The Final Product

So I had someone ask how I finished the bottom half of my bouquet. I wish I had taken more pictures of the process, but hopefully this explanation will suffice!

When putting the stemmed brooches in the foam ball, I pulled them about a 1/2 inch away from the foam. I covered it with enough brooches that you couldn't see the green foam underneath, but if you don't have enough brooches to do that, try covering the foam with some pretty fabric first, then putting the wire through that.

Once I had all of the brooches in place, I shaved off the excess foam that was left around the edges. Then I took strips of ribbon, folded them in half, and pinned the folded edge, just up underneath the flower-line. I kept doing that until the whole base was covered, then I just wrapped the rest of the stem like you would any other bouquet, pinning it each time I wrapped it.


Here's some pictures of my shoes as well. They originally came with skinny, very unattractive bows on the front, so I clipped those off, and bought two more of one of my favorite brooches from my bouquet and sewed them on instead. I think they're perfect for my dress, which I was able to finally bring home Tuesday night!

Invitation Pic

So we are trying to decide which picture to use for our invitations and we need your help. Check out Dennis' blog here and my last three posts and let us know which pic you like best. Many thanks.

Bloopers

I just had to.

More Engagements

Wedding Update!

Here's a bouquet update! It's almost done. I just have to finish the bottom.



Here's a taste of our attempt at a vintage engagement shoot with the fabulous hat given to me by my amazing cousin Rachael. Thanks Rachie!

The Bouquet

So here’s the gist of how I’m attempting to create a vintage brooch bouquet.

First, Dennis and I had a blast collecting the flowers, well maybe I had a blast and he willingly supported me! We rummaged through hordes of jewelry, searching for any piece that had a usable flower on it. In addition to some lovely brooches, I ended up taking apart necklaces, bracelets and rings to complete the collection.

This spread is only a small part of the compilation, but you get the picture.

Next I attached wire to each flower to create a stem of sorts. This picture shows my first attempt with some pretty thick wire. I later switched them all to a thinner floral wire, which was much easier to work with and created a tighter stem that didn’t allow the flower to move around.

I have almost finished wiring all of the flowers and have started sticking them in a foam ball to begin playing around with different arrangements.

I’ve done so much since I have taken these pictures that I really should repost an update soon, but at least this is a start!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Livin La Vida Loca....Literally

Holy Guacamole! It has been far too long since I have last blogged! Life as of late has literally been INSANE!! Between working 3 jobs, trying to magnify my rather large Church calling and planning a wedding, blogging opportunities have become rather sparse. But other than life being outrageously occupied, it is wonderful and of course Dennis has been a gem, as usual. There has not been any toilet seat blow drying, but there have been plenty of other amazingly generous acts! So here's the run down. I am doing my student teaching this semester, yes, the day has finally come and it has been amazing so far! I could not have been more blessed in my placement with my Mentor Teacher, she is wonderful and we get along great. I am teaching Junior High (7th-9th grade) Spanish and I seriously adore it. I could not be more sure that I was predestined to be a teacher. I have sooo much fun with the kids. They make me laugh all the time. Though those of you who know me well, you will understand the serious hardship I'm having with this whole student teaching thing when I say, that I have to leave my house at 6:50am every morning. I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON! I despise it. But once I've breached the arduous hurdle of actually getting out of bed, it's pretty smooth sailing from there on out.

So once I get done with Student Teaching around 3:00pm, its time to head from the job I get to pay BYU to do, to my money making job in athletics. I was working that job till 9:00pm everynight... but that only lasted 3 weeks when I realized I was going to shoot someone if I didn't get more sleep. Now I only stay until 7:00pm, which has made a world of difference.

Then after that, I have been working for the Chinese Department again! At the beginning of the semester, the Professor who I worked with over the summer contacted me about doing some more work on his Cantonese book. His publishers liked the book so much they wanted to make a tapescript of it so they could create an audio version. And I was the lucky winner for that job! It's actually super interesting to me, and I was glad they thought of me to do, I can always use more money. Though Dennis ended up helping me a ton since I was so overwhelmed with everything else! We finished the whole book last week and it felt amazing to turn it all in. And now that that project is done, they have asked me to make an index for the book. Which is perfect timing since I only working till 7:00 now.

In addition to that, I have been doing a little bit of wedding planning here and there...well, I take that back, I have been doing A LOT of wedding planning. I think we pretty much have a plan for everything, now we just need to put those plans into action. The first project I have decided to tackle is my bouquet. Instead of doing real flowers, I am doing flower brooches and rings and such. This was my inspiration. I think I have finally collected all of the flowers, and have started putting it all together. I will post a DIY blog about that soon with other wedding details as well! So stay tuned, I am officially back into the blogging world!