Brooch Bouquet Update

Two weeks ago I began collecting brooches to create my brooch bouquet for the wedding! Right now I've been concentrating on finding fairly large and vibrant brooches in blue and orange, so that the bouquet is sure to have some splashes of color. I figure there are enough white and rhinestone brooches out there, so I can worry about those later!

Here are the four I've found since I began searching. I tracked three of them down on etsy. The fourth, the big peachy colored flower with the white spotted center, I found at my favorite store in Freemont, The Vintage Mall. (Where I found my wedding dress!)

The new brooches! The peach one to the left is about palm sized
to give you an idea of the scale. I have been really hunting orange
because I anticipate blue will be much easier to find.

These are all of the brooches so far. I'm lucky to already have
so many from Nana Irene--and there are even more back in RI!

My mother's dear friend and one of my aunts have lent their efforts to the collection as well and I'm very excited the bouquet will have pins from the Quinns, the Dunns, and our friends!

Elvis was very contented to be included in the photos.
Note: the brooches are laid on top of him, not pinned, as I am not a monster.

Puck on the other hand was only content to chew on the brooches.

...Not even metal could thwart him.

I have two more sets of brooches coming in this week, I'll post pictures of them. I was lucky enough to find a small lot of blue and orange flower jewels, and an enamel pin-and-earring set in blue. For me the game is locating pretty-and-yet-very-very-affordable (cheap) brooches. It's no fun spending a lot of money, that takes all the challenge out of it. I have not spent more than $10 yet! And that was just the big peachy one, the others were between $3-$7.

Many have slight nicks in the enamel or are missing a small stone, and to me that lends charm and character to the brooch. (Not to mention easing the price down). I like to think of the women who loved these pieces and wore them and maybe knocked them against the edge of a jewelry box or dropped them onto a tile floor. It gives them their own little spark of life.