My wedding cloche: The lucky last-minute find

Although I knew I wanted to wear a veil for the ceremony, since early in the planning stage I had been interested in wearing a 1920s-style cloche hat for the reception. I had even had a eBay seller make me a 1920s-style had. Although the hat was very cute, I was thrilled when we found a honest-to-goodness 1920s cloche at the last minute... and it matched.

My mom found the cloche quite literally the day before the wedding, at a flea market right around the corner from the bed and breakfast we were staying at. It was an astonishingly perfect match for the dress. I wore the cloche for some of the pictures taken before the ceremony, and then again for the reception. I got tons of compliments on it, too!

Enough said -- the pictures will do the rest of the talking:

My 1920s headpiece and reproduction veil

Quite a while back, I blogged about the headpiece I'd found for my veil: a 1920s (or thereabouts) wax flower wreath. During the decision-making process of what I wanted the actual veil to look like, I also posted links with lots of information about 1920s veil styles.

Although I had my veil (a modern reproduction) made a couple of months before the wedding, I didn't get a chance to sew it on to the headpiece until the last couple of nights before the wedding. Unfortunately, that meant that I also held off posting about the veil, for lack of good pictures.

The good news is now that the wedding has passed, I have some really great pictures to show you of the veil!

Maria, the woman who made my veil for me, was absolutely fantastic. We exchanged many emails and swatches before she started anything, so the finished veil was exactly what I wanted and needed to go with my dress. To get the soft look of a vintage veil, she used chiffon Georgette instead of tulle. (I really liked this idea because the scallops on the hem of my 1920s wedding dress are made of silk chiffon, too!) She sent me several color swatches, and I chose a color called flax, which was just a shade lighter than my gown (if that).

When Maria sent me several swatches of the typical bridal veil lace, I didn't like how wide and stiff most of it was, so she found me several types of narrow, softer lace. The lace that I eventually chose was a simple eyelet style of lace, very narrow (maybe half an inch wide) and flexible. Maria dyed it to match the flax chiffon Georgette, and the color matches perfectly.

In this picture, you can see how beautifully the light shines through the chiffon Georgette. I can't imagine any other veil being more beautiful or more appropriate:



Taking the advice of several sites about creating retro veils, I had Maria make the veil fairly rectangular in shape, with the corners just slightly rounded. The width was fairly narrow, and the length was approximately fingertip length. The result was a simple, sleek veil that complemented the 1920s style of the dress quite nicely, without drawing attention away from it.

This picture shows the length and the cut of the veil, as well as how it looks with the wreath:



I was so impressed with Maria's work that I would recommend her to anyone who needs a veil, whether their wedding theme is retro or modern -- but her vintage-inspired work is particularly stunning. She has done some vintage veil restorations, too, which is worth noting. You can see Maria's veil portfolio here, or contact her via Southern Artistic Veils, her seller's account on eBay.

Post-wedding catch up

The closer we got to the wedding, the more we were doing in preparation for it, and the less time I had to blog about any of it. So, unfortunately, now that the wedding is over I have lots of things to catch up on. I need to write about our music, my veil, the real cloche hat I found at the last minute, hairstyles, and more! I will add posts over the next week or so, finishing up with posts about how the actual wedding and honeymoon went.

Stay tuned!