DIY: How to Make a Birdcage Veil

It's June and a classically popular month for weddings.  I recently made a DIY birdcage veil for a bride.  She wanted the veil to coordinate with the necklace she purchased from BCBG.  I took cues from the pearls used on the strands and the crystal-studded leaves.

You need:
- short length (about 1/2 yard) of netting.   For this diamond pattern, it is usually called Russian or French netting and can be found in most bridal supply stores or online at places like Etsy.com.
- a pair of metal combs (short ones).
- taffeta, organza or satin (if you have a swatch of it from your dress, that works)
- beads, rhinestones, pearls (your choice)

For the DIY Wedding veil, you need to gather the ends of the netting and take a needle and thread attach it to the top of the comb.  It doesn't have to be precise, just wrap the thread around and around the loops of the netting and the teeth of the comb and secure it by knotting it off.

Now that you have the basic birdcage veil, you can just start embellishing.  I stitched leaf motifs onto silk taffeta to match the bride's dress. Then, I embroidered tiny crystals on them to look like her necklace.

 However, you can create whatever shape you want from your swatch of fabric.  You can make flowers (see some templates here) or abstract shapes.  You can then stitch beads, rhinestones or pearls in the middle to give it some bling:

Once your leaves, flowers or abstract pieces are done, you just need to attach them to the top edge of the comb by either glueing or stitching to the top ridge of your comb. Make sure to cover the gathered part of the netting. Voila! You own DIY birdcage veil. Style for the aisle!

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Mission: Wedding Day

What is it like to invite a TV crew to follow your wedding day?  For me, being a part of a bridal reality show was like corralling your friends and family into a high adrenaline CIA operation.

I started off in the morning with a sound guy having to wire me with a microphone.  Television microphone packs are usually clipped to the sturdy waistband of a pair of pants or skirt.  In designing my own (semi sheer organza) wedding gown, it never occured to me to accomodate bulky electronics in my ensemble.  The techie ended up having to run his thick hairy arm down my cleavage to attach cables to the mic pack strapped like a bomb to my calf.  My one thought was that I hoped that I would get at least more action than this before the end of the night.

Meanwhile, hubby and his team of groom’s men were performing high risk negotiations with my bridesmaid brigade outside.  This was part of a Chinese wedding tradition where the bride’s female friends extort money or make him pay in humiliating tasks for passage to the bride.   To honor my groom’s Scottish heritage, one of the tasks was for them to storm the “castle” in the style of “Braveheart”. 

Unfortunately, the beautifully researched tartan fabric my bridesmaid had sourced for them to wear had been misplaced at the last minute.  Instead, only a fushia plaid one starring teddy bears was available at the local store.  This may not have reproduced the dramatic scene as planned, but still looked great on-camera.  What do you think?

In the last minutes before the final mission, you always get the heart-felt confessions of your loved ones before marching in.  Several of my relatives gave me sincere confessions that they would be the “embarrassing drunk one” at the reception and would apologize now. How noble.

When you look back, it's not about the flowers, your hair or filling the wedding registry...  The moments that bring a smile to your face are the unexpected ones, when things initially go wrong and through love or creativity, find a way to make themselves right. 

The Big Wedding is a hilarious new movie from Lionsgate that brings you lots of those moments. Can you relate? They invite you to share your own wedding story on their Facebook page  Check out the trailer:

An uproarious romantic comedy about the ties that bind, THE BIG

WEDDING centers around Don and Ellie, a long divorced couple being

forced to pretend that they are still happily married at their son’s wedding.

Among all of their family and friends, the hoax snowballs, culminating in a

series of surprising outcomes on the way to "I do."

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Lionsgate via Glam Media.  The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Lionsgate.

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