EMBROIDERED VEILS

Embroidered veils have long been the ultimate symbol of wealth, status and personal expression. Of all the styles of veils, embroidered are by far the most labour intensive. Over the centuries, royals - most notably Grace Kelly & Meghan Markle - and wealthy individuals have worn embroidered veils as a deeply personal way to create a unique, sentimental and heirloom piece. In South Asian cultures richly embroidered veils - known as dupattas - have played a significant ceremonial role in the wedding ceremony for thousands of years.

Unlike lace, although there’s a wide range, embroidered veils offer limitless possibilities, so brides often choose this style to get the perfect match for their dress, with a couture piece tailored to their vision.

A traditional simple dress or one with minimal detailing. The key thing is to ensure there is balance between the veil and the dress in the amount and style of embroidery. Embroidered veils are most suited to delicate dresses because heavy lace clashes with the nature of the thread work.

There are four main styles of embroidery and which is chosen depends on the desired look, budget and scale of a design.

Hand Embroidery

As the name suggests this is done by hand, individually manipulating each thread with a wide variety of stitches to create texture and depth. This is the most time consuming style of embroidery and can take up to 8 hours per 10 square centimetres.

Tambour Embroidery

This style of embroidery uses a very small hook on what looks like a pencil to create elaborate chain stitches. It’s most useful when applying beading so is more commonly used in dress making. Without the beading, this style of embroidery can be used to create embroidery onto wedding veils.

Free Hand Machine Embroidery

As the name suggests this type of embroidery is created by using a sewing machine. The embroiderer will carefully guide a frame with the tulle on their machine, effectively drawing with the thread. It takes immense patience, practice and skill to control the speed of the machine and coordinate the frame to carefully follow shapes which have been drawn onto interfacing which will later be dissolved.

Machine Embroidery

Although this style is the fastest to complete, machine embroidery creates an equally stunning finished veil. The designer will hand draw motifs, which are then digitised - stitch by stitch - and then embroidered, to create the perfect density and spread of threads. Many different looks can be created with this style of embroidery and it works particularly well incorporating chiffon to create texture and depth in the design. Whilst much quicker than hand embroidery, it can still take hundreds of hours to create intricate designs.

Within our Bespoke process, any style of embroidered veil can be created. This could be a 7 metre long Royal Cathedral veil with edged detailing, a design with trailing motifs or delicate hand embroidery. Within the design, multiple styles and types of flowers can be combined to create the perfect aesthetic to balance with your dress.

Yes! The key thing with an embroidered veil and blusher is to ensure it balances with your dress. If you have a heavily detailed dress, the embroidery can either avoid the blusher completely or be delicate to ensure the detailing doesn’t compete. As every veil - whether it’s Bespoke or from our Collection - is cut to order, it can be created with or without a blusher.

If there isn’t a design within the Collection that perfectly matches your dress and vision, the best option is to go for a Bespoke veil. With a Bespoke veil each individual motif is designed and sampled to your exact vision to create the overall look and balance for your veil.

Our embroidered veils are designed and handcrafted at our studio in Oxfordshire, UK.

Our Bespoke embroidered veils start from £2,500 / $3,250, while our Collection embroidered veils range from £345 to 2,880 / $450 to $3,750. You can either order Collection pieces directly from the website, or get in touch to discuss Semi-Bespoke customisations.

If you’d like to try embroidered veils on in person, you can do so either at our studio in Oxfordshire or at The Wedding Club showrooms in London and Birmingham.

Studio appointments are held by Sophie in her thatched cottage based in Bloxham, Oxfordshire.

The Wedding Club appointments, which are held in Knightsbridge, London and Harvey Nichols, Birmingham, can be booked by calling the TWC team on +44 12 1440 8276 or emailing info@thewedding-club.co.uk.