The Bridal Shoppe

This is a veil for an afternoon or less formal wedding scenario. The bandeaux is made of alpaca! This form was made by one of the "sisters", Ruth Fuqua, of Tennessee. She is the R&D lady for Southern Sisters.

I brought the bandeaux to the studio and added Belgian lace, Russian netting and this treasure was created. We call it Afternoon Elegance.

(the mannequin has peacock feather eyes in the orbs, sort of like false eyelashes. you will see this over again and the use of the feather is coming up)

Veils lend mystique to your ensemble. Men love hats and veils on ladies. Veils have been around ever since there was a reason to cover the head. The history of the veil is in the next posts. In June of this year when my daughter was getting married, I was the appointed one to seek out the veil for her wedding ensemble. Should have known right then that this was not a high priority item since I got the duty. I was safe to do that for the bride, not too much damage could come from a few contacts by the mother of bride. And, I was of course keeping with my promise not to interfere ,

I looked in a gazillion web sites, some bridal magazines and of course, the Martha Stewart team, my ultimate source.

In one particular Atlanta boutique bridal shoppe, I saw 7 veils, all stark white and one ivory. Not anything fancy or memorable for such an event, just kinda plain and in your face there. I took it right then and there from the pricing that this was one of the more affordable parts of the bridal attire.

The one thing that really stood out was how impersonal they were.

I thought right then and there, someone needs to personalize this; I knew how to solve that and took on that challenge as you will find out in the next posts.

I mentioned to the sales clerk that her job was probably really a joyous one and such a pleasure to be around planning of an orchestrated ceremony, touching such beautiful fabrics, handling sparkly beading, polishing crystals and seeing how creative designers can fashion for all types of body silhouettes.

"Not so", she said. "Melt-downs happen daily".

I cringed. Why and who?

Turns out that the bride will love something only to be shot down by the well meaning, or jealous, bridal attendants. Not to mention an insensitive mother of the bride when asked to come look at what she found. Now, do not get me wrong, a girl should have what she wants but sometimes ideas may be unsuitable when we all know that strapless is not for all types of body frames or fabric is more like a nightgown than a bridal gown; someone needs to be honest with the bride.

But as my Daddy always told me, "it is not what you say but the way that you say it".

Tact, and diplomacy should be the stronger suits for this type of moment.