Celebrate Green Blog

I recently was hunting for some ideas around green weddings when I stumbled across a brilliant idea-wedding bouquets made not from flowers, but from collections of brooches and other jewelry. The ones I saw were exquisite. I admired their beauty, but since one of our themes at Celebrate Green! is putting meaning in the greening, it struck me that creating such a gorgeous bouquet could be not only green (made from re-purposed items), but made more meaningful if each piece of jewelry had a story attached.

I struck gold so to speak when I came across Jenna MacNeil’s blog, My Bridal Bouquet.

Just as I’d hoped, Jenna is a bride-to-be who wants to assemble a bouquet using pieces from family and friends that have meaning attached to them. But let her tell you:

“There are a few reasons why I decided to create my bridal bouquet from brooches and clips and earrings from friends and family. First, I’m not a huge flower person. Sure, they’re lovely to look at - but the expense and waste of all those bouquets for a few hours wasn’t sitting well with me.

“Second, I had been given wedding rings that belonged to my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother - none of them fit me, in size or style, but I wanted to incorporate them into my day. In one of my many visits to a bridal blog, I saw a photo of a bouquet made of vintage brooches … and suddenly I realized there was a way to draw all these elements together.”

Jenna started inviting friends and family to contribute to her bouquet.

Then I moved in with another idea. Personally, I have pieces of jewelry I no longer wear that I would love to add to someone’s bouquet and I thought there might be others out there interested in doing the same.

So Jenna and I had a chat and I asked her what she thought about our supporting her effort by blogging about it and encouraging everyone who might like the idea, to contribute a piece for the bouquet.

Happily, Jen reacted positively. That brings us to this post (and future ones as well as the widget in the right column where you can see Jen’s progress every time you visit here).

If you would like to contribute a piece of jewelry to Jenna, she would welcome it along with some background on the piece. The tale doesn’t have to be hugely meaningful (though that would be nice). Even, “I can’t remember where I got this, but I’ve always liked it even though I no longer wear it and want you to have it,” would be great. Just knowing that she is receiving these gifts from people around the world is touching and meaningful beyond measure. (Please note, we’re talking costume jewelry here, not asking for contributions of real gold/bejeweled pieces. Also, contributions will not be returned.)

Jen’s goal is to spotlight each piece (or group of pieces) on her blog and of course, show the finished bouquet for us all to swoon over after her wedding on July 31. (Please don’t be upset if she fails to mention your contribution. Surely we can all sympathize with her state of overwhelm in working and preparing for the wedding.)

If you’re up for it, please mail your contributions to:
Jenna MacNeil
30 Cody Road
Boundary Creek, NB
E1G 3X1
Canada

And if you have nothing to contribute but would just like to encourage Jen in her efforts to be sure to comment below.