Of ribbon veils and pony falls
Fashion Advice
By
on June 12, 2007
7 Responses
Hi Ariel! I absolutely love your hair in your wedding photos. The ribbons are fabulous! While I wouldn't do the exact same thing, I would love something with the ribbons or something like it. I don't even know where to begin looking for either someone to do my hair for me or how I might possible do it myself. Do you have any suggestions? — Alicia
Hey, Alicia — it's super easy to do your hair yourself if you go for a ribbon veil/pony falls like I did.
I had two pairs of falls, which were essentially just big elastic hair-ties with organza ribbon, yarn, and strips of fabric tied on to them. Seriously, that's all they were. They're super easy to make: get some big thick hair ties and buy some nice ribbon, and just tie the ribbon onto the ties. Tada! As for how to attach them, that's a bit more complicated — but not much.
For my falls, one set was shorter (18 inches or so) and one was longer (close to 30 inches, maybe?). Here's how I attached em:
- I put my hair into two high buns.
- I secured the longer falls by putting the rubber band around the base of the buns, letting the ribbons hang down my back
- I secured the short falls onto my buns the same way, and then wrapped the falls around my buns to make big huge buns.
- I did a little bit of criss-crossing and tying to make sure things were secure.
These pages give more specific attaching instructions — they're about dread falls, but they're essentially the same thing as ribbon falls. If you play around and practice at home, you'll figure out how to do it pretty quickly — I think it took about 15 minutes for me to affix my ribbon falls for my wedding. If you want, you can read the Kvetch thread where I figured the whole thing out over here.
If you're looking for inspiration, here's a few links:
• Our archive of ribbon veil posts!
• Yarn falls
• Feather falls
• Make your own dread falls
• How to make yarn falls (essentially the same process as ribbon falls)
Oh and PS: To get the full story on my wedding outfit, be sure to buy the book!
About Ariel Meadow Stallings
Author of Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides, Ariel acts as the publisher of all the Offbeat Empire websites. She lives, loves, and dorks out hard in Seattle, WA.
Alicia said
Thanks again Ariel! This site is exactly what I needed and your advice for us indie-brides is GREAT!
elly r-ice said
this is for alicia:
my falls were of two types, tie-ins and ponytail holders.
my hair was a little complicated, and the work doesn't really show in the photos. also, you don't need to do what i did
i had four dutch braids in my hair, and due to some lovely last minute stuff, had two pairs of falls. i just tied or twisted each fall onto the end of a braid.
normally i would have done two buns and wrapped the falls around, making sure to twist the fall in such a way so the yarn and ribbons fell from the top of the bun, hiding it.
if you want photos, ariel did an entry back near the beginning/middle of may that links to all the photos (i'm the one with the peacock eye feathers in the back, it's a very cool photo), or just go to flickr and search for lyracole
Alicia said
Those were really cool elly. The links Ariel gave and your photos too are giving me all kinds of ideas now. Plus I feel like I can do it myself now too!
I'm hoping when I get home today the mail man will have dropped off my copy of Offbeat Bride where (I should have known) I'm sure Ariel goes into more detail about it!
But thank you both for the info! Love all the pictures!
Kelly Mahoney said
I love this alternative to a traditional headpiece — I'm not a blushing bride, so who needs it?
elly r-ice said
for kelly:
it's weird, but falls of all types show up all over the place, not just in weird weddings 
actually a lot of people do the falls at other times…bellydancers are the big group that come to mind right away. also, there are cyberfalls, which of course cybergoths wear
Candy K said
I've been wanting to do a ribbon veil for a long time now, but I've yet to see anyone do the sort of ribbon veil I'm planning on doing! teehee! yay!
My hair is very curly, so I'm planning a curly updo with ribbons weaving and curling in and out of my hair and being a bit more sparse than most of the ribbon veils I see. I want my shoulders and the back of my dress to be seen more, so I'll probably do sheer ribbons and very, very thin ribbons.