I have to say… one of the most exciting parts of planning my wedding was definitely all the DIY’s I was able to work on. I’ve always loved crafting and DIY’s but never had the motivation to spend any money on materials because they were always just for fun. My wedding, however, gave me the much needed excuse I needed to invest in better quality materials. On top of that, making most of the stuff myself ended up saving me a LOT of money – even though I was buying better quality materials. As such, this post marks the first of many DIY posts to come!
Headpieces can really add a finishing touch to an outfit for
weddings—from hair combs, to birds cage veils, to traditional veils, to
headbands, and floral crown—the possibilities are endless. These accessories
are not exclusively for brides either – they can also be for bridesmaids and
flower girls too! For my wedding, I DIY’d my own veil and also a floral crown
for my flower girl. I didn’t realize how ridiculously easy making either one
would be until I actually started.
Veils:
When I was at David’s bridal, the veils I saw ranged
anywhere from $30 all the way to $200+. It was ridiculous how expensive they
were—and for what?! Essentially a piece of tulle! I was lucky that my mom worked
in the textile industry her whole life so she was familiar with all the
different textile shops in NY. I was also lucky that I lived in NY where tons
of discounted/hole-in-the-wall textile shops were available. The shop I visited
was a really sketchy looking shop and the inside of it was even sketchier
looking. Bits and pieces of cloth, ribbons, zippers, etc. were hung/shoved into
shelves/racks. It was the most disheveled looking store I had ever been to. I
was very skeptical about whether I’d find what I needed, but my mom urged me to
ask the storeowner if they had tulle. The lady thought about it for a few
minutes and then ran and pulled out some tulle that was hiding behind other
piles of cloth. She quoted us $5 for 3 yards of the tulle. I wasn’t quite sold.
The tulle was wrinkled from being shoved behind other piles of cloth. My mom
started inspecting the fabric and realized that there were a few runs and tears
in the middle of the giant piece of tulle (had to have been over 10 yards of
material), so we raised it to the shop owner. After acknowledging that, she
offered us the whole piece of tulle for $5…so we went with it. I didn’t need
the full piece for my veil since I’m on the shorter side, so since we got the
full piece of tulle, there was plenty of room for trial and error and also to
create my veil.
Our next stop was an accessories shop for costume makers. We
needed a haircomb to sew the tulle onto. We probably could’ve gotten these for
cheaper online somewhere, but for convenience, we just bought them on the spot –
I mean, they were just $3.50 for one.
We didn’t need to buy thread/needle separately since they
were already items that I had at home. As such, in total, I spent $8.50 on my
veil…compared to the $30+ they usually retail for in stores!
Materials:
- The look that I was going for was a layered veil, where the bottom layer was a few inches longer than the top. As such, you want to measure out the length of your tulle. Decide how long you want your veil to be starting from wherever you intend for your veil to sit on your head. Once you get that measurement, you’d want to measure out the length of the top layer. I made mine about 3 inches shorter than the bottom layer.
- Once you have both measurements, add them together and cut out your tulle such that the length is that of both the top and bottom layer combined. You want to work with one large piece of tulle instead of 2 separate pieces.
- Once you have the tulle cut, fold the tulle in half with one side being 3 inches shorter than the other side. The side with the crease will be the top.
- Take your hair comb and start scrunching and fitting the tulle on the top side so that your tulle is evenly spread across the hair comb.
- Once you have the tulle allocated across the hair comb, use needle and thread to secure it.
**I actually messed up the first time I made mine and ended up not having enough "good" tulle to make my veil with one continuous piece of fabric, so I had to cut two pieces for the shorter and longer layer in order to make mine...which is why you see the rough ends in the above pic. if you use one continuous piece of fabric per the steps above, yours should look a lot more polished!**
*Important Note* - make sure you are
fitting the tulle to the “right” side of the hair comb such that the side with
the shorter layer of the tulle is on the side of the hair comb where it
concaves in. When you put the veil in your hair, you’ll be sliding the side of
the hair comb where it concaves against your head, so you’ll want the shorter
layer on that side of the hair comb so when it’s in your hair, it’ll become the
“top” layer.
This was how my veil turned out:
Floral Crowns:
Floral crows are still going strong—especially for spring
and summer weddings! They look great for brides and bridesmaids, but they’re
extra adorable on the flower girl! For my wedding, I wanted a floral crown made
entirely of just baby’s breath just because I think a baby’s breath crown looks
super delicate and beautiful, especially for little girls!
Materials:
- Thin wire/floral wire
- Floral tape
- Wire cutter or scissors
- Pliers
- Flower of choice (baby’s breath for me)
- Measure the circumference of the wearer’s head with a piece of wire and add about 1.5 inches to that measurement.
- Cut out a piece of wire that is double the length obtained from step 1. Fold the wire in half so the length is that of what was measured from step 1 and form a ring using the wire, overlapping the ends of the wire by about 1 inch and just close the ring by twisting the wires together. The resulting circumference of the ring should match that of the wearer’s head with an extra half inch. This extra room is needed because once you start added the flowers on, it’ll increase the thickness of the ring so adding a little extra length ensures that the floral crown will fit comfortably after assembling the crown.
- Take the baby’s breath (or flower of choice) and cut them so that they have about 2-3 inch stems sticking out from the flowers. You’ll need about 20-30 bunches of these depending on how full you want the crown to look.
- To attach the flower to the crown, take 1 bunch of baby’s breath and put it against the wire ring and attach it to the ring by wrapping wire against it. I suggest cutting out about a 10 inch piece of wire just to use for wrapping. Wrap the wire against the stem of the flower again 3 times and then attach the flower to the crown, and repeat. By using 10 inch wires, you can attach multiple bunches of flower with just 1 piece of wire, which will make it more secure. Anything longer than 10 inches will make it hard to maneuver when wrapping the wire around the stem.
- Once you’re done, use floral tape to wrap around the end of the wires to prevent the wires from scratching/poking the wearer.
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