Wedding Blog

When I read about the CastleBride Couture Weekly Contest on Justine’s The Unbride blog, I immediately hopped over to check out Kirstin Fox’s birdcage veil selection. I found them to be absolutely, positively, incredible! Shortly thereafter, I put in my entry for the contest as I had fallen deeply and madly in love with the Keira Veil shown below.

The Keira Veil by CastleBride Couture.

Of course, when I submitted my entry I thought I had NO chance EVER in winning when I saw that I had to answer the question, “Tell us why YOU should be our weekly contest winner?” For I had no sob story of how my dog chewed my veil, how it was lost in a natural disaster or how I couldn’t afford a veil at all - and this must be what they are looking for. I could afford one, just not a couture veil. With tongue in cheek I penned a very silly entry, fully expecting to never hear from them again.

BOY was I wrong! Apparently, Kirstin loves a good laugh. I had forgotten what I had said in my entry - but when Kirstin called to tell me that I had WON, she asked, “Do you really have an Aunt Judy?” I laughed, finally remembering what I had said - which was something to the effect of:

“To afford the veil of my dreams (the Kiera Veil) I would need to rearrange my budget - which would most likely include nixing Aunt Judy from the guest list. So please, for my Dear Aunt Judy’s sake, pick me!”

Therefore, my response to Kirstin was a very giggly, “Oh yes! I have an Aunt Judy! But I have to say, I really love my Aunt Judy, so she would never be nixed from my guest list!” Surprisingly, Kirsten also has a beloved Aunt Judy and agreed - Aunt Judy must not be nixed. Then we continued to discuss plans for my discounted veil - which turns out, will not be the Keira veil. Honestly, I didn’t think I would win, so I didn’t exactly pick an economical choice, $100 discount or not!

So I sent Kirstin the below Idea Board for a completely custom veil and fascinator that she is making for me using some of the lambskin from my dress. I am SO excited because Kirstin has fabulous style and I just knew she’d make my ideas into something incredible.

This idea board was not created with the intent of blogging about it - so I can’t credit all of the direct links. Most are from CastleBride Couture, BirdcageVeils.com, and Etsy.com.

The following weekend I received a really fun email from Kirstin. She wanted to give me a quick update as to the status of my custom made veil - and had a question for me. She gave me three different brooch options for the fascinator for the veil and asked me to choose which one I liked the best.

The small brooch.
The medium brooch.


The large brooch.

As you can see, she created the flower petals from the metallic lambskin that will be used in my dress. Then she added a wreath of guinea feathers to surround it in the signature black and white wedding colors. Finally she pulled it all together with a sparkling rhinestone brooch in the center.

After emailing back and forth regarding the veil design. I decided that the largest brooch was the most fabulous, but also not quite right! The shape was off and I felt that the detailing of the metal was a little gaudy for the entire package. I asked Kirstin for a more “circular” large option.

The birdcage veil shown with a large pearl brooch.

A closeup of the pearl brooch.

This was my first view of the veil itself. I loved the angle of the netting, but for some reason, it still didn’t feel 100% right. The pearls seemed to clash with the color of the petals and I guess I hadn’t realized just how huge the fascinator would be. Not that this is a bad thing - but perhaps an understated brooch would work best in this situation.

Kirstin came up with a fantastic idea - she used the medium sized brooch from the first set of photos and added another layer of petals using the metallic lambskin. The extra layer of petals added depth and kept everything from laying flat - it was a good balance of sparkle and texture. I think it turned out perfect!

The final fascinator design - two rows of lambskin petals with a medium rhinestone brooch.

What do you think?