While reading a blog a while back I saw this amazing idea for a wedding…
How to Make a Brooch Bouquet with Fake Flowers
Last week I showed you my brooch bouquet which I made from family jewelry and pins I had collected. It was such a special part of my day, certainly a unique touch that our guests loved and I loved having. Today learn how to make a brooch bouquet, with or without fake flowers.
Today I’ll show you how I put mine together. Earlier last year I made one for my sister’s wedding, so I won’t repeat all the steps in this tutorial. But mine was a little different, I added in fake hydrangea flowers.Β Β Here are more tips for you brides-to-be and general wedding and craft lovers π
If you want all the steps on how to make a brooch bouquet without fake flowers and just brooches and pins visit this post.
I made mine very similar to my sister’s by collecting the brooches and pins, creating a stem for the brooch, wrapping it with ribbon and piecing it all together. But for mine I added faux hydrangeas in between the pins.Β Here are the details.
First, I gathered all the brooches and pins I collected from my family members, thrift adventures and orders from the jewelry counter at my bridal salon. This was only part of the collection.
I followed all the steps in making my sister’s bouquet to make the stems with wire, wrap them with pipe cleaner, floral tape and ribbon. It was serious craft hour. Make that hours π
I decided to gather the brooch stems with three faux hydrangeas to break up the heaviness of the metal and to make the bouquet larger.Β These were faux flower stems from the craft store in an ivory color which matched my dress and was part of our overall wedding color family.
I had 30 brooch stems in total and put 10 on each hydrangea stem and wrapped each together with clear tape. This will be the part when you feel like you don’t have enough hands, but keep at it, trust me, it’s worth it.Then I collected all three stems and taped those together.
For the red ribbon on the stem I folded pieces underneath to hide the tape and stems of the brooches and adhered them with my hot glue gun.
Then I wrapped the entire stem with ribbon. This ribbon matched my shoes. Yes I wore red shoes with my ivory wedding dress π
And that was about it! In total this took my sister and I about two hours and me another hour to put it all together. I loved the result.
Later in the night it decorated the Parisian dessert table.
I loved making this and having family memories with me on my special day. I’d love to answer any questions you have on making one, please leave a comment!
That’s beautiful. I can’t believe you made it.
OMG, That is so pretty! Where were you when I got married?!!! It looks great against your dress in the picture! I usually collect vintage clip on earrings at thrift stores…Now I’m going to collect brooches too!
Hi Jessica! I’m an old friend of your hubby’s from RIT, and I just need to tell you that I LOVE your blog!! He sent me the link to your brooch bouquet, because I am making one for my wedding in November. Such a great idea to ask guests to bring brooches to your wedding shower, I was thinking that I have no idea how I’m going to find enough, and I really want them to be meaningful.
My fiance and I are in the process of moving into a new place, and while he is definitely more of the crafty, furniture making-type, I adore your style and I was kinda geeking out over your project ideas, many of which I totally plan to implement in our new space.
Also, you are adorable and gorgeous and your wedding looked beautiful and Dan is a very lucky guy! (And obviously he is pretty great, too!)
π Tiffani
Thank you sooooo much Jessica! I have been searching for someone to map out each step of the process, and your explanation is simply the best.
I have just barely begun the process of making my own bouquet, but your tips and steps are wonderful. I couldn’t believe hiring someone to do it online was $500 :O
Again, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
I’m making one now with off white roses and gold/silver brooches…thanks for the tips!!!!
You are a very clever gal! Those bouquets turned out beautiful–a bit of nostalgic Victorian flair with those brooches worked into those arrangements–also gave a sparkle to them. I really liked your idea, and it gives special meaning to use the family heirlooms as part of the decor.
Jessica, awesome job.. looks great and so great that you could carry a bit of family with you all the way. One question though, how far in advance did you make your boquet? How did you store it?
Hi Anonymous,
I made the bouquet about a month in advance. The hydrangeas in it are fake. I didn’t want to use fake ones but that was the only option I could come up with. My florist did offer to make it with real ones, so I’m sure someone could do that too. More like a professional!
Since they were fake I can keep it together forever too π
Absolutely beautiful!
Absolutely GORGEOUS!
Hi there. This is beautiful. I am making some to sell on my website along with other bridal and bridesmaid accessories and jewelry. I am in the process of completing all the samples to post on my Etsy site ( right now I only sell crosses but will be adding my jewelry and Bridal line soon) and have been collecting brooches to use, but I love the look of brooches and flowers. Can you tell me how you combined the brooches and flowers before you completed the bouquet? Did you take the stems and just wrap them around the flower stems and then put all three flowers together or is there more to it? Thanks so much for both of your tutorials. They are helping me alot! You are quite talented at both this and your ability to explain the process so well. π
Hi Amy,
To combine the flowers and brooches, I just gathered them all in one hand, placing them where I thought looked good. I didn’t wrap anything around anything else. Once they are bound together, you can bend them a little bit to get the look you want.
I’m really glad the post could help you!