Weddingbee boards

I've been putting off the floral aspect of the wedding because I'm not a big fan of flowers and don't know how to arrange them, etc. But after that successful shopping trip with one of my BMs, I decided to dive into wiring up my brooches. It's been rather easy!

My tools: A wire cutter and a small pliers. (I also used a hot glue gun, but only because a brooch broke.)

22 gauge jewelry wire (I wanted silver rather than green, and Hobby Lobby only had silver jewelry wire).

I measured out an 18 inch piece for my base. Then I cut the rest based off of the model piece rather than measuring each time.

Looped the wire through on one side (facing out).

Then I looped one piece around again, so that there was a full circle around the end and the wires both came out to the outside. I know the photo is blurry, but I used this extra loop to substitute for hot glue. Just make sure that when you tighten the loops (see below) you have the wire going in between the little 'v' of the clasp. This will secure it in the down position, keeping it from popping open and poking you or falling out on the big day.

Twist by the base to tighten it up, and then twist all the way out from there (I usually held the pliers and turned the brooch, unless it was weak/old, then I was more careful to twist the pliers).

Do the same on the other side, and then twist the the two sides together (by hand, not pliers). Tip- Be careful not to twist it too tight to the pin, that's how I pulled off a side. Just tight enough so they're snugly together and not leaving a huge gap.

This set up is really sturdy, it holds the brooches straight up (or however you decide to tilt them). Even the huge purple flower below was held up by only one wire on each side.The beginning of my collection...19 down, 35+ to go. Haha. 

I definitely recommend snatching up pretty rings or clip on earings that you like as they're very easy to wire, especially those huge stretchy rings. You just cut off the stretchy band and you have 4 perfect holes to wire up. The large purple flower was a ring, as was the teal flower to the left of it.

I'm not sure if I'll wrap them up in floral tape or anything when I bunch them all together with fake hydrangeas as filler. I wanted to wind them all up first so I can fully move on to the next step. *I'm not big on patience when it comes to crafting* If the fake flowers are full enough, I'll probably leave the stems silver and only tape where I need to to form them. That part will likely all be covered by the fabric and ribbon handle.

I'll update after the weekend...we've got a long car trip, so I'm hoping to wire up the rest of my brooches :-)

Who else is currently working on a brooch bouquet? I'd love to see your progress pics (or your finished photos)...I love all brooch bouquets! 

Wow! It'll look stunning!

It's so cool you're bouquet will be a labour of love- it makes it all the more special.

@eagle: Baaah, evil floral tape. We just wrapped a bunch of the flowers for the maids' bouquets this weekend before my bach party...and ya just can't wash that sticky, weird feeling off! But you recommend covering them in the green tape before inserting them in the flowers? I think you're right...I just hate that tape. LOL.

@Coffee cup: Thank you. I love that some of them are from my grandma's old jewelry, some my grandpa bought for me, and many others family and friends have given me from their collections or picked up for me when they thought of me. It'll be nice to have little reminders of friends and family right at my fingertips on my big day. :-)

@Evie19: Thanks so much! I really hope it turns out well, no one around here that I know of has done one, so I only have the WB to turn to (good thing y'all are awesome). I'm super type A, so this thing may drive me bonkers in the end, but right now, the winding wire is a breeze. Check back in with me when I'm arranging ;-P Hehe. It is a lot of labor, hehe. I am so glad to have found so many peacock jewel tone pieces and silver pieces that represent people. 

@tksjewelry: Thank you :-) Mr.ND doesn't "get" the brooch bouquet (don't blame him, I totally disliked flowers, so I can see how he's not all gung-ho about brooches), so it really makes my day to get such sweet compliments re: something I'm working so hard on. 

@creativeplannertobee: Thanks, I hope so. I'm sometimes bad at updating, but I'm going to work extra hard to be a good photo-documenter and keep the hive updated.

Here are most of the brooches I have left. My grandpa bought me a couple more and my BM has a few for me that I don't have at my apt right now, but this is the bulk of what I need to do yet (and I'm sure I'll buy more, let's just be honest). Hehe.

Update- So, I was too impatient to wait until my car ride this weekend to do more work, so I popped over to Michael's to get more 22 gauge jewelry wire and some floral wrap/tape (and chocolate...gotta have some treats for all that hard work!). 

The new wire I bought sucked. It was not as malleable as the first wire I had. I was so eager that I purchased 3 packs today, but I only open and cut one (thank goodness) so I'll be returning the other 2 tomorrow. Plus, they were $2 more a piece than the Hobby Lobby good stuff. Boooo! 

Don't buy this:

Since it was already cut, I pulled out the thicker/sturdier brooches I had that could handle a bit of rougher treatment and used up the one roll I'd opened. Yay, 12 more wired!

Now I had a big chunk of brooches wired, and I didn't want to open a new roll of the expensive, sub-par wire, so I decided to follow Eagle's advice and whipped out the floral tape. (PSA- This stuff gets your entire hand sticky. Don't try to scratch your head.)

I went through all the wired brooches and tidied up the ends so that they weren't extremely uneven or poking out. Many of them I just folded over so that sharp edges were covered and the look was smooth.

I started at the top of the wire and worked my way down. If you've never used floral tape before, you just pull it taut and lay it overlapping so that it sticks to itself. Sticky but simple.  

I went just a bit past the end so that I could pinch it closed, and then doubled back on the tape for about a half an inch or so to be sure that all sharp edges were thoroughly covered.

All that hard work (a few hours of reality TV helped out) paid off. I definitely like the look of the taped stems, and I think it will make it easier to arrange them when I get to that point.

I can't wait to get my $$ back from Michael's, hit Hobby Lobby, and wire away through 4 states and the bag of brooches I have left to do. I may just get all this darn prep work done this weekend!

I got 17 more done in the car, and once my lunch is finished baking I get to do that 'fun' floral tape wrapping. :-P The store was out of the nice silver on-a-wire jewelry wire, so I got the brass color since I tape over it anyway. I think it'll also blend in nicely with the deep purple hydrangeas I'm using as a filler. So glad I went back to this wire, it was way better, and cheaper!

That hilarious deer clip-on earing is going to be hidden away in the bouquet for Mr.ND. He's a big hunter.

I hope I can find a small photo of my grandma that Mr.ND loved so much to put in the little open circle brooch. It's shaped just like a small photo frame.

I'm so close to done!! Whoohoo! I have a few more brooches to set up (once I find them again ) but all of the ones that I had gathered are DONE. I'll post the *hopefully* final bouquet on Pres Weekend when my florally-gifted BM comes up to help me finish the BP flowers and my bouquet. 

I wanted my stems to be even sturdier (esp. for the huge ones) so I bought 16 guage pre-cut wire, hooked the ends, and then put one on each of the brooches.

I was sure to hook it over the pin if I could, just to make it extra sturdy.

After that, I wrapped them from brooch to bottom, all the way back up, and then half way down again. I wanted those suckers staying put. That made them nice, thick stems as well. This way I can bend them so that the bouquet has a nice, round shape that has brooches facing out in all directions.

The *nearly* finished product all bundled up together for storage. I top looks smaller than it will actually be because some brooches are sitting on top of one another and they're all just bunched together.

That'll be a pretty thick handle...and here I was worried about having to pad the handle so it wasn't too skinny. LOL.

Stay tuned, I should have one more update in a few weeks  I just have to go buy a few more purple silk hydrangeas to be the base/filler. That'll tie it in with the BP flowers as well (below).

Yay! Final update ladies! Thanks for keeping up with me, bees :-) I'm so excited to be done with the bouquet! Feel free to PM me or ask me any questions. It was a lot of fun, but I'm not thinking I'll be making more soon :-P I'll elaborate a bit more than I did on this post, since this is the original tutorial.

@Ms Rocky Point: Thank you! I'm so stoked to have finished it. I hope this can help some fellow bees :-) It was a lot of fun to make!

@TwinABee: Thanks a bunch :-) Glad I could help. It was SOOO worth it. The venue coordinator even took it for a while to post photos on their web page, they loved it so much. It was very popular at the wedding. 

@LindsayB: Thank you so much! I love love LOVED it on the day of. It was a shimmery little beast in the sunshine, haha.

@murmur:  LOL! Why, thank you. I don't actually do anything special. They just grow out very nicely and evenly, and I just clip them short once they get too long for my taste and start over. If I'm feeling fancy I'll use a file on them and maybe buff them or put some clear coat on, but that's like 2x a year because I'm lazy 

I am glad that this thread could help a few bees in their planning/making of their own, and I TRULY appreciate all the comments and compliments! I'll see if I can dig up a pro pic in a few days to post. She took muuuuch better photos than my iPhone, obviously.