Attack of the Veil

So, a veil, eh?
Sak, for some reason, seems to find them more creepy than romantic.

Backing up a bit, I first laid out my grandmother's veil pattern and cut out some tulle. Tulle is ridiculously cheap, by the way.
I decided not to make the little cap that the pattern specified, and instead needed to come up with my own sort of head-attachment. Recently, I've really been captivated by headbands, so I thought I'd start there.

The first attempt was with wire and sewed on ribbon, and um. That just wasn't working at all.
The wire was pokey and not quite bent right, and the ribbon was floppy. Fail veil #1.

A few weeks later, I was visiting Penga-Sis and she dragged me into a Forever 21 for whatever her 11-year-old fashionista needs may be (I had actually never been in the store before). They had a ton of cute headbands there. It gave me one of those "Really? Why did I bother trying to make my own? What is wrong with me?" moments. So I bought some less-than-$5 headbands to try again.


I attached the veil onto the white double-band, and tried to cover the froofy-tulle ends with a strand of pearl beads.
Veil fail #2 - it looked pretty shoddy, and the beads kept slipping around.
You wouldn't like me when I'm angry, veil.

A few weeks after that (it takes me a while to recover from failure, apparently), I took the veil apart again for attempt number three. This time I just attached the tulle directly to the already-made pearl headband.
It works! Woooo!

Okay, so it's not exactly the straightest. I'm hoping that's just because I tried to put it on by myself, and not because it was sewed on crooked.

Despite the much-better-than-before outcome, Sak is still not a big fan of veils. Probably because I keep wearing it around the house while making creepy noises. However, we compromised - I'll only wear it during the ceremony, and not with the veil over my face. Hopefully that will prevent Sak's face from contorting in pure horror as I lurch down the aisle to steal his soul.

Are you wearing a veil? How does your SO feel about the froofy tulle?

The Past Unveiled

I never planned on being a veiled bride. Only a hair flower or two is what I thought, and I was content.

Until I was presented with this:

That's right - my very own vintage veil pattern from 1951. And not just any pattern, but the one used by my grandmother many years ago for her own wedding.


Who could say no to that? I sure can't. Especially since she told me she can't make it to the wedding (due to my bedridden grandfather). I want her to feel like part of this wedding as possible!

Just like that, it looks like I'll be sporting a veil on our wedding day. There are several different variations included in the pattern, so I don't have to make an exact replica. I don't know how much we'll deviate just yet, but as I doubt I can pull off the Anastasia-esque headgear on the Vogue sketch, I'm sure we'll be working in some modifications.

And my grandmother actually has her veil (and dress), so I'll be able to see a visual example as I go along. Unfortunately, her veil is a bit fragile and worn at this point - otherwise I wouldn't bother "re-inventing the wheel".

I think it looked quite nice on her, so I'm hoping it'll work out for me as well!

Have you had the chance to use anything from the weddings of previous generations? Maybe a dress, a tradition, or simply old pictures?