One of the many special memories I will always have about my daughter’s Las Vegas wedding is her beautiful vintage wedding veil. I often travel to South Carolina as we have a family home in the mountains there. A favorite past time is to shop in antique stores. One day in 2007 as I shopped with my Aunt Shirley we discovered a treasure trove of antique wedding dresses and one beautiful veil. The veil was on an upper shelve not with a wedding gown. I looked at it from a distance and thought to myself, if Laura was engaged I would want to buy that for her.  Laura was in college at the time and not even closed to being engaged.  We continued on with our shopping and my only other thought was when Laura comes up for Thanksgiving (6 months later) I will have to show her the veil.

Bride Laura Covington (Photograph by Ella Gagiano)

Thanksgiving comes and we are again back in the mountains. I have not even mentioned the bridal veil to Laura but we are heading into the same antique store.  Laura walks into the clothing section looks up (it’s still there!) and says “mom, look at that veil”.   She takes it down and it is even more beautiful than we imagined. Ivory with a cute bridal cap adorned with alen’con lace. Chapel length with more lace medallions trimming the edge of the veil and what excited us most was that it was a Priscilla of Boston veil probably from the 70’s.

Now, Laura is still not engaged, in fact she has just started dating the young man that she does end up marrying in 2011. But I say, “you know, if you like it, we can always save it until you get married and if you don’t want to use it, oh well, no big deal. Go find out how much they want for it.”  We are really in the South, so you have to start imagining a southern accent as we speak. Laura asks the cashier “how much for  the veil?” We had already determined we would pay as much as $50 because it was easily a $200 or more veil.  The cashier said she would have to call the owner as it was here on consignment. When she had no luck reaching the owner, she said  “Well, honey, can you give me $10.00 fer it?”  Laura, runs over to me and says “momma, can we afford $10 for this here veil?’  (remember southern drawl is what we have all reverted to.)

Beautiful Vintage Wedding Veil Photo by Candace Ann Photography

I rummage through my purse  and said “sure, honey, here’s your $10 to pay for the veil, it’s worth it cause it is real purty!”

I thought I was getting off really cheap with the veil, but three years later when Laura and Charles got engaged, she chose a Priscilla of Boston wedding gown to match her veil, and needless to say it was not $10.  But the story and memories are priceless and will be handed down for many generations.

Close up of Vintage Priscilla of Boston Veil

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