Behind The Veils | The Making of My Wedding Accessories

Updated: Jan 3

I have a confession to make…when it came to making my own veil for my wedding last December, I felt like the pressure was well and truly on. I can’t tell you how many people ‘couldn’t wait to see the veil’ since we got engaged, and I had a strong sense that it needed to be impactful. I suppose this feeling, paired with a desire to make something totally new that I’d never done before, gave me a bit of decision paralysis! What if I started making my veil and then somehow, inexplicably, an order came through for the exact same design?

It’s fair to say my maids of honour were getting nervous when I sent them rough sketches just 8 weeks before my wedding day, and didn’t start the making until 2 weeks out. With my brides my veil lead times are long (18 weeks is normal) so that I have plenty of time to perfect the design for them, which sometimes comes to me in a flash pretty quickly and sometimes develops over a few weeks in doodles before I’m happy to pursue the details. I clearly needed a bit of time pressure when it came to my own. Oh, and did I mention I’d decided on having two veils? Let’s be honest; if the luxury embroidered veil designer can’t be extra with her own wedding veils, who can?

I’m actually going to tell the story backwards as I found my short ‘second look’ veil the easiest to design. I had previously worked with the incredibly talented Jen of Jackdaw Editorial on a bespoke poem for Jeremy and I, which we had decided was so good we used it as a reading at our wedding. Because of this I was confident Jeremy loved the poem as much as I did, and so I used the poem and embroidered the words onto my veil! My Poetry In Motion collaboration with Jen is one of my favourite veil projects to date, so it seemed fitting to use the opportunity for myself.

I picked out my favourite lines from the poem and created a brand new font (now called Signature) so that it was totally unlike anything I’d created for anyone else. The script was stitched around the entire edge of a two tier design, which created the most lovely patterned effect. I loved the fact you could hardly tell it was wording until you looked closely; a subtle surprise!

The first veil which I would wear for the ceremony was a little harder to design, as I wanted it to be unique and have a ‘wow’ factor. It ended up being 3 metres wide and 3.5 metres long, made from my scattered pearl tulle with large hand drawn embroidered organza roses; oh, the drama! The Pearl veil had been really popular with my brides all year (and still is, with good reason!) and the texture felt right for a winter wedding. I felt the pearls gave hints to snowdrops or morning frost, which did grace us with its twinkling presence on our wedding morning. In order to make my own pearl veil unique, I decided to merge two of my favourite designs and add bespoke pattern work. At that point, nobody had ordered a pattern pearl piece yet (it’s coming through now and I’m so here for it!) so I paired the textured tulle with bold organza roses. I designed the artwork myself to emulate the white roses featured in our wedding, and hid secret words ‘Bird & Mole adventure’ (our nicknames for each other!) in the line work of a leaf. For the final touch, I subtly stitched my new surname by my left hand fingertip - The Mrs being a firm favourite with my brides, I too got the photo opportunity of my married name with my wedding rings.

By the time I had finished I had two bespoke embroidered veils that felt so completely tailored to me, and told our love story so perfectly. It’s the same feeling I want to give all my brides and so it was really special to experience it for myself. Making my own bridal accessories was more challenging than I could ever have anticipated, but it’s been such a treat to relive the journey for you in this blog. To begin your own custom veil journey (whether that’s for one beautiful accessory or two!), fill in my contact form; things are about to get really special.