Resplendent Bouquet of Brooches

A dear friend of mine named Kristina asked me something many months ago.  Would I make a brooch bouquet for her upcoming wedding.  Wow... I felt very honoured!  She was a bridesmaid in my own wedding years ago so of course I said yes!  I had never made a brooch bouquet before, but I was very excited to give it a go!

Kristina spent months collecting brooches from family and friends who wanted to contribute to helping create her bouquet.  So not only is it a bouquet filled with sparkle and glam, but memories and meaning as well.  What a wonderful keepsake!  

There are different ways to make a brooch bouquet.  I learned a lot from making this one, so here is my version.  I hope you will follow along to see how it came together!


Supplies I used;
Brooches and other jewellery bits (and I mean a lot)
A heavier gauge floral wire, but still workable with your hands
Green floral tape (optional)
Hot glue
E-6000 glue
Artificial hydrangeas
String or thin ribbon
Pliers / wire snips
Pearl topped pins
Glittery ribbon
LOTS of time

First thing was to wire up all the pieces with floral wire so they looked like flowers with a stem.  It was important to make sure the brooch would not flop around if held by the wire stem.  I used 1.5 foot long pieces of wire and put the brooch at the centre of each wire, then once it was secure, twisted the two tail ends together to form a stronger stem.  Try to keep the wire hidden in behind the brooch.  If it is a particularly heavy piece, you may need to add extra wire.  Some pieces didn't have a place to attach wire, so I glued brooch clasps onto the back using E-6000 glue so I had something to wrap the wire to. 

Once all of them are wired, I wrapped the pieces with green floral tape.  With some practice, I was able to get going pretty quickly by just spinning the stem so the tape wraps around it.  You don't need to do this part if you plan on completely concealing the stems of the brooch flowers. 

I purchased five, nice and hardy faux hydrangeas from the craft store in a light colour to use as a base.  I formed the hydrangeas into the shape I wanted then tied all the stems together very tightly with some thin ribbon I had.  The picture above shoes purple hydrangeas, but I used white for Kristina's.  I found they gave a brighter base for the brooches and was more appropriate for her spring wedding.

Next, I started inserting my wrapped brooch flowers into the hydrangeas, making sure to start with the bigger pieces so they were spread out.  After I got a few brooches in place, I would put another tie of ribbon around the stalk of the bouquet.  Then, continued this until the bouquet was full and the size I wanted it.

Keep in mind, it doesn't have to be all brooches.  Big showy rings, pendant from a necklace, hair clips, antique looking buttons, blingy earrings.... these were all fabulous as filler.  So save the small pieces for the end.  And don't forget, the dollar store is always a great resource for finding little extra bits.

Before I went any further, I snipped off any extra of the hydrangeas that were showing around the bottom edges and cut the stalk of the bouquet to the length I wanted.  Then I took ribbon again and threaded it through the underside of the flowers in different sections tying loose stems together.  This really tightened things up and made it really secure. 

Next I moved onto the fabric for the underside of the bouquet.  I sewed a long tube of fabric about three feet long.  Then I put a loose running stitch through the sewn side and push the fabric along the thread so that it gathered.  The fabric I used had some weight to it and needed some support.  I took some of the floral wire (doubled), and created a support to put inside the fabric tube.  I didn't get a picture of it, but it looked like the image on the left.

Then I put my wire support into the fabric tube, bent it into shape around the stalk of the bouquet and stitched the ends together.  I put a few dabs of hot glue on the underside of the bouquet for the fabric to adhere to.  I found this was easier then trying to stitch the fabric onto the underside.

I taped up the stalk of the bouquet so it would be a little padded and none of the wire would stick out.  Brooch bouquets are heavy, so I wanted it to be comfortable to hold.  Using the same fabric as the base, I cut strip a little longer then the stalk of the bouquet and wrapped it around, tucking over the bottom to conceal the ends of the brooch flowers.  (See, I didn't need to wrap mine in floral tape after all!)

I used some pearl tipped pins to hold the fabric in place around the stalk.  Here is a tip.  If you want the pins to blend into the colour of the fabric, use some nail polish to paint the heads before you use them.  I found the white top stuck out way too much.  I just happened to have a nail polish colour on hand that was the perfect match!

I also embellished the stalk a bit more with some sparkled ribbon and a small locket that contained a photo of a relative that had passed years before.  In fact, there were several photos worked into the bouquet of loved ones that were important to Kristina.

Needless to say, I waited to share this until after the wedding.  I didn't want to risk having the groom see it before the special day.  But now that it's all done...


Congratulations Kristina & Gary!  Your infectious happiness and love was felt and shared by everyone that had the privilege of sharing and being a part of your wedding day!



Love to you both! xoxo!


PS, I'll update this post with more pics of the bouquet in action once they become available ;)