The last few days, I’ve been looking for the perfect veil to go with my dress. When I called Pronovias, they said they had the veil for the 2008 Nerveo on their database but they couldnt find it in the store. They offered another alternative which almost matched the lace of my dress. I asked them if Pronovias had any mantaill (lace) veils that were shorter than the cathedral length but they said Pronovias does not produce them any shorter. At £350, I wasnt exactly rushing to buy it. So my cousin and I went hunting for tulle netting and the lace to make our own veil. The first store we visited in Soho called the Silk Society had gorgeous tulle (one more stiff and the other more flowing) for £30/meter. Another store, Kleins, a haberdashery, was closed that day. When we visited today, the store was closed yet again.

These are the veils of other brides which inspired my choice of a mantilla veil and one longer than the fingertip length but not as long as the cathedral length.

So whilst wandering in Soho, we came across another store called Silk. There were piles and piles of absolutely wonderful materials and a downstairs section which had fake fur and more furnishing materials. There was even a Navy Burberry raincoat material at £25, a steal for their coats which are about £700. Anyways, back to our wedding veil shopping…

So we found some veil tulle and it was a total bargain at £8 a meter. Then my cousin burst my bubble and told me that it was only £8 compared to the £30 in the other store because this one was made of the synthetic material and the other one was made from far better material. I dont really care too much because I’ll be wearing the veil for about an hour. I’ve realised what a blessing it is to have such an expert help because these are things non designers would just not notice or even think about. So we bought 1.5 meters of the tulle just to be on the safe side even though the material was about 3 meters wide (considered wide by industry standards, my cousin explained)

The lace materials in the store were all very wide, around a meter wide. I need to find lace trimmings otherwise all the lace in the middle would be wasted. The lace at that store was about £80, a lot cheaper than the £250/meter at the Silk Society. I compared the lace with photos of the lace on my dress that I had taken on my phone so that we were sure to match it as close as we could. When I couldnt find the lace I wanted, I decided to go online on Klein’s website. And hurray I found something that I could possibly buy. My cousin suggests I buy about 5 meters to go around the entire veil material. So after this bank holiday monday, Im going to go back to the Kleins store and see if the lace matches against the photo on my phone or else order it online.

I still need to buy a comb so that the veil sticks on it. I think I might look on ebay because I could probably get it from China?

If any other bride is also looking for veils, here are some that I think could look beautiful