Books & Manuscripts

Choosing Vintage Wedding Jewellery

“Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”

Every bride has to have something that fulfils this wedding custom and many choose vintage wedding jewellery for their “something old”.

Ideally this would be an old family heirloom from the bride’s mother or grandmother’s jewellery box, but this isn’t always available so buying some vintage wedding jewellery becomes an option.

Whether it is a necklace or pendant, bracelet, earrings, brooch or charm, the choice of jewellery always needs to take into account the wedding dress and the outfit as a whole.

The majority of brides go for something bright, shiny or sparkling such as pearls or diamante as this is the perfect choice for the traditional white wedding gown.

Silver, platinum or pearl go best with white wedding dresses, while gold works well with diamond white gowns or ivory dresses – but don’t mix and match!

Consider pearl earrings and a necklace or diamante earrings with a similar sparkling bracelet if you are wearing white.

One note on the choice of a necklace – always consider the neckline of the wedding dress. A V-neck will suit a drop or pendant necklace, while a round neckline would be complimented by a choker more.

A more modern wedding in which the bride is not wearing the traditional white dress would be complimented by a brightly coloured enamel brooch perhaps.

For those wanting something even less traditional a Gothic-style piece of Victorian antique jewellery would work.

Whether small or large, simple or extravagant, the right jewellery will compliment a bride’s wedding outfit perfectly.

The options available with vintage jewellery are virtually endless and it’s not just the bride that can benefit from wearing it – the bridesmaids, Maid of Honour and even the bride’s mother would all look fantastic in carefully chosen pieces.

Nor should wedding jewellery just fulfil the “something old” – there is some beautiful vintage wedding jewellery that can cover the “something blue” too, especially if the bride’s dress or even the bridesmaids’ outfits feature some blue in them.

A couple of words of warning however:

1) Don’t go overboard – you don’t want to look gaudy and you don’t need a lot of jewellery to look elegant. Keep it simple and understated.

2) When it comes to rings, only wear your engagement ring. You don’t want to take away from it or the wedding band you will wear.

Incidentally, if you’re curious where the wedding custom of “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” comes from, it likely dates back to the Victorian era, as the full phrase ends with “and a silver sixpence in her shoe” – and the sixpence was minted in England from 1551 to 1967.

The “something blue”, however, has been connected to weddings for centuries. In ancient Rome brides wore blue to symbolise love, fidelity and modesty.

The last bit about the sixpence may date back to the Scottish custom of the groom putting a silver coin under his foot for good luck and now symbolises wealth and financial security for the bride!

Antique, Old Collectibles, Vintage Decorator Items Sale : Old Vintage Collection

Tags: old vintage books, old vintage cameras, old vintage cars, old vintage names, old vintage signs

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 at 1:27 am and is filed under Books & Manuscripts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.