Tuesday, November 15, 2011

{vintage} ✿ Brooch Bridal Bouquet


One of the latest vintage inspired wedding trends happens to be a favorite of MINE...Vintage Brooch Bridal Bouquets. What an awesome alternative to the traditional bouquet, right? Especially if you are lucky enough to have wonderful vintage jewel and gem heirlooms that you can incorporate into your bouquet.


Heirloom Brooch Bouquet by Noaki Jewelry
These beauties are a bit time-consuming though and you need to keep that in mind when deciding between a DIY Project or asking a professional to create your bouquet. Etsy has many talented artisans that can handle your order, keep in mind that you are looking at approximately 8 weeks time and approximately $400.00 to $800.00 in cost. I have found one artist that really caught my attention, Noaki Jewelry out of Los Angeles, California. Her execution of this heirloom bouquet is PERFECT, elegant, and inspiring. Another fabulous aspect of Noaki's shop is that she offers to turn your precious pieces of jewelry into an heirloom brooch bouquet. The cost is $300.00, which after completing my research for this post, is just an amazing price especially for such fabulous work. Please be sure to take a few minutes and look around her Etsy Shop.

However, if you are feeling adventurous and are a total DIY kinda person then this just might be the project for you.

There are several ways that you can acquire the brooches, my personal fave is one that I read where the mother of the bride wrote a short note to family and friends explaining her daughter's plan to make a vintage brooch bridal bouquet for her wedding and her wish to include her family and friends in the process, making the bouquet much more special {something borrowed per se}. The mother also included a photo of the inspiration for the bouquet so that everyone could see what kind of jewelry would work best. She received over 30 donations, at the time of her posting and everyone was thrilled to be asked to be a part of the bouquet. 

Her total investment in the bouquet included the following: postage, cards, padded envelopes and reprints - which she did at Walgreen's for 10 cents each.  She put a $.61 cent stamp on the padded envelope in case the piece they were sending would be heavy - but the whole packet that she mailed took just a $.44 cent stamp on it.

However most of the bouquets that I have fallen in love with have taken approximately 50 to 75 brooches to complete. So you can shop Etsy, eBay, flea markets, thrift stores, or even Dollar Stores for that new-old look. You really don't have to spend a fortune to find these pieces. Many sellers will offer brooches in lots and you can use vintage hat pins, earrings, miscellaneous gems to fill in.