There's no right way to plan a wedding.
When Instructables user bamseline got married, she embraced the wedding-planning process as a chance to explore her creativity. At every turn, she searched for cool and different ways to honor both her and her husband-to-be's pasts, in preparation for their shared future.
One such opportunity cropped up while deciding on the type of bouquets she and her bridesmaids would carry down the aisle.
Instead of traditional flower arrangements, this DIY-er opted to craft bouquets out of different decorative and meaningful brooches and trinkets. She used pieces she'd collected over many years, as well as a selection of family heirlooms passed down from one generation to the next.
Her bouquets were such a hit, that by the time her best friend's wedding prep cycle rolled around, she was recruited to build another, as a special wedding gift.
After gathering items from both the bride's and groom's relatives, she blended their histories into her special creation, rich with family history.
Scroll through to learn how this DIY-er repurposed gorgeous old brooches into one-of-a-kind wedding bouquets.
When Instructables user bamseline got married, she crafted beautiful brooch bouquets in the place of traditional floral bouquets, constructed with all sorts of beautiful, meaningful brooches from her and her fiancé's family collections.
Her bouquets were a smash hit amongst family and friends alike, and were especially adored by her best friend.
So when it came time for her best friend to get married, this DIY-er pounced at the opportunity to gift her friend a brooch bouquet of her very own.
She started her project by gathering at least 50 pieces of old jewelry — mostly brooches, but also a few earrings, rings, and small trinkets.
This DIY-er made sure to keep more delicate pieces out of the mix, for fear they might break during the building process.
This crafter then anchored floral wire to the back of each brooch clasp.
She wrapped the wire tightly, to ensure each brooch would stay in place once on the bouquet.
She left the wire stems long, to keep assembly options open.
This DIY-er secured each piece of wire in place with a bit of tape, for additional stability.
As she built these stemmed brooches, she placed them into a vase, slowly designing and redesigning her arrangement as she went along.
Once all of her brooch flowers were set, she turned her attention to her bouquet holder.
This genius builder anchored her bouquet holder to her sewing table with rubber bands, leaving both her hands free to position her brooches in place.
To achieve a lovely, rounded look, she affixed some ribbon with wire, and looped her wire ribbons all over her bouquet holder.
Then, she decorated her bouquet with all of her lovely brooches, trimming long wire stems as needed to achieve her ideal arrangement.
While the bouquet itself looked lovely, its handle still needed a little love.
This DIY-er decided to wrap her bouquet's plastic handle with decorative ribbon.
With a few additional wire ribbon "leaves" added to her bouquet's base, this DIY-er's lovely creation was complete!
She decided to add a few Scrabble letters into the design — her friend and her friend's fiancé's initials — to further personalize the bouquet.
Her best friend will likely display this thoughtful gift in her home for years to come — a beautiful reminder of her wedding day.
To celebrate her best friend on her wedding day, this crafter created a meaningful bouquet, uniting gorgeous brooches and trinkets from both bride and groom into a lovely symbol of their glorious union.
What do you think of this brooch bouquet? What did your wedding bouquets look like? Tell us about them in the comments below.
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