Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue – as the old adage goes. On our wedding day, it is often easy enough to find that ‘old’ thing to wear, by incorporating antique jewellery into our wedding attire. Or perhaps it is something ‘borrowed’? Either way, we’ll be wearing a piece of vintage jewellery and looking for a way to match the rest of our wedding outfit.
Whether it’s a family heirloom on loan, handed down to us, or something we’ve bought from Kalmar Antiques in Sydney, Australia, any piece of antique jewellery worn on your wedding day will simply look stunning. But it does need to be done right, and we’re providing our tips on how best to combine antique jewellery with your wedding outfit.
- Choose the Dress First
Don’t focus on the jewellery too much to begin with. The most important thing you’ll be wearing on your wedding day is the dress, so choose this first and then incorporate your accessories into it.
Once you have chosen the dress and know what you’ll look like wearing it, it will be easier to match makeup and jewellery to it. You should allow the dress material, colour, and neckline to provide the basis for adding antique jewellery.
- Go With a Style that Matches the Period of Your Jewellery
You could always try to create a fusion style, but otherwise one way of ensuring that your antique jewellery stands out is to make your look match the period from which your jewellery came from. If you’re aware of the period that your jewellery comes from, but are not aware of the fashion of the time, then here is a brief guide:
- Rococo: Hoop skirts and big hair
- Victorian: Corsets were all the rage, a preference for pearls
- Edwardian: Very modest female fashion, high-neck dresses, and a lot of lace
- 1920’s: The “flapper look”, Art Deco geometric jewellery
- 1930’s: Nipped waist and finger-curled hair
- 1940’s: Echoes of the austere war period, puffed shoulders and gloves
- 1950’s: Think of Marilyn Monroe – Shin length pencil dresses
- 1960’s: Chic modernist and futurist cuts, experimental jewellery
- 1970’s: The age of hippies, glower power, maxi dresses, and empire waistlines
- 1980’s: Hairspray, hooped earrings, bold lipstick colours
The 1990s and 2000s are considered retro, but not ‘vintage’ yet!
One thing to remember is to not mix the periods too much. So, for example, high-necked dresses from the Edwardian period won’t mix well with jewellery from the 1960s, but you could add some Victorian pearls to your look, as it was closer in time and would’ve still fitted in with the era.
- Selecting Your Antique Jewellery
Once you’ve chosen your dress and the period that you are going for, you can then go ahead and choose your matching jewellery. Or, you might be doing it the other way round. This means that you have your antique jewellery in hand, and will need to select your dress and era based on the jewellery.
If you are in the market for antique wedding jewellery and you have something in mind, then you can contact a reputable jeweller and talk to an expert. There are jewellery shops that have a wide range of vintage jewellery from many eras, and they will be able to advise you on certain styles that would match your wedding outfit.
Whether you already have your dress yet or not, take a look at the range of their antique jewellery to see if anything looks especially suitable.
