Wedding How to: Make Your Own Inexpensive Bridal Veils

Bridal Veils come in many lengths and styles making the options virtually limitless. Sadly, the prices are just as limitless. Even in the discount bridal shops like David’s Bridal you will pay a pretty penny for your wedding veil. Add several tiers, beading, satin edging, a tiara, flowers, or any embellishments and you could spend a fortune. This article will show you have to make wedding veils cheap in just a few simple steps.

Are you looking for something a little different or offbeat? Perhaps a blue veil or a wedding veil with embroidered butterflies and set with rhinestones? Maybe you are trying to match a new veil to a vintage wedding dress. Anything off of the normal materials such as bridal illusion or English netting are going to cost a premium and most likely have to be made to order.

Cheap wedding veils are often simple, plain, short, and not very attractive. Never mind trying to find an inexpensive wedding veil to match your particular taste or style. Often looking cheap, you could wind up looking like you have a cloud of netting on your head with no real style involved. The general idea is to save money but not look like you saved money making wedding veils cheap.

Make Your Own Wedding Veil

It is easier than you might guess and you are only limited by your imagination. Here I will give you the steps needed to make a wedding veil for a fraction of the cost you would spend in a bridal boutique.

1. First, a few decisions have to be made. What length would you like, a short veil, coming only to the shoulders, or perhaps a cathedral length with a fingertip length tier? Maybe you are looking for an elbow length with a blusher. The length you choose will depend in part on personal, religious or traditional beliefs and desires. Length will also be determined by the style of gown you have chosen to wear.
2. Next you need to decide on a material. The most commonly used material is bridal illusion which you can purchase at any fabric store. Less commonly used and a little harder to find are English netting and silk tulle. However, this is your design and you can use other materials as you like. Just keep in mind how the fabric drapes and the weight. If the fabric is too stiff it will not hang correctly and if it is too heavy it will pull on your head and could fall off. Also, if you intend to use a blusher veil, which is the veil that covers your face during the ceremony, keep in mind the sheerness of the fabric. It just wouldn’t do if you could not see.
3. Then you must decide on how you would like to attach the veil. Bridal combs are great for this, as well as tiaras. If you would like a detachable veil, there is always the option of using white Velcro fasteners to attach the veil to your comb or tiara for easy removal during the reception.
4. Finally you are ready to decide on embellishments such as beads, rhinestones embroidery, pearls, and sequins, whatever you desire. There are many different patterns and idea cards at your local fabric store. Here, you are only limited by the bounderies of your own imagination and creativity.

Here is a quick and easy way to make a wedding veil without a pattern. This is how I made a wedding veil for my own wedding. My dress had an antique white chiffon overlay and I chose to use chiffon for my veil. Note: chiffon tends to be little too heavy to be used for a cathedral or chapel length veil if you have more than one tier. Keeping the hairstyle you plan on wearing to the ceremony in mind is also important. When you take your measurements, it is a good idea to have your hair done in the style you will be wearing on your wedding day.

1. First, measure from the crown of your head to the length you wish the veil to be. In my case I measured to just a few inches above the floor. Repeat this step for any additional layers you wish to have. I had a second layer at fingertip length and a third layer for at blusher length. You will then cut these pieces such that the selvedge edges of the material are running down the sides and the raw edges are at the top and bottom.
2. Then you round off the corners of the bottom of each tier. I didn’t fuss too much about it, just laid the material out flat and cut the bottom edge into a rounded shape. You have the option of hemming around each tier, which can be tricky with some of the silkeir materials. I chose to add a trim of satin ribbon around the entire edge of each. A very quick and simple solution was to use fabric glue to attach the satin right along the edge. If you wish to have a nice “lettuce edge” finish as I had on mine, simply pull the fabric taught as you are gluing the satin on. This causes the fabric to stretch slightly and it gently ruffles the edge a bit. If you would rather have a nice flat edge, do not pull the fabric at all, just smooth it flat and glue the edging on.
3. Lastly you will take the three tiers and sew them together along the top edge, paying close attention to keeping your satin edging facing out. Now just attach the top sewn edge to a comb with Velcro fasteners. I finished mine off by gluing white flowers over the Velcro to hide it. Another option is to sew or glue rhinestones or beads to the exposed velcrow area or attach a small rouched piece of the veil material.

Now you are ready to wear your veil as it is or you can add seed pearls or rhinestones sprinkled throughout, or many other embellishments to suit your taste and dress style. All it takes is a hot glue gun and your imagination.

My particular veil only cost me $30 in materials, took a few hours of my time, and matched my dress beautifully.