On today's blog we will look at the different ways a veil can be decoratively edged, and how to pick the style that best completes your bridal look.

Here are a few things to consider when deciding the edge you want for your veil:

how elaborate your gown is - do you want your veil to be almost invisible, allowing your gown to shine? Or to add just a little extra sparkle to your ensemble? Or do you want your veil to dress up an understated or non-embellished gown?

the decorative details on your dress -  is your dress or belt decorated with crystals, beads, sequins, rhinestones, embroidery, lace? You might consider having your veil mirror these details.

the color of your dress - if your dress is accented with a silver or gold embroidery (or both), you might want to have a veil with the same colored embroidery and detailing.

your jewelry and headpiece - you'll want to consider how elaborate your jewelry and headpiece will be as well as if you want your veil to have the same elements they have.

the overall effect of your ensemble - you can have too much going on. Your veil should be a complement to your wedding gown - you don't want the different elements of your ensemble to be competing for attention. 

So what are the options for edging?

cut edge - no edging. This allows the veil to be almost invisible so the gown will shine through.

embroidery pencil edge. This edge will delicately define the edge of the veil. It can be the color of the tulle or a contrasting metallic silver, gold or rose gold.

corded edge. Also called rattail edge or satin corded edge. This edge provides a little more definition to the veil's edge.

ribbon edge. Ribbon edges are available in different widths to add more or less dimension.

rhinestone edge. This trim will add extra sparkle while defining the edge of the veil.

beaded edge. From bugle beads to sequins, rhinestones, pearls and crystals, a beaded edge will add sparkle and a bit of drama to your veil.

embroidery edge. This edge can be simple or elaborate and is usually either the veil color, silver or gold.

lace edge. This edge can coordinate with the lace on the wedding gown or can add an element of lace if there is none on the gown.

So - lots of choices, right? 

Our most popular options are beaded edge veils and lace veils.

We have made separate categories for them so you can find them easier:

The next Choosing Your Veil blog will be all about color.

Need help choosing the best veil for your wedding? Just contact us and we'll be happy to help. If you have a picture of your gown, send that along as well!

updated November, 2023.

Our popular Crystal and Pearl Vine floral headband will add a touch of romance to your bridal ensemble.

Crystal and Pearl Vine Headband

Our 2" Tall Rhinestone Tiara will add grandeur to your big day.

Silver Plated Rhinestone Wedding Tiara

Our sparkling hair clip FC5283 will provide lots of bling to your ensemble.

Rhinestone Sprig Bridal Hair Clip

Our Vintage Look Wedding Tiara by Mariell will add an extra touch of elegance to your special day!

Crystal Vintage Look Wedding Tiara

Our pearl and crystal hair comb will add an elegant touch to your bridal look.

Pearl and Crystal Floral Wedding Hair Comb

Here's hoping you find your perfect headpiece today. Need help choosing the best headpiece for your bridal look? Just contact us - we love to help!

Are you looking for more ways to save money on your wedding? Visit our Budget Wedding Ideas Pinterest board! It is overflowing with great money saving ideas for brides!

We have some elegant alternatives for you.

Birdcage Veils

Birdcage veils are made of French or Russian netting or bridal tulle and come in a variety of styles and colors. They can be worn with or without a decorative comb or pin.

This popular option, 7805CV,  combines our 15" long birdcage veil with a fabulous fascinator!

Crystals decorate the edge of this Vintage Look birdcage veil, style V123.

Floral Headband with Veil

A decidedly feminine veil alternative is the pearl accented floral headband with attached veil. This style, hp9661, is a must-have for windy backyard weddings and beach weddings.

Wedding Hats

A high fashion hat can be a beautiful veil alternative as well. 

Birdcage veil and hat combinations like our 3333H hat add glamorous vintage charm to your bridal look.

Do you need help choosing the best headpiece for your bridal ensemble? We would love to help! Just contact us and we'll be happy to work with you to find the best options,

"Which veil color will match my dress?" - this is the question we're asked several times a day at Affordable Elegance Bridal. And it's a good question. You usually want the color of your veil to be very close to the color of the gown. If not - the veil - or the gown - could look a bit dingy. Many brides email us a picture of their gown for color reference, but computer monitors are notoriously inaccurate at depicting color. AND there are no standard colors in bridal wear. So here's a little help...

We offer free color swatches for many of our veils. Just contact us with your full name and address, the color of your dress and which veil you are wanting. We'll mail you several swatches for you to compare their colors to your gown.

The most popular veil colors are white, diamond white and ivory.

White: If your gown is a stark white, your answer is clear - "white" in our veils will mean stark white. You will want to ask the bridal shop for the color of your dress. If the designer calls it white, you can also compare your dress to a piece of white computer paper to see if it is a stark white. Please note that very few bridal gowns are available in stark white. Most are a shade of off-white or light ivory.

Diamond White: If your gown color is "Off White," "Silk White," "Bridal White, " "Winter White," or "Diamond White" then a diamond white veil may be your best option. Diamond white in a veil is between white and ivory and is usually just a shade off white. If your gown's color is "Ivory" but it looks white in person, then diamond white is usually your best option. 

I experienced this first hand when accessorizing the gown for my daughter, Lauren. Here's her gown and veil:

Lauren's gown color is ivory, but looks white in person. (We actually thought it was white the whole time she was trying it on!) We had to put a piece of white paper against it to see that it wasn't stark white. We chose a diamond white veil from JL Johnson Bridals and it matched perfectly!

Ivory: If your gown color is Ivory and the gown looks ivory to you, then an ivory veil is probably your best option. Ivory wedding gowns have been made lighter and lighter over the past few years, so our ivory veil color has become lighter as well. Our ivory shade is a light ivory that matches most ivory gowns that look ivory.

Specialty Colors

Want a little more color in your veil? You're in luck! At Affordable Elegance Bridal you can find specialty color veils  with blush, moscato, butterscotch, champagne, black, oyster, pink, and rum pink tulle! 

Like this V4903 style veil in shades of pink:

Want a specialty color tulle sample? Just contact us and we'll mail one to you!

You can also find many specialty color veils with trims and beading in gold, rose gold, blush and rum pink - like this unique custom made veil style v6447 with rose gold embroidery and rose crystal beading.

Or add a pop of pink to your bridal look with style E1385 - a gorgeous multi color veil by Elena Designs.

I hope this blog has helped you choose the veil of your dreams. We are always available to answer your questions - just contact us and we'll be happy to help!

updated November, 2023

Nothing transforms a beautiful gown into a romantic bridal ensemble quite like a wedding veil! Most often you "feel like a bride" only when that beautiful veil is placed on your head. 

But how do you choose the best veil for your wedding day?

First of all, consider the length...

Thanks to JL Johnson Bridals for this veil length chart. It illustrates the most popular veil lengths and gives their approximate measurements. Beyond the cathedral length shown, Royal Cathedral length is usually 120" long and Regal Cathedral length 144" long or longer.

When choosing the length of your veil, you'll want to consider:

how formal the ceremony will be - there used to be all kind of "rules' to follow in wedding planning - such as how formal the ceremony should be for different times of the day - and the length of the veil for different ceremony types - but now it really is the preference of the bride. From birdcage veils to cathedral length veils, the choice is up to you and the feel you want your ceremony to have. To add a touch of drama and romance, you might wear an extravagantly decorated cathedral length veil like our 4684V style.

indoor or outdoor ceremony - again, the choice is yours but you might want to consider the ease of wearing a veil at your outside venue. Will it be windy? Will a long veil be hard to manage or to keep out of your face? If so, you don't have to sacrifice elegance in choosing a birdcage veil such as 7805CV!

the details of the back of your dress - you want to be sure the veil you choose allows everyone to see the details of the back of your dress. You want the veil to fall above or well below the detailing on your gown so the veil doesn't cover the beautiful features of your gown and doesn't compete with them for attention. This picture of a knee length veil by Ansonia Bridal  illustrates this well - the veil falls well below the empire details of this gown and adds to instead of hiding it's decoration.

your height - the designations of elbow length or fingertip length are relative to your height. If you are quite petite or taller than average, you might want to have someone measure the length from where you will wear the comb in your hair to where you want the veil to end. For example, for a very petite bride, an elbow length veil just might reach her fingertips.

where you will wear the comb - the length of veil you want will also be affected by where you want to wear the comb - at the top or back of your head. The veil will fall to a different place at your back if you wear it at the top like this:

or at the very back:  

or somewhere in between. Again, you might have someone measure for you the length from where you are wearing the comb to where you want the veil to fall at your back.

do you want a blusher? a top layer to your veil can serve as a blusher for your walk down the aisle. This tier is usually about 30" long or longer in order to completely cover your face. Many of our two layer veils are circular cut, fold-over styles like this JL Johnson Bridals Style V5332 in which the top layer can be your blusher if you choose to wear it that way.

Or if you choose a one layer veil instead, you can often add a blusher layer either on the same comb, a different comb or on a velcro strip to be placed on top of the comb.

I hope these tips have helped you in making your veil decision! If you need assistance in finding the best veil for your wedding day, please contact us and we'll be happy to help. Many brides choose to email us a picture of their gown so we can assist them in choosing a veil - we love helping in this way! Just email pictures to affordableelegancebridal@yahoo.com.

In our next blog, we'll give some tips for choosing the color, edging and decoration of the veil...

updated November, 2023.

by Lauren Crawford 

from Affordable Elegance Bridal      

February 13, 2014

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the official blog of Affordable Elegance Bridal - your online bridal boutique!

Here at Affordable Elegance, we are about all things WEDDING. We desire to help brides make their wedding dreams a reality, all while staying within their budget. (That's always the goal, right?) 

As a newlywed who got married right out of college - literally, a week after I graduated, having a budget is definitely a concept I am well acquainted with. I am here to tell you that if you are a bride with a budget, you do not have to sacrifice class, personal style, or that WOW factor. There are ways, ladies! Especially if you decide to purchase your jewelry and accessories from Affordable Elegance :)

On this blog I will be sharing things from my personal wedding planning journey and covering topics from flowers and bridesmaids to honeymoon and marriage tips, as well as current wedding trends. My hope for this blog is to inspire and serve as a relevant and honest resource for all of you beautiful brides-to-be! Your wedding CAN be Pinterest-worthy, and we want to help make that happen!     

Speaking of Pinterest, take a moment to check out our Pinterest boards!

Stay tuned for my next post, Looking Back: 3 Things I am SO Glad I Did On My Wedding Day

It also takes me back to everything that was happening at this time last year. On April 1, 2013 I was about 5 weeks away from graduating college and 6 weeks away from being a married woman - two HUGE milestones. It would be a complete understatement if I told you I was overwhelmed. I wanted life to speed up and slow down at the same time. I wanted to remain a happily engaged college student living in an apartment with 3 of her best friends, but also just be married already and begin my new life with my future husband.

Regardless of how fast or slow I wanted time to go, everything happened anyway. I graduated college, and I got married the next week. Was it crazy? Absolutely. But it was awesome, and everything fell into place by the grace of God. We would not have had it any other way. I encourage all brides to embrace the current season they are in. Whether your wedding is 10 months or 2 weeks away, take a moment to enjoy it. Fight the urge to long for the future or dwell on the past. You have better things to do with your time and energy!

So, on to the actual wedding day. The whole day is still a blur, and it is difficult to pinpoint moments and remember instances that particularly stick out. But there are things that I had planned to do on that day, and was SO thankful that I had once the day was over.

1. A First Look/Pictures Before the Ceremony

Okay, I know that this is already a pretty popular thing and that most brides don't need any convincing. But y'all, I was so against this for the longest time. We were NOT doing a first look. However, as months passed and we were in the process of planning the actual timeline of events for that day, I began to realize something: My husband and I would have NO time together until the car ride to our hotel after the reception! None. Wasn't this day about us? I wanted to be with my husband! Although brides usually do the first look for the sweet pictures that result, I just knew I couldn't go until 4:00 without seeing my man - on our WEDDING day. Besides the fact that our first look pictures turned out to be some of the absolute best from the entire day, it had so many other benefits. It truly helped calm my nerves and I was reminded of how much I loved him the instant he turned around and saw me. This made me even more excited for the ceremony to begin and gave me that sense of assurance and peace in the midst of a crazy day! I highly recommend the first look, especially if you are having a late afternoon or evening wedding. You can still make that walk down the aisle so special! We did our first look at 1:00 and proceeded to take pictures of us and our wedding party (also a plus of doing a first look - no posed pictures after the ceremony!) We finished our pictures by 3:00 and had an hour before the ceremony when we parted ways and didn't see each other. We didn't kiss in any of our pictures, because we wanted to save that for the ceremony. I also wore a blusher veil when I came down the aisle, but I didn't have it on for our first look, so that gave me a totally different look when the doors opened and my husband saw me walking towards him in the ceremony....

Part II will be posted soon where I will share more things from my wedding day! Stay tuned, y'all!

Hey everyone! 

Well, it's officially Spring - aka Wedding Season! I don't know about you all, but I am going to a wedding EVERY weekend in May and June! For you brides planning a Spring wedding who tend to run last-minute - like myself - you know it is crunch time! But don't forget to have fun planning those last details that will make your wedding personal and special. 

As promised, here is another part of my wedding day (that was almost a year ago!! what??) that I am excited to share with you all! This one is a MUST- have. 

The second thing I am so glad I included in my wedding is:

2. A Fun, Dramatic Exit

Again, I know this is something most brides are already including as a part of their day. I just want to reiterate how awesome it can! Yes, I realize that pictures of the bride and groom exiting as they are surrounded by all of their guests holding sparklers is very popular on any wedding board on Pinterest, especially for those planning weddings during warmer seasons. However, I am STILL having friends tell me how much fun they had "sending us off" and how they had never been to a wedding that did that! It is such a great way to keep all of your guests involved in your day all the way until the very end of the reception! Think it's overdone or cheesy? Here's how I made mine personal! 

• I "revealed" a shorter going away dress.  There was NO way I was riding in my husband's 2-door Mustang for 2 hours in my poofy gown. My mom was able to take my wedding dress home and keep it in a safe place instead of it being stuffed in our trunk while we were in Cancun for a week. Plus, a simpler dress made it easier to run through the gauntlet of sparklers!
• We picked a fun "send-off" song. My husband is a HUGE Dave Matthews Band fan, and "Stay" is one of our favorite songs. Pick something that will give you that extra boost of energy as well as something that is meaningful to the both of you! 
• We had sparklers that lasted for several minutes, and the guests had fun playing with them and taking pictures with them even after we had driven away!
• My photographer knew I wanted a picture of us leaving among the sparklers, so she arranged with my husband (without me knowing) for him to surprise me and do a big "dip kiss" in the middle of it! He is a good man :)

Not into sparklers? Then don't use them! Pick whatever fits you - balloons, bubbles, lanterns, rice, or even a romantic carriage ride exit! You also don't have to run too fast. Stop and give some people a hug before you ride off into the sunset!

...More to come!!

The life of a working newlywed is busy, to say the least. It's been over a year since I married my man, and it sometimes feels like we are still getting used to things - like being married. The twists, turns, challenges, new jobs, lost jobs, and stack of bills to be paid always seems never-ending. But would I have it any other way? Nope. Hence, inconsistent blog posts are one of the results of this season. So thanks for being patient!

In this process of reflecting on my Spring wedding, it has been a temptation to make mental lists of things I wish I did differently. So, I will continue to focus on the positive. In the last post for this blog series, I will share another aspect of my wedding that I loved. 

3. My color scheme/flowers   

The inspiration for my wedding colors came from this Pinterest image:                                                                                                                           

Coral is one of my absolute favorite colors, and royal blue is my husband's favorite. So this was the obvious combo! However, I learned along the planning journey that there was NO way to get everything in these EXACT shades. After some times of dealing with this devastation (yes, I was being really dramatic about it), I decided that I guessed it was okay to have everything in their relative color families. This would include baby blue, pink and peach. We had lots of neutrals as well, so the bolder shades would be a great "pop" of color. Did everything match in the end? Not necessarily. But we went with it! We confidently displayed numerous shades of blue-ish and coral-ish things and used our flowers to tie everything together. I didn't end up with cobalt heels like I had planned, and the bridesmaid dresses look more of a berry pink in our pictures than coral, but who cares? Here are some more pictures of our Spring wedding:

Oh and the lanterns? They are from Affordable Elegance of course! They doubled as aisle decor for the ceremony as well as centerpieces at the reception. You've got to love a good lantern!

Well, enough about my wedding. Here's to the beginning of Fall Wedding Season!

If you're anything like me and my husband, your refrigerator is covered in invitations and save the date magnets. As overwhelming as it can be, I have to remember how special that time was for us. We are coming up on almost two years of marriage next month! After our wedding, my husband was a groomsman in three weddings that Summer, and three more the following Summer. Yes, it began to feel redundant and we did a lot of driving and gift-purchasing, but it was such a joyous and sweet time! Also, there is free food! Who doesn't love free food??

This Summer it is my turn to be a bridesmaid! I am not ashamed to say that I have always wanted to be a bridesmaid in someone's wedding, but I was blessed with the opportunity to be a bride first. I have the privilege of being Matron of Honor in my best friend's wedding this July, and a bridesmaid in another close, sweet friend's wedding in early September. Let me tell you that these weddings could not be more different! One of them starts at 5:00 in the evening, and for the other I will be getting up at 5:00 in the morning. But I could NOT be more excited to be a part of both of them. I will be keeping you all posted on the planning processes. They will, of course, both be adorning gorgeous veils and jewelry from Affordable Elegance! 

We are in the process of adding a "Real Weddings" page to our website! We are so excited to add this feature and show off our beautiful customers on their big day! Email any pictures you would like to see featured on our page to Lauren@affordableelegancebridal.com. They can be of anything you purchased from Affordable Elegance, from you and your bridesmaids in our jewelry, to favors, or your cake topper! We can't wait to see your "Real Wedding" pictures!

Are you excited for wedding season?