It seems in the flurry of posts about iPads and travel plans I somehow lost my way with the ‘wedding posts’. So I’ll do some catch up posts now.
When I ordered the dress, I ordered a veil through a girl in Texas who makes them and was a lot cheaper than buying from a store. When it arrived, I was so happy with it as it was pretty and matched my dress perfectly – with a lovely satin ribbon around the edges. Then a thought entered my head about how wonderful it would be to be able to wear mum’s veil.
Mum’s dress had been made by Mrs Wake (Bethany’s grandmother) and she also made the veil. The handstiching is beautiful with cotton hooks for the veil to be pinned on. Mrs Wake also made my debutante dress so it was lovely to have some tradition being passed on.
When I made the surprise trip home for Christmas in December 2009, I asked mum about her veil. We went down to the garage and found it – scrunched up in a ball, with her dress in an old garbage bag. We took the veil out and while everything was intact it was terribly discoloured, the cap had yellowed and there were rust spots on the fabric and it was so crinkled – it really did look beyond repair.
I didn’t want to even consider the cost that we would have to pay to get it it restored. So I decided to search the web. For older veils they all recommended going to a professional cleaner. Except for Martha Stewart. Her suggestion was great.
We filled the bathtub with warm water and poured in some Napisan and laid a white towel in the bottom of the tub. We then laid the crumpled, yellowed veil on the towel, then a laid another white towel on top of the veil to weigh it down and let it clean evenly. We submerged the veil sandwich and let it soak for about an hour. When we went back to inspect it, we couldn’t believe it. The veil was absolutely pristine. It was beautiful and white and the creases were gone. We were jumping up and down with excitement! To dry it, we got some more white towels to lay it on and shaped the cap of the veil so it wouldn’t dry out of shape and then let the veil fall naturally while it dried in the shade.
Of course, it got so creased flying it home but we sent it to the cleaners to be steamed right before the wedding. On the day, it was just perfect.
To know I was wearing what mum wore and a veil that had been lovingly handmade was one of the things I loved most. Not only that, we managed to take something from the 70s and somehow it managed to perfectly match the style of my dress and how I wanted to look. I also really loved knowing that I looked different than 99% of brides where the veils all look the same – the cap and veil look suited me perfectly!
Here is mum –
Here is the veil from the back –
And this photo really shows off the veil –
