All That Sparkles is Not Gold

To those of my friends/readers that are NOT Catholic school teachers, catechists, or homeschoolers, I promise that this weeks' posts will be a little more interesting for you.  I have had lots of stuff to post for school lately, but this week is going to be all about...crafts.  Stuff that has been made recently, an awesome new piece of furniture I got, new projects, etc. so stay tuned! Today's installment=cool project for my sister's wedding.

After getting Stephanie and Steven hitched last year, planning Emily and Luke's nuptials has just been a continuation of the Bogner Wedding Planning Business.  Em decided that she loved the idea of having a  broach bouquet, but decided that it was impractical and (really) expensive, so she had planned to just go with flowers.

However, she has a crafty family, and we like surprises.  Stephanie and I chatted and came up with a plan that got Emily a broach bouquet, but with even more meaning.

We sent out a letter to all of the women that love Emily- family, girl friends, family friends, and
significant people from Luke's side, too.  We asked them to send a broach or pin or random earring for Emily.  The jewelry could be old or new, significant or from a thrift store.  We didn't know how many people would want to participate, but everyone LOVED the idea.  They thought it was beautiful and unique and a cool way to make Emily's day a little more special.  We asked them to keep it a secret, and Emily had no idea what was going on.  She even had already picked out other flowers for her bouquet.

This is the pile of jewelry before we got started.  We ended up with about 90 pieces, and added some extra small rhinestones as filler.  The pieces were so unique and beautiful.  We asked the ladies who contributed to also send a card with the piece that they chose explaining why they picked it in a message to Emily.  We took pictures of all of the pieces individually and put them in her wedding scrapbook with the cards.  She loved reading through them and then finding the jewelry on the actual bouquet.  Some of the jewelry was new but had cool symbolism.  There is also jewelry representing all sides of the family.

Steph did the leg work of picking up supplies and got started with the base while I organized pictures in the scrapbook.  We used a large styrofoam ball, which she bore a hole in and glued in a dowel rod for the handle.  All of that got covered with black fabric.

She then ripped apart silk hydrangea blossoms and hot glued them on.  They also got a pearl-headed straight pin for some extra security. (And bling).

Did I mention that our goal was to give this to Emily before her wedding showers started so that she could take it with her to show to the ladies who contributed?  And did I mention that the first shower date was earlier than we expected?  And did I also mention that we had lots of (very much appreciated) last minute pieces sent to us?  All of that adds up to Steph and I making this project late on a Friday night trying to get it done before Emily came over as planned on Saturday morning.

Needless to say, we did not get much sleep.  So here is is completely covered with the first layer of flowers. You probably can't tell in this picture, but Stephanie was ready to throw the bouquet-in-process out the window at this point.

We then started adding the largest jewelry pieces, using a combination of hot glue, floral pins, the actual pin backs of the broaches, and holes in the styrofoam to hold them on.

Here am I with about 20 pins done, and my hands and fingers hurt so badly, I was ready to let Steph and Steve's new puppy use it as a chew toy.

We stop documenting with pictures at this point of the evening/morning. :)

The next step was adding the smaller pieces of jewelry.  We didn't like how flat it was looking, so we incorporated more of the hydrangea petals, often with a jewel or something in the middle.  Those flowers were not held down flat but stick on three dimensionally.

We also wrapped the handle with white lace over the black fabric, and then went to bed...for a few hours...until Emily came over for Steph to do her hair for a military event that day.

Surprise number one was that I was over- Emily didn't know that I was coming.  I told her that I was just hanging out to see her get ready for the military ball, and that while I was there, I had added some more to her wedding scrapbook.

We waited for her to flip through the book until she started getting to the jewelry pictures.  Then she was like, "What is this?" flip "what is this? flip flip "what is this!" at which point Steph gave her the bouquet.  She was so overwhelmed and genuinely surprised.  It took forever to show her because we had to find each pin and say who it was from and the stories that we knew.  She was so excited.

Here are some close ups of each side:

It turned out beautifully, but I have a better understanding of why the bouquets Em was originally looking at ran in the $600-700 range.  I think I am in the wrong business!

Outtakes:
I would be remiss to not share some of the rest of the photos from the creation:

I had been at Steph and Steve's for all of 20 minutes and we were just getting started, when I spilled my entire.glass.of.wine.  All over the pins...

Then there was the "Gypsy Trinket" reenactment.  If you know my mom and grandma, you understand.  If you don't know them, don't think less of me.

Steven was great encouragement through the beginning of the evening.

That is, until he got tired about an hour in, and went to bed.  Lucky dog.

It can be very difficult to get a nice family picture.

So, the day ended happy and with everyone desiring a nap.  No naps were had, however, because we then helped Em get ready for her soon-to-be-hubby-almost-a-lieutenant's last ROTC military ball.

Aren't they cute?

Less than three months, and they will be Mr. and Mrs. Werner!