Mantilla?

15 comments

• This is in Boston. The Mantilla the person is wearing is beautiful but I can’t say much for the dress. Maybe your bride to be will find what she is looking for here. There are long ones and shorter ones. If she gets one that doesn’t go past her waist, she could use it for Mass on Sundays. Getting a Mantilla is a great idea because she can use it after the wedding also.  People spend lots of money on wedding clothes and never wear them again.

  Priscilla of Boston
  http://www.priscillaofboston.com/accessories_pob.jsp

• Priscilla of Boston is probably the best way to go. Just be ready for sticker shock! :^) There is also this online retailer, Louise Verschueren:
  http://www.belgian-lace.com/laceshop/enter.html
  The company is Belgian and makes beautiful, old-fashioned Belgian lace items. A friend has one of their small mantillas and it is really nice. The big veils are real heirloom items and not very expensive at all, as those things go. I forget how soon your big day is, but they can probably work it all out and ship within a couple of days.

  As well, if you poked around a couple of stores in the North Side (if there *are* still old-fashioned stores left in the North Side) and asked around where Italian brides get wedding clothes – though I suppose they wear “American” wedding clothes. (?)

  Then there are probably some Spanish websites, as well, but I didn’t have the best luck looking a couple of years ago, and I speak Spanish – but things keep evolving on the web.

  I would have ordered a Verschueren veil, myself, except that my sister and I made a mantilla-style veil for her wedding 7 yrs ago, which I wore as well for my wedding last year.

  I’ll send you all an email that shows this veil, which is basically two pieces of lace-edged embroidered Swiss net joined together, attached to a floral crown. I wore it with a very plain linen dress that I had made for $200 and I have no regrets (except for some ribbons my sister put on the headdress, but she was trying to evoke a “Polish” feel, in honor of my husband’s heritage).

• Oh for heaven’s sakes, ladies—stop with the Priscilla stuff.

  Melanie, head on over to Sheehan’s downtown near Arch Street. They sell mantillas and chapel veils.

  Here, call first, but I’ll bet they’ve got ‘em. I know they do since I own one and I got it there. (It’s black, otherwise I’d give it to you.)

  Sheehan’s Church Goods Co Inc
  Phone: 617-426-3921
  22 Chauncy St
  Boston MA 02111-2209

• Hi, Kel:

  Good to know that Sheehan’s carries them. I was wondering actually b/c I go to the TLM occasionally and would like to pick one up.

  Thanks!

• Ladies,

  Thank you for the suggestions of Priscilla’s and Belgian Lace, but I think those veils would cost more than Melanie’s dress and might not arrive in time.

  Kelly’s suggestion of Sheehan’s might be best. She really does just want a nice, longer version of the kind of mantilla you see at Mass.

• Well, there’s mantillas, and then there’s mantillas . . .

  (okay, men, now’s the time to back sloooowly out of the room . . . . ;^)  jus kidding)

• Does that wretched irascible fellow still run Sheehan’s upstairs shop (actually, the whole thing)?  I haven’t shopped there for years. 

  Once on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the store manager screamed at a clerk who dared to ask him about gift-wrapping on behalf of a customer.  I sent the owner, some guy in Florida, a letter, and never heard back.

  How dear mild Edward Holtam, the bookstore manager, put up with him is a mystery.

• A big bridal mantialla might be very hard to find and end up being surprisingly expensive. A good alternative would be to go to a fabric shop and buy a length of white lace. I don’t know about Boston but in Toronto’s garment district there are lots of shops that sell lace fabric and a surprising variety thereof. When I thought I had lost my mantilla, I found that even in the Italian and Portugese shops I could not find one as nice as the one I had lost so I bought 1.5 yds of black lace fabric. It was $30. (found the mantilla though so was miffed.)

• I second hilary’s comment.  The people in the fabric stores should be able to direct you to the right kind of supple lace.  Then, if it doesn’t have finished edges, buy some narrow decorative lace that can be sewn along the edge.  You can make it as long as you want it that way.  Some of the laces in the fabric store here would be wonderful for this purpose.  The real key to making a mantilla is the suppleness of the lace so that it drapes properly.

  I made a mantilla this way and then found out that at the Tridentine Mass here the women have stopped wearing head coverings.

• There’s nothing more beautiful and than the sight of a woman with a mantilla.

  Check out
  [url=http://www.holymarychapelveils.faithweb.com]http://www.holymarychapelveils.faithweb.com[/url]
   

• Thomas, thanks for the link. I have about 7 or 8 veils already but there is always room for more. I would guess a little less than half the woman that attend Mass at our parish wear veils. It is great to have extras just in case someone mentions that they would wear one if they had one. :0) You just go to the car and hand them one.

  “Thereven’t been upstairs in I don’t know when, the upstairs being mostly books. (Nothing against books! <g>)

• Anne’s right. There are the mantillas we’re all familiar with, then there are the more ahh, elegant ones, usually worn with a mantilla comb, that’s worn by Spanish women or a Catholic queen or on one’s wedding day.

  To which is Melanie referring?

• Probably not enough time for this, but … eBay?

• Thanks to all of you for your helpful hints. In the end it was loyal Bettnet reader Patricia Scott, my mom, who put me on the scent for the perfect veil… on eBay. (She had the jump on Chris by just a bit.) I was able to find the perfect veil for the perfect price (With the extra we paid for overnight shipping it still came out to 1/5 of what I saw for a similar veil at David’s Bridal where I got my dress.)

• We got the mantilla veil today and it looks great. You’ll get to see it when I eventually post wedding photos.