DIY BROOCH BOUQUET

I always knew I would do my own bouquet for my wedding. Initially I wasn't sure what that would look like, but after I got my dress which had a lot of beads and embroidery, I knew I needed something glamorous to go with it. I also wanted something that could be a keep sake.
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I came across brooch bouquets on Pinterest and knew I wanted to do one. There are many different ways that you could make one and I experimented with a few. Ultimately this is how I ended up doing mine but as I said there are many tutorials out there.
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I loved that I could incorporate brooches from my husband's grandmother, my grandmother and my great-grandmother. It was a nice way to have these women walk with me down the aisle. Here's how I made mine...

I used over 100 brooches to make my bouquet which was 8 inches round. I got them from Amazon, Totally Dazzled, thrift shops and family members.

Here are the brooches I purchased from Amazon
I also ordered from Totally Dazzled (not an affiliate link just supporting a great female owned business) and was pleased at how quickly the brooches came!

Other than the brooches you will need:
1 8" foam ball
gold or silver spray paint
floral wire (20 gauge)
wire cutters
A bouquet handle (some people use a candlestick) I ordered this one from Amazon.
E6000
hot glue
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The first step is to spray paint the foam ball. I think this is immensely important, it really transformed it and the spray paint against the foam made it look sparkly. In my test runs I had used glitter paint, but I think you actually can just use regular spray paint and the foam gives it a glittery look. I would not skip this step as there will be small spaces where the foam shows through the brooches. Gold or silver would work.

After the ball dries places it on some kind of stand (I used a vase holder). To secure the brooches you could just hot glue them, but I worried about them falling off, so I decided to use the wire. ​
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​Cut a small piece of wire and thread it through the brooch so that you have to "stems" of wire hanging down. Twist them into one strong stem and secure the brooch to the ball by inserting the wire. If the brooch is particularly heavy you could add clue to the end of the wire before inserting.

As far as how to place them, there's no right or wrong way. That's another reason I liked using the wire over glue, I could rearrange them if they weren't fitting the way I liked.
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I used a variety of brooches to do one layer covering the entire ball, I tried to use my largest brooches for this. I then went back and added brooches on a second layer to cover any gaps. Finally I took any tiny brooches or embellishments and added them in a second layer throughout.

I know this isn't very descriptive, I think this is something you just have to do, but it's honestly very easy.

​To attach the handle I traced the foam part of the handle and then used an exact-o and a spoon do "dig out" the foam ball to the same size. I used a mixture of hot clue and E6000 to secure the handle once inserted. I would recommend inserting a dowel or part of the handle as the weight of the ball could cause it to fall off if its just glued to the top.
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This was a relatively easy project once I got going and was one of the highlights of the day for me. It was unique enough that people hadn't really seen anything like it, and I now have a keepsake that I can treasure for years to come. ​
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Would you ever make a brooch bouquet?