My Wedding Veil

I decided to create my own wedding veil for the wedding - mainly because $75 to $400 to me seemed absolutely ridiculous and was something I absolutely was not going to pay, and because I did not see any veils (regardless of price) that I liked in the wedding stores.

My veil and dress.  

I found my inspiration on Pinterest, and decided to create something similar.

I really fell in love with the lace look on this veil.
My veil is quite different, but was definitely inspired by this one.
Photo belongs to sibodesigns on Etsy.

So here's a story about how I guestimated how to make my wedding veil that I love and cherish and will continue to love and cherish forever.

I started out looking for tulle, lace and trim in different stores.  I talked to the fabric saleslady at Hobby Lobby and bought some tulle, but it was much more coarse than I wanted it once I got home and tried it out.

I didn't know much about tulle then, and figured it was mostly the same - but I assure you there is a world of difference between tulle's.  If you want your veil to have a wirey, full look - the coarse stuff is for you.  But if you want it to fall gently, then you definitely want a softer fabric.  Here is a great post on tulle types.

I ended up trying JoAnn's and they had a much larger selection between types of tulle and I found the softest one I could possibly find and bought a few yards.  I'd tell you the brand, but it was on an unmarked roll, so I'm not really sure.  Somehow I guess the cashier figured out the brand, because it was more expensive than most tulle, but they luckily had a 40% off coupon in their weekly ad that made the total price under $5.

The next step was finding the lace and trim.  I'm really NOT a fan of the veils without any trim at all, and I was wanting something to weigh it down to give the veil the soft, sleek look I was going for.

I found a beaded trim at Hancock Fabrics that I liked and that was 40% off.  I actually found the lace I used at Walmart in their fabric section.

Me working on my veil!  I liked wearing the tulle while I worked on it.  :)

My first step was to recreate the applique'd lace part that was inspired by the veil I found on Etsy.  First I tried just cutting a strip down the lace and placing that under the tulle, but it just wasn't working out.  Then I decided to cut a strip of the pattern in the lace out, which took a ton of time but turned out lovely.

Once I had my lace strips, I sat them in the middle of my fabric and attached the points to the tulle by tying knots at each tip and valley in the pattern of the lace.  Then my mom came to help me decide how to attach it to my hair, which took all day with no decisions.  We tried various ways using bobby pins and clips with no luck.  At that point I was attempting a Juliet Cap style, which would have required me to gather the veil at two points to create the "cap."  I gave up for the time, and later decided I would put a headband in to hold the veil in my hair.

The next step was shaping the tulle.  I brought the veil once again to my mom, put on my wedding dress, and made decisions about how far the veil should fall in regard to my dress.  We finally decided that the back should fall knee length, and the front would fall about hip length.

My mom marked the locations for the length, we spread the veil out on the floor and I cut the tulle horizontally to where I wanted it at the longest lengths.  I put the veil back on, then figured out where it looked weird at the corners, then used a rubber band to tie the fabric in the general location that it needed fabric removed.  I cut the fabric with it gathered at a lower point so I could see the general shape I needed without having to cut more fabric than I wanted to make things even.  So we basically softened the corners on both sides, making the entire piece of fabric nearly an oval shape.

Then I glued my head band in, and tried it on to make sure things looked right.

The last step was sewing the trim on!  I didn't think this would be a big deal, but it turned out to take a lot of time.  The beads were very small, and to make sure it didn't gather weird I ended up sewing one loop around each bead.  After an hour and a half, I think I got maybe 8 inches sewn on.  My mother-in-law was down that weekend for Tyler's graduation and offered to finish the beading the week before the wedding.  At first I thought it wouldn't be a big deal to do it myself, but as she makes quilts all the time and is really skilled in that area I let her take it off my hands.  It turns out she spent 16 hours between Saturday and Tuesday before the wedding sewing the rest of the trim.  If it took her 16 hours, I don't even want to know how long it would have taken me - so thankful she could help!  She even went ahead and trimmed the fabric that was holding the trim together for me so that the beading would be all that was noticeable!

The beading on my wedding veil.
This took my Mother-in-Law 16 hours to sew on.  THANK YOU!

The veil was perfect with the beads, lace and headband...only that when I practiced flipping it from front to back, the added weight from the beading made it fall off.  I bought a clear hair comb and hot glued it (did I ever mention I am in love my hot glue gun?) to the head band and it worked fine.

Veil from the back.

The veil before being flipped back.

The veil after being flipped back.

And if you wonder if having a veil is worth it, then check out this shot...

A big thanks to our photographers Anna and Sam from Birds and Coffee Design!  This photo captures exactly what I loved about my veil, and so happy that I know it was made by me and those who love us!

Photo credit for all photos that are not otherwise stated go to Birds and Coffee Design.  We highly recommend them!