Brooches for the bride...

One of the many things I love about Thing #2 is that our brains often share the same wave length.  Not always...but frequently.  I can honestly say we did not have one stand-off on any wedding choice.  We might not always have agreed, but our opinions weren't so far off kilter that a meeting of the minds wasn't a possibility.  Thing #2's wedding was a harmonious collaboration...and if it wasn't...then she was just too kind to correct me of my misconception.  Granted, with the bride living in Cincy and the wedding in Philly....many of the smaller decisions had to be left up to moi for convenience sake.   So it's a good thing we were both surfing that same brain wavelength.

One of the choices was Thing #2's desire to forgo the traditional flower wedding bouquet and opt for one made out of brooches.  As she often liked to say during the course of her wedding plans "If I'm gonna be sparkly one day of my life...it should be my wedding day."  Again, we were hanging ten on that same wavelength.

"All that Sparkles"

Thing #2's wedding vision was "vintage".  Thing #2 is also quite the "do it herself-er".  So the goal was to collect jewelry brooches in her color scheme, so she could make them into her bridal bouquet.  Some came from my jewelry box.  Most were found on excursions over the course of a year.

Also included in the bouquet were strands of necklaces and a single quarter.

Thing #2's wedding date just happened to be on the wedding anniversary of my parents.  Even tho it was not planned that way, I'm confident Dad had a say in it.  God works in mysterious ways...and apparently so does my Pops.  Dad always liked to give his grandkids quarters when they visited.  It was one of those happenings you could count on.  Even when the grandkids got older I think they would have been disappointed if they didn't get a few quarters outta their visits with Gramps.  Pops was taken from us 1 1/2 years ago.  At his funeral, each of his grandkids received a bag of quarters to remember their Gramps by.  One of those quarters made it into Thing #2's brooch bouquet.  It only seemed fitting he was present at the wedding.  Afterall, not only did he provide the shared wedding anniversary, I'm pretty sure he pulled some strings and managed to provide his grand daughter with one of the most glorious days I've ever seen!  Thanks Pops!

"Quarters from Gramps"

Thing #2 started by wiring all the brooches and forming long stems.  But once it got to forming the stems into the shape of a bouquet...things got a bit unruly, and HEAVY!  Luckily for Thing #2, one of her students has a mom who is a florist.  And this florist also just happens to create brooch bouquets.  Who would have thunk it!  She was so kind as to step in and take over control of the bouquet.  Thing #2 was very glad to hand it off as she started to question whether "being sparkly might perhaps be over rated."  Plus, it was getting dang heavy!

And for those of you who are wondering about the safety of Thing #2 and 2.1's  wedding guests when it came time to toss the bouquet at their wedding?  

(Iphone)

Well...they decided that giving concussions probably wasn't a good way to start a marriage.  So they opted out of that tradition.  Their guests should be eternally grateful for that choice.   Again, we both shared that wavelength too.

Besides, there are too darn few times you can pull off that kind of sparkle in your life...to just throw it away!

Here's where I "link up" today.

(Song-ography is on vacay til August 5th...and we're moving to Tuesdays!)