I knew I wanted a brooch bouquet for my wedding because it would hold sentimental value with brooches from family members and I would get to keep it forever, so I searched the internet for a good tutorial on how to make the "perfect" one. All of the tutorials gave the same instructions more or less, so I picked a detailed one, bought all of my supplies and got started. It was a total fail.
After hours of attaching floral wire to every single one of my brooches, I attempted to make it work...but it didn't. I know, I know...why in the world would I not have tested it before putting the wire on every brooch? I don't know. Since I am a huge procrastinator, I of course only had a few days until I needed my bouquet done for bridal shots.
Luckily, my mother (and floral pins) saved the day! I proceeded to cut off every piece of floral wire from my brooches and got to work on my own version of a DIY brooch bouquet. And trust me, it was so much easier. I don't have step-by-step photos because that was the last thing on my mind at the time, but I will make sure to give you enough info to do this yourself without floral wire.
*disclaimer: I am sure that there are plenty of people who can make an absolutely beautiful brooch bouquet with floral wire, I am just not one of those people. I personally just found using the floral pins much easier.
Supplies Needed:
- Brooches
- Small styrofoam ball (you don't need the large one because the brooches make it look big)
- Wooden dowel (and something to cut it down with)
- Lots & lots of floral pins
- Filler pins (corsage pins)
- Ribbon (I used thick satin ribbon)
- Hot glue gun
1. Spray paint your styrofoam ball if needed (I used a white one and did not paint it, but silver or gold would have looked good too).
2. Cut down your wooden dowel to the length you want your bouquet handle to be, plus about 2 inches.
3. Drill a hole 2 inches deep into your styrofoam ball with a slightly smaller diameter than the wooden dowel.
4. Push the wooden dowel into that space (if you drill the hole too big than the dowel will not be as snug...and nobody wants the top of their bouquet to fall off as their walking down the aisle).
5. Starting with your least favorite (because they will be slightly covered by other brooches), begin attaching your brooches to the styrofoam ball using the floral pins.
I looped a pin through each end of the brooch and then pushed them into the styrofoam (you will occasionally need to use your hot glue gun to be sure that the brooch is secure). Remember, it's ok to pull the brooch off and move it if you decide you don't like where you put it!
6. Once you start stacking the brooches, they will obviously feel a little more loose because they are not pushed all the way into the styrofoam. Just secure it with hot glue and then make sure it doesn't budge when you move the bouquet around.
8. After you have added your brooches, wrap your wooden dowel with whatever ribbon you chose. I used a thick satin ribbon and did one loop over the bottom of the dowel and continued wrapping up the length of it at a slight angle, occasionally using a small dot of hot glue. I secured mine with corsage pins as well (it helps it stay put and it's pretty too!).
*You may want to add the ribbon before you put your final brooches on the bottom of the styrofoam ball. I chose to add it last so that I wouldn't get the ribbon dirty or mess it up.
9. Fill in any blank spaces with filler pins (I used the same corsage pins as I did on the ribbon).
10. YOU ARE DONE! Double-check to make sure everything is where you want it and secure.
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| Butterflies kept landing on the bouquet during my bridal shots! |
You probably don't need this reminder, but please do not throw this during your bouquet toss! Use one of your bridesmaid bouquets :)
*update: it has been almost 4 years since I made this brooch bouquet and it has held up perfectly! No brooches have ever fallen off and it looks the same as it did the day I made it.
Linking up:
Embracing Change
The Dedicated House
Delineate Your Dwelling
The Dwelling Tree
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Someday Crafts