Top Tips when making your own Brooch Bouquet

Top Tips when making your own Brooch Bouquet 

1. Decide on a style, do you want it to be old vintage looking or new shiny sparkly brooches.

2. Decide on a shape, Brides dresses are tending to be bigger and more fuller, which normally means the bouquet should be larger, however with Brooch Bouquet, the larger you go the heaver they are, so maybe thing about a teardrop or cascade shape to balance your dress. 

3. Collect Brooches.  If you decide on an old style vintage inspired bouquet, there are many ways of collecting brooches. 

• Car boot sales
• Antique / Second Hand Shops 
• House clearance / Yard Sales
• Family & Friends - ask family members for any jewelry they might have but are willing to give you, it does not have to be expensive
• Your own Jewelry box - remember it doesn't have t be brooches - medals, ear rings, rings, etc can be used in a Brooch Bouquet 

If you decide on new brooches it can work out expensive to buy enough to create your own bouquet as you need a selection of brooches to create texture in the bouquet.

• Ask friends to bring Brooches as a Gift to you for your Hen Party
• Ask Family to buy a brooch for you that represents a part of your life
• Search for Cheap Quality Wedding Brooches online  

4 Get professional advice on putting it all together - YOU Tube Videos do not necessarily show you the easiest way.  If you decide not to make your own Brooch Bouquet, bring your box of tricks to a professional to put it together. 

5 Storage.  Decide if you want to store your bouquet away in a box in your attic (Hat boxes are best for this) or do you want to display it a a piece of furniture in your house ( they are a fantastic talking piece) 

6. Plan ahead.  Don't leave making your Brooch Bouquet until the week of your wedding. Remember it can be done months in advance a stored away until the morning of your wedding.  Less stress and much more fun.

You want to make your own Brooch Bouquet and don't know where to start?  Check our our Distant Learning Brooch Bouquet Kits with FREE Worldwide postage. 

Our First Visit to the National Ploughing Championships

Our First Experience of the 

National Ploughing Championships 

Well now that we have recovered some what I have decided to update you all on our first experience at the National Ploughing Championships 2014
And what an experience it was for our little Flower School

Coming up the the ploughing we were really busy in the school as we had a group of gents and ladies from Donegal to Kerry on our Module 2 Sympathy Floristry Course, so along with looking after our students we were planning what we would do at the ploughing.



It was thanks to the amazing #BAG Business Action Group that we were allocated one of the 20 slots in the #BAG Marquees at Stradbally.

All of team Kays were pulled in to help with the planning and on the Sunday before the event Kay, John & Tom (the Dad & The Hubby) went down to the marquees and set up our stand, they sent on photos as they went and as we thought they would, they did a great job.  It was perfect.
Space was tight and cosy as we called it, but we knew what we had to work with and work with it we did.

Day one of the Ploughing so us leave our houses in Dublin at 4.30am and head on the road to Laois.  Traffic was perfect till we turned off the motor way and it began to get heavy and by the time we got anywhere near to rathiniska it was at a stand still, but he traffic measures enforced by the guards and also the Ploughing Stuarts was fantastic and it wasn't long till we parked the car in "the purple cow" car park.

We then walked for approx 20 minutes to get to the #BAG Tent, which we arrives at at around 6.45am.  Well the atmosphere around was electric, the excitement, the anticpation, the build up, it all had a magical feeling about it and how lucky we were to be there.

The first customers arrived into out tent (there were 2 tents with 10 business in each) about 8am and from then on we had a steady flow, the people came in waves which was probably a good thing as it gave us a chance to catch out breath,  our aim was to speak to as many people as we possibly could, and we certainly did.   And with all her chatting Janette even bagged herself a farmer :)  he was such fun and game for a laugh, we laughed so much with him, we forgot to ask him his name .

Kay was drafted in from Retirement to go a few hours also :)

Opposite us in out tent was Ken & Trish from KT Metal Design, and they gave us all such a laugh, we were like kids let out for the day.

We also had Darren & Ray from TotalGiftz selling their amazing night lights.

we had the classy and ever so lovely Annie Apple who had the most amaizng handbags and purses, most of them seemed like one offs, cos every one she sold was "the last one"  so we all got to calling her "the last one Annie"

Across from Annie was Mary from Addiebeads who stocks the most beautiful beads.  Mary had made hundreds of bracelets for the event along with little packs that you could make your own bracelet from..  I thought these were fabulous.

Up the front of our tent was Rachel from NP Liquid Glass System.  Now this stuff is magic, it is actually a liquid glass that can be sprayed on most surfaces from concrete to carpets and cars to swede shoes and once coated dirt cant (and i mean CANT) stick to them, I asked could they spray my childern ..lol .. this drew a lot of interest into the tent.

At the other end of the tent was Sara and her gorgeous partner whose name escapes me from Sarah2Scents - Sarah makes all her own fantastically scented candles in all shapes and sizes along with lots of other wax melts, so the aroma from Sarah's stand was sweeping through the tent during the day masking any smell from cattle that may have been close by.


We also had the Funky Crayon Lady Michelle with her tractor shaped crayons that all the kids that stopped were mad about.  She also had little gift boxes with crayons made from letters to spell childrens names, they were amazing, I have bought funky crayone from Michelle before in the shape of snow flakes for my daughted Cara's Frozen Birthday Party.

Melanie from Stomp PR & Marketing was at the top of our tent and was one of the most positive and nicest ladies I have met in a long time and she was such an asset to us over the 3 days.

Finnella from Baby Moments had us all in an uproar with her walking balloons each time she walked by you would swear she had a real dog in toe. On the second day she put her walking pet balloons outside of the tent and were they show stoppers...so many people came over to have a look at them and subsequently came into our tent.

But ours was not the only tent, our fellow baggers (as we call ourselves) were in the other tent and creating their own special atmosphere for the customers.  Carol from Ioma Essence, Geraldine from the 88 Food Company, Elaine from Sweet Treats Galore, Brian from BioFinch Composting,  Noeleen from Creative Ceramics and Craft , Hazel from Pure & Simple, Sharon from Heavenly Headbands, Karen from Enchanted Stationery

During the day we were so delighted the lovely Gavin Duffy and his Wife Orlagh took the time out of their day to come visit the BAG Tents, and Gavin was certainly up for a bit of crack when he posed for photos with some of the business. Also we were delighted to hear more about this amazing Sales Training Workshop featuring Gavin & Ramona Nicholas, & Dermot McConkey to name a few

We were also privileged to be visited from Jed Nash the Junior Minister of State for Business and Employment and again he was happy to post for some photos and showed a lot of interest if the goods and services the businesses had to offer.

Over the three days, we smiled, greeted, sold, encourages, chatted, giggled, laughed and sometime cried, but it will be one of the most memorable experiences we have ever had.

Will we do it again????  Ask us next year when our legs and feet have fully recovered :)

Interview with Chelsea Flower Show Award Winning Florist Ciara Quigley

Chelsea Award Winning Florist Ciara Quigley speaks to us about her amazing experience at the Chelsea Flower Show. 

You can gather from this interview how fun and exciting a florist Ciara is.  Ciara is renowned within the industry for her wedding work and her event decoration. 

Thank you Ciara for your answering our questions so freely 

What is your name? Ciara Quigley

What is the Name of your business? The Flower Boutique, Killiney 

What is your Website link? www.theflowerboutique.ie

How and when did you start your business? I started my business down a laneway in Dun Laoghaire, at the time I had intended to become a corporate event and wedding florist and use my premises as a studio however the recession got in the way of those plans, the Corporate market dried up but my wedding business did ok and I managed to start building a small retail business.  The opportunity to take over a larger premises in Killiney came about 3 years ago so I moved my retails and wedding business to there, where thankfully it has grown from strength to strength.

Why did you become a florist? I’ve always had a passion for flowers, as a child I would pick wild flowers and arrange them in little vases, it was my favourite thing to do! I still have my very first flower arranging magazine from 1981!!

How long have you been in the industry? Officially 13 years, however I got my first job as a florist when I was only 13...dont think employers would get away with that these days!

How do you create your style and where do you draw your inspiration?  To be honest Im a bit of an earth Mama! I draw most of my inspiration from the natural world around me.  I love the way flowers arrange themselves beautifully in the wild! The skirt of my dress was made from very common Cupressus which grows everywhere I love the way it drapes and could picture it making a very nice ball gown!

Has competing at Chelsea always being a aspiration? Absolutely it’s always been a dream from the moment I started professional floristry.  For those who didn’t really know what I meant to win the silver I described it as like an Athlete winning silver in the Olympics, I think that is the closest comparison I can make to what it felt like!

How did you decide on your final design piece?  Where did you draw your inspiration from?  The brief was to create a floral fantasy dress to be worn to a Chrystal theme ball, so I imagine Cinderella, but I wanted her to be a bit edgier so I also looked at her wicked step mum so that is where I decided the style of the dress, it was sort of a mix between the two!

What was the build up like, was travelling to Chelsea nerve wrecking in case you left something behind?  The build up was tough I have to be honest, we estimated that I spend about 200 hours working on the piece (Heidi Sparkles is her name!!) altogether.  We were also given exact measurements for the dummy that the dress was to be displayed on and my biggest worry was getting the measurements wrong...imagine all that work and then the bloomin’ thing didn’t even fit I would have died!

Did you forget anything? Nope!!! Most people dont realise it because Im I seem like a scatter brain but I am pretty organised!!  I’m also pretty good at improvising and thinking on my feet so if I had forgotten anything I would have thought of a way to cover it up J

Who did you bring to help you? My long suffering husband Leo!

Where did you stay in Chelsea? Travel Lodge Battersea,  it was cheap and cheerful and very nearby,  when it was all over we could walk to Chelsea from the hotel and enjoy a few Pimms!!

Describe the day of the competition, was it very competitive? No not really, there was great camaraderie between all the competitors I actually had a great laugh with some of them and will hopefully stay in touch for a long time

Were people helpful friendly, did you bring your own flowers with you?  Yeah everyone was brilliant and very helpful.  Yes you have to bring all your own flowers and equipment with you.

Was the room refrigerated? No!!! It was staged in the corner of the Chelsea Flower Show pavilion, really just the corner of a very large tent, thankfully it wasn’t too hot.

What tool in your toolbox can’t you live without? Eeek that’s a tough one can I choose more than 1?? I suppose my scissors but my toolbox will always contain emergency tools..my knife, scissors, secateurs, wire, reel wire, wire cutters, cable tie, glue,  ribbon, gutta and pot tape, I never go on a job without all those bits, with those you can pretty much do anything!

How did it feel to be awarded a Chelsea Silver Medal? Shocked! Honestly that’s all I can say was completely shocked.  Before I left my Mum and a few friend came to see the dress they were so impressed that my Mum honestly thought I would be crowned queen of Chelsea!!!  When I got there and set up my design I was nearly crying when I left, I rang my mum and had to hold back the tears explaining to her that the standard was so high and all the other dresses were so amazing that I hadn’t a hope of getting anywhere.  I was disappointed but honoured to even be in the same category as these amazing florists. So when I got the medal I couldn’t believe it, Leo says there was just a look of sheer shock and confusion on my face as I just stared at it for ages!!

Do you offer any services in addition to floral designs at your shop?  Well not really!! We sell flowers, plants  and gifts  I also do a lot of wedding and corporate event work but that’s about it, which is enough for me right now!

What is your favourite flower? It’s hard to say my favorite flowers changes seasonally.  I suppose if I was to have a top 3 it would be Phalanopsis, Vanda and Freesia!!

What one word best describes your personality? Mad

Do you have anything you would like to add? Thanks you for asking me all these questions it’s been fun!!