On brooch bouquets and starting my own collection...

My bouquet was one of the most sentimental details in my wedding, if not my absolute favorite detail overall. I had originally wanted an all brooch bouquet; I thought they were so beautiful, but gathering the number of brooches needed to make a bouquet big enough was more work than I was willing to put into it at the time , plus I decided that I really still wanted a flower bouquet for aestetic and size reasons. So instead, I borrowed some brooches from my grandmother, hand wired them (by myself!) into silk flowers, and handed them off to my florist (more on her in another post) to put into a bouquet. It hurts that I couldn't have kept my bouquet like that forever- but flowers die and the brooches weren't mine to keep- they were a gift from my grandfather to my grandmother and she's not yet ready to part with them, which I completely and totally understand. I'm so thankful she let me borrow them for the day, because without them I wouldn't have had this:

Gorgeous, right? The star was one I had to plead with her to let me borrow it, because it's so stunning and the most precious to my Nana, but it completely and totally made the bouquet. I played with all these when I was very young, and it was sentimental to have them be my “something borrowed” on my wedding day.

Ever since then, I've wanted to find some brooches of my own to put on three of the four jackets I wear on a regular basis. The fourth is a ski jacket that would look downright stupid with a brooch, and BTW I don't ski so the only reason I have a ski jacket is cause I tried skiing once and hated it. My first time was at Sundance, actually, but it was awful- skiing, not the resort. Resort was awesome. I've been looking around for one (or three) I like, and I've realized that my taste is a little all over the place. And there's a fine line between cute and... not so cute. I bought these two at Target on clearance after I stopped by the jewelry clearance department on a whim. Alan said they look very Harry Potter-esque, but I've never read the books or seen the movies, so I wouldn't know about that:

But we went to the flea market just so I could find some vintage ones, and the flea market delivered! This is the first one I bought after looking around the first half of the market. Seriously, look at it. Those materials are EXACTLY the same as one in my bouquet (that I don't have a picture of, unfortunately). There is NO way it's not made by the same manufacturer, especially since they're built the same way, too. How weird is that?! I snatched it up right away and it was so hard to not let the vendor see how excited I was about it.

Second one I bought because it was just pretty and... bubbly. I love it, though. it's such a cool shape, and the bubble dangle on the end is such a cute detail.

Third one was won only after a fight! He wanted more than I had left so I had to walk away, but then I realized that I had a 10 in my wallet. Win! Some of the tiny little diamonds are dirty, but it's not that noticeable and the fancy pilot wings were just too cool to pass up, plus the wheel actually spins. I love how the shadow makes the shape of a plane!

I seriously could not be any happier with the ones I ended up with. There were ALOT of brooches at alot of different booths and I knew that it was going to be hard to make a decision, but the ones I bought were definitely the ones that jumped out at me more than any others. In case you're interested in starting your own brooch collection, I really liked these when I searched online. If you want more, they're not hard to find! Go to your local flea market that specializes in antiques/ collectibles (highly recommend this), or look out in department stores over the holidays!

Poppy from Macy's, Peapod from HSN, Owl from Modcloth, Crystal Round from Kate Spade,Crystal Drop Pin from Nordstrom