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.

When I began asking for brooches, I wasn't sure what would happen. I didn't know if I would get any at all. I was a little worried that my plan wouldn't work and that I would walk down the aisle empty handed.

But what I have found is that this has ended up being one of the COOLEST things I've ever experienced. I know people have made these before. I know there are people out there who you can pay to make them for you. They will even go out and find all of the brooches to go in the bouquet. But the neatest part of this for me has been getting little pieces of my family and friends. Some of the pins are old and have a story behind them... a history. Others are brand new and were bought just for this purpose because someone wanted to contribute. I love that I am reconnecting with people from my past, and that I have so many people in my life that love and support me.

It has been fun to see the personalities of different people show up in their choice of brooch. I've been given flowers, and hearts, and random designs. I've even got a butterfly or two. Everything I read about how to make one of these said you should choose a color scheme and a metal and stick with it. But I decided to throw the rules out the window and do what I wanted to do instead. And I decided I wanted pins from family and friends instead of random pieces.

At Christmas we visited my family in Oregon. It is the only time of the year that I get to see my dad's parents. My grandma has facebook and email and she knew about my bouquet. Originally she wasn't sure she'd be able to come up with a pin for it, but I was pleasantly surprised when she pulled me aside and handed me this:



It's a beautiful pin and I love having a butterfly to add to my bouquet! How perfect!

It's getting down to the wire now. I'm hoping to have all of my pins in by the end of the month so that next month I can start to put them together. I can't wait to see how my bouquet comes out! I think it is going to be beautiful!

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.

I don't even know how to begin this story.
Once upon a time, there was a woman.
She was my grandma's grandma.
My great great grandmother.
Her name was Rhoda Isabel.
She had a pin. It was made probably at least 150 years ago.
The stone that is centered in the middle of the pin was hand cut. It's a real gem of some kind... and it wasn't cut by a machine. Someone held that little gem in their hands and cut it and faceted it by hand. 150 years ago.
My grandma has had it for about 50 years.
And now it will be a part of my bouquet.

I think this is such a special piece for my bouquet. I plan to put it right in the middle. It will be my "something old".



Wow. Such special stories that are coming with these pins!
I am hoping to collect quite a few more by the beginning of February! There will be lots more brooch blogs coming!!!

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.

Christmas morning is always fun and exciting.
Sometimes things under the tree are more of a surprise than other times.
This year I had lots of surprises under the tree, but one of the biggest surprises came from my Uncle Don and Aunt Carol and my cousin Evan.

When I opened the brooch, I was blown away. I wasn't expecting it and it was beautiful!

I don't think there is much of a story behind it, but it was really special to me to have a pin from them. Uncle Don has been around since I was born. He is my mom's brother. As a kid, my mom used to say how much I was like him. I think that always made me like him even more. And Carol came into the picture when I was pretty young. I loved her from the beginning! When I was in Junior High, they got married, and I got to be one of 2 people in their wedding. It was so special for me.

Evan is 7 years old and he is so smart. Since I was 18 years old when he was born, I've been able to watch him grow up and it has been really fun! Even though I don't get to see him often and he grows so quickly, its been a really neat thing. Evan is my only cousin on this side.

Here is a picture of the pin:



Its so fun seeing all of the different pins everyone has been picking out. When I look at this one, that little lady bug reminds me of Evan :) I love that it will be in my bouquet on my wedding day!

I have collected quite a few! Next month I'll be putting them all together. I can't wait to see how it comes out!

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.

I remember as a little girl, my mom and my grandma wearing jean jackets covered in rhinestone brooches. They would collect them and pin them all over the jackets. As a kid, I didn't really understand it. I thought they were pretty and sparkly, but I didn't understand entirely why they would collect them with such diligence. But collect they did.

When we arrived in Oregon for Christmas, my grandma told me that I could pick from her pins for my bouquet. And out came this drawer:



I was overwhelmed... and didn't even know where to start. But immediately, this pin jumped out at me.



But then so did a few others...







After I'd pulled these out of the drawer, she found a couple others she thought I might like:





Needless to say, I was THRILLED to add several new pins to my growing collection! I know I say this at the end of every brooch post, but I am really enjoying getting each piece. It is fun to think about the different people who care about me and my day!

Girl gets wedding bands

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy gives girl beautiful ring.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl orders wedding bands.

I absolutely LOVE my engagement ring. I think it is the most beautiful ring I have ever seen.

It took me a while to start looking at wedding bands. In fact, I didn't until we decided to move the wedding up. Then it kind of hit me one day that I really needed to get on that and buy our bands. So I started looking. I went to several jewelry stores and tried on all kinds of different things. I really thought I knew what I wanted, but as I began to look, I found that was not the case at all. I ended up ordering the ring from the jeweler that was made to go with my engagement ring.



It arrived in a beautiful little box (with a green holiday bow)...



And it even had Godiva chocolates with it! Now that is class!







LOVE IT.



J and I have gone back and forth about what he wanted. He knew he wanted something plain...no stones, no design. But at first, he said he wanted yellow gold. Then not much later, he said that maybe he'd like white gold. The thing is... he isn't here! So he hadn't had a chance to try on rings and really decide what he wanted. So I found a ring that is made out of tungsten. Which is basically steel. I figured it was different looking and would be tough.



When he is home and wearing his ring everyday, I figure we can go pick out the ring he loves... but I wanted him to have a ring for the wedding. And who knows, maybe he will end up loving it! :)

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.

I think it started before I was born.
Christmas Eve.
My mom's family would gather together and open presents that my great grandmother had gotten all of us. We would eat and talk and catch up on the last year. Because most of us hadn't seen each other since last Christmas Eve. This tradition has continued on my entire life. All 25 years. Until this year.
I missed seeing my family this year... but I was beyond excited when I arrived at my grandma's house and she presented me with 2 pins for my bouquet... one from my Great-Aunt Eileen, and one from my second cousin, Nancy. Both are beautiful!!!

This one is from Aunt Eileen... because of my love for Disney as a kid:


And this one is from Nancy. She said she has had it for over 20 years! I love the color of it! And it catches the light!


Just like I say in every brooch blog... it is SO MUCH FUN to get these pins from everyone! It's fun to hear the stories and see why each pin was chosen!

If you want to send me a pin, I am still collecting them. I am about half way there and I'm getting so excited to see it all come together! I am hoping to collect them all in the next month or so... by the beginning of February... so I have enough time to put them all together before the wedding. Let me know if you need my address!

Girl chooses venue

Boy proposes to Girl.
Girl says yes.
Boy goes to war.
Girl plans a wedding.
Girl goes to Vegas.
Girl chooses venue.

When we decided to move the wedding to Vegas, my mom and I instantly both began to scour locations online. There are so many wedding venues in Las Vegas. So. Many. But what we started to notice is that most of them were indoors, draped in satin and had an Elvis option. None of those were things we wanted.

I was starting to think we might just go find a place in the desert, and bring our own chairs. Then I received a text message from my friend Sarah. She'd heard we were going to Vegas and wanted to tell me about a place that some friends of their family own. I looked it up online and it looked promising.

We set out to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, and we had a plan. And a list. We had several venues we were planning to check out. I began calling around as soon as we got settled into the hotel and found that most of them were not open on Thanksgiving day, which is when we had kind of planned to check them out. The only one that I actually got a hold of a person was the venue that my friend Sarah had sent me. We arranged a time to meet him the day after Thanksgiving.

The plan was for us to get up in the morning and head to some of the other venues without appointments, then head to our appointment at 3pm. But as mom and I got in the car, we decided that we didn't really want to look at the other venues. So we headed to the outlet mall instead. It was Black Friday after all.

A little before 3 pm, we headed to the venue. The Ritz of Las Vegas. It was the most promising of the Venues we'd looked at online.

We met with the guy in charge, and after about an hour of viewing the venue and hearing about all of the details and just chatting, I knew it was perfect. It was a little bit more than we'd planned to spend for a venue, but it meant we could have a reception, which we weren't really planning on before.

So after only one short search, we booked a venue. This is where we will be getting married: