Vintage Wedding Jewelry

Wearing vintage wedding jewelry is one of the latest trends in bridal fashion this season (December 2008.)

One of the best sources of vintage wedding jewelry is your family, namely your mother, your grandmothers, aunts, great aunts, and cousins, anyone who might have jewelry from 25 years ago or more. The older, the better right now in the world of bridal fashion.

Diamond earrings and/or a matching necklace are perfect. So are pearl earrings with or without a necklace. Check, first of all, with your mom to see if maybe she has a special piece of wedding jewelry that she wore on her wedding day and that maybe she would like you to wear.

If not, check with both of your grandmothers, if you are blessed to still have them living when you get married. They may just be thrilled that you would want to borrow a piece or two of their jewelry. And it does not have to be "real."

The three pins pictured below were all given to me by my paternal grandmother about 30 years ago. They were hers for many years prior to that. The silver brooch has matching earrings but they are clip-ons and I have pierced ears. Not sure how she could stand it--clip-ons always hurt my ears so I could never stand to wear them for very long!

There is nothing wrong with wearing costume jewelry as long as it looks pretty and goes with the style of your dress and veil or headpiece. I did not wear "real" pearls on my wedding day. I wore faux pearls that I had for a few years. They were pretty and looked fine. They were my favorite earrings at the time.

If no one in your family has some older jewelry for you to borrow, check on E-Bay. People sell things lying around the house all of the time. When people inherit things from their parents and grandparents that they do not want, they sell them on E-Bay.

Check local estate sales as they sometimes have estate sales as well. Sometimes, you can get lucky at a garage sale, but if the pieces have any value, most people will try to sell them for more than what they can get at a garage sale.

Antique shops and pawn shops are also good places to find treasure. I have been in several antique shops that carry beautiful pieces that would be just right for a bride to wear on her wedding day.

When we lived near Brownwood, Texas, we visited several smaller towns nearby and found some great, little antique shops with exquisite pieces that were not very expensive. Of course, they are normally one-of-a-kind so you have to buy them when you see them or they are snapped up by tourists right away.

You can also check the local classifieds in your newspaper to see if anyone is selling vintage wedding jewelry in your area.

One other place to check, if you are on good terms with her, is with your future mother-in-law, not to mention your fiance's grandmothers. Maybe your fiance's mom only had sons so she has no one to pass her beautiful family heirlooms down to.

Now, if you can tell right off the bat that your fiance's family does not particularly care for you, you probably should not ask.

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