Chicago Wedding and Bridal Blog

This is the veil I ordered for my wedding from David's Bridal, I am very happy with it.

Choosing my wedding veil and how to wear my hair on my wedding day shouldn’t have been that difficult but it was. I wanted a simple short veil and a simple up-do hair style with a flowered hair clip on the side since I saw it in a Chicago Bride magazine and it looked simple and elegant. The veil I wanted was a two tier somewhat full veil in white on a comb. The hair clips and combs I saw that I liked had small rhinestones decorating floral patterns that went in the hair next to the bun or twist of hair. I also like the white flowers and feathers on clips, but I thought it might not match my dress as well as the rhinestones did. They always say that a bride should have something in her hair to look like a bride. Plus it is your day to shine so if you want a big sparkly tiara you can wear that and be a princess for the day. 

What I did not know was that buying a wedding veil either costs a lot of money or takes a lot of time. I started looking at veils when I was trying on wedding gowns at the bridal stores in Chicagoland but I wasn’t really taking them seriously. The sales ladies love to put long cathedral length veils on you with the dresses because they are more dramatic and cost a lot more money than the short elbow and fingertip length veils. I knew that a cathedral length veil with embriodery or lace could cost $500 or more, way beyond my budget.

Many traditional style wedding dresses look amazing with a long cathedral length veil with a lace edge or embroidery and beading on them. If you can afford to spend more money on your veil it will look amazing and beautiful, but I just couldn’t afford that. The other problem is that having lace or beading on the edge of a cathedral length veil can be tricky because the beads and lace tend to catch on the carpet and could pull the veil right off your head. I have seen it happen. Test out the cathedral length long veil you want while walking before you order it.

I started by going to haircomesthebride.com because it was recommended in a Chicagoland Bride Magazine I had. They had a cute hair comb in the magazine so I went online and thought the decorative flowered comb and veil seemed reasonable and ordered them. The veil was supposed to be just past shoulder length and the comb was rhinestones and white flowers. Well I found out the hard way that this site doesn’t take returns and I got stuck with a $55 veil that was way too short and did not really cover my face (maybe that is why it is the site “special”) and a $95 comb with flowers that stretched way further over my head than looked appropriate.

This retro vintage style Birdcage Veil is also really popular right now although you can't really flip it back in the ceremony and you pretty much have to take it off for the reception. It's just good for pictures only.

HairComesTheBride.com agreed to take the rhinestone hair clip back but not the veil (lying that the veils are all custom made and can’t be resold) and I would have had to pay for shipping. I looked back at their site and thought maybe I missed the measurements or something, and yet there were none. I would have never been able to figure out that these were the wrong size for me because the pictures are misleading and there are no measurements and of course you can’t try things on over the internet. So, that was $166 down the drain. I may list these items on ebay because they have never been worn and then at least I will get some of the money back.

Next I got an email from David’s Bridal (yes the same ones that have been spamming me and calling all the time) with a clearance sale for wedding and bridal accessories. Hmmm….They said you could not order online when they last called to try and make me book another appointment.

I found a scalloped edge veil on sale for $50. It was a longer fingertip-elbow length veil rather than a shoulder length veil and there were a few small flowers embroidered at the scallop points. I just got this in the mail last week and my mom was ecstatic when she saw it, so this one is a keeper. (although it needs a light ironing after being in a shipping box) I liked it too because it was long enough for the top tier layer of the veil to be flipped forward for the church ceremony. The veil was $145 originally but getting it on sale at $50 was even better.

This is an example of a plain long cathedral length veil. And a very fluffy dress.

Come to think of it, I may keep the comb I ordered and see if there is any way to bend or modify the flower prongs to make it smaller so it doesn’t take over my entire head. Or maybe I will find something smaller. I was in Fox Valley Mall the other day and there were smaller versions of all the same bridal rhinestone and flowered hair combs and clips that haircomesthebride.com had, on one of those center of the mall cart kiosks with some very nice Asian ladies selling them. They were $30-$50. I think I may go back and get a smaller one too and which ever one I don’t use may go on Ebay later. It is interesting what you find in places you never expect.

There are also some local options for ordering Veils in Chicago. Priscilla of Boston and David’s Bridal can order veils and sometimes they have veils in stock you can buy right there. House of Brides is all kinds of disaster so just avoid them. There was a place in Fox Valley Mall called Total Wedding that had some veils to try on in the back of the store too (and dresses between $500 and $1300) but they would have to be ordered.

Many people also look into making their own veils since there is so little sewing involved. My friend Amy made her own long veil with the veil chiffaun type netting from a fabric store. She just cut it to length, sewed it in gathered pleats to the veil comb and edged the ends with ribbon and ironed it. It saved here about the same amount of money as I did on the clearance veil. Making your own veil is always an option too if you have a wedding where you want your colors other than white included on the veil. Embellishing a plain store bought veil yourself with colored beads is always an option too if you enjoy sewing. A simple 5 bead circle with a bead in the middle looks like a flower and can be sewn pretty easily.

Whatever veil you choose, look around at a variety of places before you buy and always try it on or check the return policy before ordering.