Lace wedding veils are made for brides who don’t wish for anything too fancy but feel like a plain veil won’t be enough to bring out their beauty in a wedding dress. These veils straddle the fine line between simplicity and ornateness, enough to captivate eyes but just enough not to steal the show from the wedding dresses. For many brides, a lace veil becomes a powerful fashion statement, merging classic wedding fashion with modern sophistication.
As for how popular a lace wedding veil is among today’s brides, exact numbers are hard to come by. We know that the majority of brides (or a little over half, depending on whom you ask) still opt to don a veil in general, whether or not they also opt to shroud their faces in it. And this is the case amid the persisting trend of not wearing one at all.
That said, lace veils make up a large portion of Madame Tulle’s inventory, and it wouldn’t be the case if demand for these wedding veil styles weren’t high. This might not be a convincing argument for some but don’t take it from us. Take it from lace’s centuries of propagating elegance.
As Mysterious As It’s Beautiful
Unlike the wedding dress and veil, the origin of lacemaking is highly disputed. Despite the presence of anecdotes dating back to late medieval Europe, historians argued that laces may have been the product of techniques that have existed centuries prior. It also doesn’t help that not many laces from the period have survived, as they were extremely delicate.
What historians can say for certain is that lacemaking spread like wildfire due to Venice’s trade network. No matter where the lace came from, if it were in the Venetian market, it would go places. By the age of industrialisation, many other places had established their own lacemaking doctrine and industry.
CORALIE I - One Tier Lace Mantilla
Here’s where it gets eerie. One of lace’s major customers is the Catholic Church, which employs liturgical or ecclesiastical lace for everything from surplices to – you guessed it – bridal veils. It was also one of the major sources of lace, handmade by women in convents.
One source explains that this kind of lace finds its basis in Ephesians chapter five, which cites the criteria for a healthy husband-wife relationship. While it points out the Church’s matrimony with the heavens, it’s easy to think that it can also be taken literally.
It’s safe to say that the Church’s historic use of lace helped cement the material’s place in its ceremonies, including weddings. Combined with a long and well-documented history of wedding veils, lace veils may as well be rooted in tradition. Pious brides can find them as significant to their devotion as they’re elegant.
Hard to Beat Handmade
Before industrialisation, lacemaking was done by hand. Similar to other luxuries, such as natural pearls, lace was reserved for the wealthy due to the high price they commanded and the time it took to make a full lace ensemble.
DELIA I - One Tier Lace Edge Mantilla Veil
According to Original Use & Space, it took 18th-century lacemakers around 168 hours or one week to create a patch of lace. Creating enough patches for an article of clothing, let alone a wedding veil, can take years, even for experienced hands.
The advent of bobbinet machines and other lacemaking tools drastically reduced the time required, resulting in more affordable lacework. A way to distinguish hand-made lace from machine-made ones is by checking its backside. The latter has a cleaner finish, whereas the former can appear inconsistent all over the place.
There’s no denying the convenience machines have brought to lacemaking, but as far as lace veils go, there’s no better way to make the lace than by hand. For starters, bridal veil designers aren’t mainly in the business of achieving volume. Sure, more customers are always welcome, but they have an obligation to fulfil each customer’s unique preferences.
More importantly, in an era of increasing automation, hand-crafted goods are a breath of fresh air and the perfect accessory for your big day. Imagine two brides wearing the exact same lace veil, made affordable thanks to machine processes. You can draw inspiration from other veil designs, but replicating them down to the tiniest detail might not feel like your wedding’s made for you.
Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that hand-made lace still takes a really long time. But with a big market for lace appliques and more efficient means of creating tailor-made ones, making a lace wedding veil is a matter of weeks (two to eight weeks, in our case).
An Option for Celebrities
Speaking of inspiration, weddings of the rich and famous are a major source for plenty of modern brides. While their weddings may not necessarily be as grand, the sensation of wearing wedding dresses or bridal accessories inspired by a celebrity bride is enough to make them feel unique. Even better, many famous personalities have worn lace wedding veils on their wedding day.
But if we had to pick only one, it’s hard not to talk about Grace Kelly’s lace wedding veil when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. You can even say that her bridal fashion choices here inspired the church wedding attire of other celebrities later, including Kate Middleton’s.
Kelly’s lace veil, designed along with her wedding gown by award-winning costume designer Helen Rose, featured a pair of lovebird-pattern lace appliques along the edges. This came at a time when the world had more or less recovered from the effects of World War II, allowing couples to enjoy grandiose celebrations.
Wrapping Up
At this point, we probably don’t need to show the numbers to prove how popular lace veils are. They’re as much an option to celebrities as to the common folk, and the fact that some lace is still made by hand makes these wedding veil styles more attractive. This is proof that the right wedding veil need not be too simple or overly ornate. The right lace veil serves as the perfect finishing touch to your overall bridal look, offering a delicate balance between tradition and elegance.
