My Brooch Bouquet

A recent trend in weddings has been for brides to carry a bouquet made of brooches.  And a certain celebrity wedding this last spring made me want to carry one in my own wedding!

Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert wedding photo
Image from *here*

For Miranda's bridal shower, each guest was asked to bring a brooch and then a designer put together all of the brooches into a bouquet.  Miranda's bouquet was put together by TheRitzyRose.

Miranda and her brooch bouquet.
Image from *here*

So after I saw the photos of Blake's and Miranda's wedding that was styled by the fabulous Junk Gypsies, I was completely taken by the brooch bouquet along with everything else.  But after I did some research on the internet on brooch bouquets, I found out how expensive it was to purchase one and trashed the idea of having one for my own wedding.  But little did I know...my mother was MAKING me a bouquet out of brooches that I had collected, as well as brooches and jewelry of my mother's, grandmothers', and great-grandmothers'! 

Dylan & I on our wedding day.

My brooch bouquet

I'm so LUCKY to have such a craft savvy mother who is also a queen of junk! I have many blog posts planned to show you all of the incredible things my mom has done to what many would consider pieces of junk!  My big bro, Rock, (yes, that's his real name...and if you know him, you know that the name fits him perfectly) and my papa also helped my momma make the bouquet. It was quite an undertaking to twist the stiff wire to make the stems for each brooch pieces. I know my momma was happy to have some strong men help her with that!  My papa is also quite the handyman and builds quite a few things that my momma is working on.  In their house it's not the 'Honey-Do list'; it's the 'HGTV list'! 

The thing that I love most about my brooch bouquet is the story and the history behind each of the pieces in the bouquet.  The turquoise flower is one that my dad picked out for me, because as you know...I love turquoise! The cow pin is one that my mother-in-law had placed on a bow of a gift she had given me for my birthday.  The watch was my paternal grandmother's and my mom set the time to 11:11, which is said to be the time that angels use to let us know that they are there with us.  The angel pin is my mom's that she was given from her nursing students. 

The blue brooch above is actually an earring of my maternal grandmother's from the 40s or 50s.  It's a clip on earring with these horrid spikes that latch into your skin!  I can't imagine the pain that the women went through to look beautiful! 

The other thing about brooch bouquets is that you get to keep the bouquet forever.  You don't have to dry the flowers or worse, throw away your beautiful bouquet!  These bouquets are a beautiful reminder of your wedding day, as well as the memories that each piece of the bouquet has. 

My mom also created a 'wedding shrine' which included my brooch bouquet, as well as our ceremony program, wedding pie topper, wheat boutonnieres, crystal pie/cake stand that was my grandmother's, and a few other odds and ends from our wedding.  The 'shrine' is in a 3 foot tall by a foot deep plexi glass case.  You can also see a photo of me as a youngin' on the shelf on the left side.  I think I was about 9 when the photo was taken.  I was camping out for a friend's birthday party and my friend's mom had brought along dress up clothes so we had a fashion show on the prairie!  I took on the role as a pioneer bride! 

My beautiful momma and I on my wedding day.

I must say...I clean up pretty good!  Well actually I didn't do my own makeup or my hair...I owe that all to my wonderful hair dresser and friend, Nikki!  Every other day of the year, my hair is in a pony tail, no makeup on, and I'm usually covered in dirt!  But that is the life of a farmer and rancher and I love every second of it! 

What about you?  Are you planning a wedding? Or reminiscing of your own wedding?  I'd love to hear about your wedding plans or memories! 

Thanks for joining me down the dirt roads tonight.  Dream big and Carpe' Diem!

Cheers,

Whitney