY: Breakaway Brooch Bouquet

I believe DIY crafters have patience, an eye for the finished product and perseverance.  While doing our DIY for the wedding, there were several times when I knew those qualities were not my strongest suits.

During my research, I fell in love with the idea of creating a brooch bouquet for our wedding.  The basic design includes creating "stems" out of wire and attaching brooches, which are inserted into fabric hydrangeas.   They are sparkly, won't wilt during the day and are the perfect keepsake of your wedding day.   Plus, it is one of those things that you can create well in advance of your wedding day.


"Making a brooch bouquet is quite the DIY project!  It takes patience and creativity.  But it is a worthy endeavor.  Especially when you are ready to walk down the aisle carrying a beautiful brooch bouquet of your own making," according to the "How to Design a Brooch Bouquet" post on Fancy Pants Wedding.com. 

It was the instructions included in the above posting that I followed when attempting to create my own bouquet -- with a couple of stylistic changes.

First of all, she suggested using 55 brooches.  While this adds a whole lot of glam factor, it was a bit large and in charge.  I actually used only 16 brooches. I only wanted to highlight a few brooches and opted for a more simple look.

And secondly, my vision included a breakaway option.  Traditionally, the bride tosses her bridal bouquet to a crowd of single females who dive, push, shove and tackle one another to be the next one to walk down the aisle. Some brides have ordered two bouquets from their florist - one for tossing, one for keeping. 

A new twist is to have a breakaway -- a bouquet that is actually several small ones gathered together.  When the tossing comes up, the bride flings all six bouquets at once.

While Mike and I aren't participating in the tossing tradition, I did want two separate heirloom brooch bouquets (the reason which can't be revealed at this time). So, how does one go about creating that? Well, it goes back to the patience and creativity.

I started out following the blogs instructions by attaching the wire to each brooch.  I then twirled the corsage tape down the wire twice.  (Note: Her tip about the tape sticking best when gently pulled is a great one.  It's the only way to get it to stick.

Then, I split the finished brooches into two groups.  Holding one of the hydrangeas in my hand, I inserted one groups of the wired pieces one at a time.  When that was done, I wrapped each bunch from bottom to bouquet with the corsage tape and repeated with the second grouping. 

Once this was done, I wrapped the two stems with ribbons.

Well, then I needed something to hold the two stems, give them a bit of rigidity and "mask" the fact that there were two of them.  My inspiration came from the fact that we had finished a roll of paper towels.   So, I "reused" the roll and decorated with ribbons and decor from our wedding.

While I don't think it turned out as glamorous or professional looking as the one featured on the blog, I have to say that I was a bit impressed with what I was able to do.  Patience may not be my strong suit -- and I may get frustrated with the process . . . but may there is a crafter in all of us.

Resources:

• FancyPantsWedding.com: How to Design a Brooch Bouquet