Weddingbee Blog

I love flowers—I really do. I enjoy seeing all of the bright blooms as the weather warms up and a surprise bouquet from Mr. Ballcap is always welcomed and appreciated.

What I don’t love about flowers, specifically wedding flowers, is the COST. I’m trying to cut costs in our budget where ever I can. It’s become a bit of a game for me, actually. I have a pretty solid budget set up for our wedding, but if I can get the final tally to be under the estimate, I will jump for joy! To me, flowers seemed like a really good area to save money on.

We have already decided on a design for the boutonnières that requires no flowers (based upon my NYE inspiration post!) so we are already saving there. My mom and I also have an idea for no-flower bouquets for my girls. Once this DIY project gets under way, I’ll be sure to share.

So what about me? I originally envisioned carrying a large all white / ivory bouquet somewhat resembling a big snow ball. That vision was soon trumped when I ran across the likes of these:

Image via EventDecorator.com/ Photo by Rowell Photography

Image via and Photo by Fancypantsweddings.com

Image via PolkadotBride.com/ Photo by Isabella Armstrong of Design Me Vintage

Beautiful, gorgeous brooch bouquets! I would have never in a million years thought of this on my own. I found lovelies similar to these while browsing Weddingbee one day and found posts by the amazing Mrs. Brooch, Ms. Sloth and a fantastic tutorial on how to make your own by Ms. Stripes.

Although I loved all of the beauties and the inspiration I found on Weddingbee, I knew all of that color just wouldn’t fit in with the look I was going for. I hopped on over to Etsy and ran a search on brooch bouquets. Apparently these are becoming extremely popular as there were a ton of options to choose from! These bouquets seem to include anything from real flowers, fabric flowers, paper flowers to ribbons, feathers, buttons and more!

I started thinking of possibly making my own bouquet with mostly silver and pearl brooches and was hoping to find an inspiration pic. Etsy provided me with these:

Images via Etsy.com Letters 4 Lilly Shop

Image via Etsy.com Noaki Shop

The last picture is almost exactly what I had imagined, but at $600, it far exceeded what I hoped to spend on my own bouquet.

So I made the decision to forge ahead and add this to my list of DIY projects. I got on eBay and searched for brooch lots and found a perfect listing. I set a budget of $3 or less per brooch and was able to win an auction for 57 brooches for $130 including shipping. That breaks down to only $2.28 per brooch. Perfect!

I won the auction on a Tuesday and on Wednesday, a small box arrived. When I opened the lid, I found this:

Personal Photo

The seller wrapped a few pins in each bubble wrap pocket. Such careful packaging—I was thrilled! I carefully unpacked them all and laid them out to get a better picture of what I had to work with.

Personal Photos

Please ignore the date on the pictures - my camera obviously was not set right!

There were some excellent brooches in this lot and with a little cleaning, they would shine like new. The smaller pins will be great for filling in any gaps. Is it just me or does the bottom middle brooch in the 2nd picture somewhat resemble a marijuana leaf?!

I need to find several more “pearly” brooches to add in the mix. I also need to decide what material to use to fill in and soften up the overall look. I’m a little nervous that I won’t be happy with how it turns out but this is something I really want to try.

Are you taking a leap of faith with any of your DIY projects?