Girl gets brooches

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl asks for help.
Girl gets brooches.

My dad has one sister. And my mom has one brother. We don't have a huge family, but I am fortunate to have a pretty close relationship with the family members we do have! At Christmas, my aunt Brenda pulled me aside and gave me this gorgeous pin:


She told me that as a kid, she remembered her mom (my grandma) wearing this pin on a long purple coat she had. She said my grandma didn't wear many, but she did wear this one. Aunt Brenda thought it would be a great addition, and I agree! It is so different than anything I've seen before!

In planning out this bouquet, I kind of left it's fate in the hands of my family and friends. By asking them to choose pins and not giving any guidelines (color, metals, flower or not flowe), I kind of let everyone else decide how my bouquet would look. It's turned out to be great fun! But I did order two special pins myself. I knew I wanted something specific and this is what I found:



I have a very special plan for our initials... I hope it works out how I envision it :)

When we got back from visiting family at Christmas, I had a really neat pin waiting for me in the mail. This pin was from our friend Heather. I met Heather a couple of years ago at a birthday party for one of J's nephews. She has been friends with J and his brothers since they were young. And she and her husband and son live right down the street from his family. I have gotten to know her and grown to love her and her family, and I was so excited to see this gorgeous pin in the mail from her:



I especially love that even though she lives right down the street, she sent it in the mail :) So cute! I can't wait to see how the butterfly looks mixed in with the flowers! It is perfect!

The bouquet is growing, and I've made a lot of progress. I've managed to make each of the pins into a flower with a stem... so this week I should be finishing up the bouquet. I still have tons of pins to blog... I'll keep going with that :)