While at Chavi and Evan’s wedding this weekend, I earned the nickname McGyver primarily for solving the challenge of affixing a cocktail hat (like this, but white ) and veil to the bride’s hair. What was hard about it is Chavis hair is short and the hat had a comb inside of it to affix to her hair. She said she’s tried to use it a few times, but it just slid off.
The other challenge was her birdcage veil. She needed it off for photos, on for the wedding, then off again. It wasn’t attached to the hat, but both really needed to stay on. We decided on bobby pins, no suprise. Two rounds of bobby pins. I suggested we first pin the hat to her head and then pin the veil to the hat.
Eh? Eh?
Then I slept on it and went to CVS in the morning in search of pipe cleaner (or a crafty substitute). My thought was still 90% bobby pins, but if I threaded the veil over a pipe cleaner (instead of the thin thread already threaded through it), that it would be easy to wrap around the hat. So I stood in front of the hair section trying to decide what to do.
Things I bought.
1. Teasing comb 2. Aquanet 3. A thin wire headband dotted with rhinestones and pearls 4. Curly bow for a gift bag 5. itty bitty rubber bands
It was the itty bitty rubber bands, the type you use at the end of cornrows or on doll pony tails, that saved the day. Chavi’s hair was too short for the comb to stick to, but the come would stick in itty bitty pony tails held by itty bitty rubber bands. So Daphna and I made two itty bitty pony tails on the top of Chavi’s head, sprayed the life out of it with Aquanet, then stuck the hat/comb right into them. Perfect. We secured it with two bobby pins, but I think it would have been fine without.
For the veil, I harvested a foot of curly ribbon from the gift bag bow and threaded it through the top of the veil. Then we simply wrapped it around and just under the hat, tied it in the back and clipped the ribbon short. No extra bobby pins needed.
At the end of the day, I checked in with Chavi and the hat hadn’t budged an inch. She danced and was spun in circles, little girls played with the hat, veil was put on and taken off and the cocktail hat stayed put.
Mazel tov to the happy couple! Someday I’ll tell you about how I fixed the bustle.
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