Weddingbee Blog

I have a little bit of a secret….after my initial disappointment with Veil #1 , I uh, started over from scratch, and just picked up my NEW veil! In my post expressing the desire to go back to the drawing board, Mrs. Ant recommended I check out Sposabella Lace, located in NYC (but I believe they take online orders as well), so I popped on over there during lunch one day. WOW it was breathtaking! If you’ve never been to a lace store, go to one!! It’s considerably smaller than Lace Star (that Miss Snow Pea blogged about the other day) which is directly across the street, but it had a better selection of the type of edging that I was looking for, and more personal attention. Plus Mrs. Ant’s recommendation didn’t hurt.

My original plan (well, Original Plan #2, after I decided to replace Veil #1) was to order from Occansey Designs since I’d heard so many fabulous things about them. I emailed Kathy who was one of the nicest and most helpful (& prompt) vendors I’ve talked to my entire engagement. We discussed options and length and my Greatest Fear - that I would dish out money for a SECOND veil that wouldn’t work with my dress. In the end, she told me I could just go ahead and buy the lace myself and mail it to her, and for a relatively minimal fee she could sew it all together and ship it back to me! Score! So this was the plan when I first trekked out to Sposabella Lace with my poor browbeaten coworker who I’ve taken to dragging everywhere with me, and making carry large boxes down the street (but that’s another story).

We found a zillion magnificent laces (sorry I forgot to take pics!), but it was still difficult to tell if they would go with the tiny tiny tiny swatch of my dress lining which was all I had to hold them up against. We explained the conundrum to an employee who told me there was NO way you could tell with that small an amount of fabric AND just a lining?!?!? We were a bit shocked by her attitude (she told me to “get to it” in a rather forceful voice, with a CLAP) but honestly, she seemed like she knew what she was talking about.

One dress fitting later, we went back with a better sized swatch, and the man I believe was the owner took one half-second glance at the swatch and said “oh, this” and pulled out THE PERFECT edging. Seriously. Gorgeous. We stared at it for a while and had to agree: it was The One. They asked how long I wanted the veil to be and I told them, and what type of veil, and then they started showing me tulle and discussing how the process works. I sort of awkwardly interrupted them to say I was just planning to buy it here and have someone else make it, which they said would be totally fine…but then just out of curiosity I asked how much it would cost if they made it, and what the process would be. Turned out, it was only a small amount more than having Occansey Designs make it (not even counting postage)…but most persuasively: they prepare it all and pin it into place for a veil FITTING! So if you don’t love how it drapes or how long it is or the shape or anything, they redo it for you! Even though I really did want to give Kathy at Occansey Designs my business because she was so great, since the entire reason that I was buying a second veil was because my initial purchase was made without personally examining the veil first, this whole veil fitting idea was too compelling. After about 2 seconds of deliberation, I said yes please, I want YOU to make it!

We discussed exactly how I wanted it, they jotted down their notes, gave me a little swatch, and said they’d call me in about a week for my fitting! (veil fitting! eeee!) They did, and I dragged my coworker back with me again. They took me back into a semi-out-of-the-way nook to try on the veil. And OH MY GOODNESS it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life!!! Random strangers in the store were craning their necks around to see into my nook and exclaiming constantly about how it was the most beautiful veil they’d ever seen!! Even in a t-shirt and jeans, I felt at least as “bridal” in the veil as I do in my dress. It was crazy. I told them everything was 100% perfect, go ahead and sew it on!

About another week later, they called to say it was ready! We went back and I tried it on again, and much to my surprise it was dramatically better than before now that it was actually sewn together!!! Even though that seems kind of obvious, when I tried it on the first time I didn’t feel like you could tell it was pinned instead of sewn, but it just flowed so much better all sewn, and having it attached to the comb helped too.

So, not that it really needs saying after my excessively gushy review…

My Final Grade for Sposabella Lace: A++++++++++

Great customer service, quick and flawless execution, the fitting concept made me feel so much less anxious about the whole process, and the quality of the veil is so much more perfect than I ever could have imagined!!! If I dare say it, it seriously is significantly nicer in every possible way than the $1,600 veil I tried on at Kleinfeld’s - for well over $1,000 less!! So thank you Mrs. Ant for pointing me in such a fantastic direction!