I would check to see if your bricks are still available and how much they are.. i recently recycled some old bricks from patio pillars into a new wall.. the brickie said as long as most of the mortar was chipped off it should be fine..
it doesnt quite match perfectly though but still good enough..
i just used a $60 impact drill to chip the mortar off, came off easy as and only wasted about 5 bricks out of a couple of hundy