Vintage Bride

Marissa Conrad blogs about weddings for Washingtonian Magazine. Here's an article she wrote about our Vintage Bride collection!

Fashion Friday: Go Vintage!

Thanks Marissa!

Something old is new again

Vow Bride Magazine

Vow Bride magazine spotlights Tigerlilly in their current issue! I had a chat with editor in chief Kim Wadsworth about brides, design, and innovation. For the full interview, click here. Thanks Kim!

PS - That is model Rozlyn Papa on the cover. You might recognize her from Tigerlilly ads - that's also her in the covertible images at the bottom of the page. We love Rozlyn!

Custom Bridesmaids Jewelry

Happy Valentine's Day!



I'm so excited! Today we updated our bridal party earrings section with tons of custom color options. Now, you don't have to try to imagine what your custom earrings will look like anymore - just roll over the 21 different color options and see the earrings change color before your eyes! Of course, we can still make the earrings in any color combination, not just the ones shown. So cool. Anyway, we plan on doing the same thing with the bracelets and necklace pages in the coming days, so stay tuned!

Securing combs and hairpins

It's a very common question. If you are wearing your hair down, how do you secure a comb? Well, there is a very simple trick.

Hairpins and combs need hair that is secured in place to grip onto. So, with 2-3 bobby pins that match your hair color, grab the section of hair where you want the comb or pin to go. Secure the hair against your head. Make it tight. Bobby pins are a wedding hair stylist's best friend - I swear to you, I think my stylist used over a hundred pins on my wedding day! Anyway, then you just slide the comb or pin into place. This works with nearly all hair types and lengths.

By the way, this is also a great way to secure a tiara, headband, or a brooch you want to wear in your hair.

Luxe Collection

It's busy busy around here as we are preparing to debut our new collection, LUXE. Sometimes more is more...

Coming soon!

The Versatile Hair Vine

A hair vine is a flexible hair accessory that can be worn pretty much any way you can imagine – like a tiara, headband, bun wrap, coiled up on the side of an updo – because they are made on such flexible wire, they can be bent and manipulated in any way you’d like. What’s even better about our hair vines is that they also come with removable clasps and extender chains, so they can be worn as necklaces or bracelets too! We’ve had brides wear them as necklaces to the rehearsal dinner and in their hair the next day – we LOVE jewelry that can do double duty like that!

We don’t have NEARLY enough hair vines in our collections yet, so brides, if you want a custom hair vine – email me! I’d love to make some more!

Bridal Jewelry for the Colored Dress

A little bridal fashion history for you – back in the 1800’s, brides wore colored dresses. Some even wore black! Queen Victoria wore white in 1840, which set the standard, and by the 1890’s (with the arrival of department stores) most brides were wearing ivories and whites. But what’s wrong with a little (or a lot!) of color? It’s your day, you should wear whatever you love. Let’s talk accessories for colored gowns!






The purple gown is by Vera Wang. How gorgeous is this? I love the bouquet with it. I would put a large plain amethyst colored pendant necklace with this and nothing else. The blue dress is by Reem Acra. It has a thin rhinestone band along the waist. While I normally am not a huge fan of the matchy matchy, I think I would put a simple rhinestone headband with this. The gold dress is by Romona Keveza. An ivory pearl necklace and bracelet would set off the color nicely.

Bridal Jewelry for the Empire Waist Dress

So I thought we would discuss the empire dress next. This silhouette often looks a little less formal – I often think of it for a beach wedding. However, as you can see above, those are certainly not informal dresses! The first, by Anne Barge, has crystal beading at the empire waist. The gown is so soft looking to me, I would probably do something very light. Maybe a double stranded crystal necklace, or a sparkly hair ornament. The center dress is by Elizabeth Fillmore. I would actually not wear any jewelry with this and I’d put a large flower on the side of her head. The last gown is by Jenny Packham and it brings up an interesting point – how you wear your hair will also determine your jewelry. I would put some chandelier earrings on this model, no necklace, and a crystal bracelet.

Ah, so pretty. Ethereal. You can imagine them just floating down the aisle. The first two dresses are by Christos. I wouldn’t put anything heavy with any of these – a light chain with tiny pearls or crystals would work. If hair is up, a light sprinkling of crystal hairpins. Simple crystal or diamond earrings. The last dress is by Vera Wang.



The first dress is by Demetrios. It’s similar to the top Anne Barge dress, but it feels a little less formal to me. With hair down, I’d put a light/airy crystal headband. The center gown is by Jenny Lee. In this photograph, to me it looks like the least formal dress so I wouldn’t put anything terribly formal with it. If you have a necklace that you wear all the time, like a diamond initial, or a little gold cross, that would work. I would do hair jewelry, if anything, simple pins in an easy updo. The last gown is by Amy Kuschel. I get a Grecian vibe from this dress, so I would play that up with a leaf tiara and probably no other jewelry.

Bridal Jewelry for the V Neck Dress

I spend a good amount of time every day advising brides on what jewelry and accessories will work with their dresses. Can I wear a necklace with this dress? Is it too much? My mom thinks it's too much. I don't know, I like it. What do you think?

Every situation is different and there is no hard and fast rule that this type of dress needs a choker and this type of dress needs no necklace, just earrings. I've found that your own personal style will dictate your accessory choices just as much as what your gown looks like. In most cases, if you love it, it will work!

That being said, I'm going to start an in depth look at how to accesserize different bridal gown styles! We're starting with one of my favorites, the deep V dress.



All of the dresses above have a lot going on, so you might be tempted to forego a necklace in favor of earrings, sparkly hair jewelry, and bracelet – which would look great. However, my job is to give you more than the obvious options. There is a vintage vibe going on with the first dress, by Claire Pettibone, one of my favorite designers. You could go in that direction with a birdcage veil and a very long strand of pearls or crystals. I could see feathers with this too, or a lace headband, no necklace, and a fine filigree bracelet. The middle gown is by Badgley Mischka. I would love to totally glam this up with a double strand crystal and pearl necklace that mimics the double band at the waist. Then I would put a sparkly brooch or hairpin in her hair. The third gown is by St Pucchi. This is one of the few instances where the dress is shown on the runway with a necklace and I really like this one. A pendant or Y style, while generally great choices for a deep V dress, might not work as well here because you have the brooch focal point at the bottom of the V and you don’t want to compete with that.



I put the first 2 dresses above next to eachother on purpose. Both are similar in that they have the band of sparlies just below the V, but they would be accessorized very differently. The first dress, by Romona Keveza, is very tailored and sophisticated. The second, by Jenny Packham, is much less structured and more flowy and breezy, if you will. The third gown, by Wtoo, is also a flowy, less formal example. I love love love the long necklace with the Jenny Packham, and I could see the same thing with the Wtoo, but I wouldn’t put it with the Romona Keveza. That gown needs something simple and more formal – a strand of pearls or a pendant? Simple stud earrings and maybe a single sparkly hair ornament under a bun.



When looking at the first dress above, by Jim Hjelm, I ask myself, what is sexier, bare skin or a necklace dripping with crystals that drops down the front almost to the dress? Perhaps because I’m a jewelry designer, I say crystal dripping necklace. The middle dress is by Reem Acra. Clearly there is a lot of sparkle at the top of this dress, and because of that, I think this dress wants a sparkly necklace. Nothing too over the top, mind you, but perhaps a fine chain with a sparkly pendant or Y drop, or a big faceted crystal. The last gown is by Pnina Tornai. To me, this dress is screaming for a multi layered pearl necklace and a tiara or hair comb. If you’re going to do it, go for it all the way!