A Guide to Veil Lengths and Styles

It may seem obvious, but a good piece of advice is to choose your wedding dress before your accessories. It is the tiara and veil that transform the beautiful bride into a stunning vision of perfection, and maintaining that perfection requires a balance where no one piece overwhelms the other. It also requires the ability to know which veils work well with certain styles of wedding gowns.

A plain veil works perfectly with a detailed or elaborate wedding dress. Choose a short veil to end above the detail of the dress or a long one to end below, and if there is no train, try to allow your veil to end at the skirt hemline or a little beyond. Just as a plain veil works well with an ornate gown, an ornate or decorated (such as lace or beading) veil will add some instant glamour to the most simplistic of wedding dresses.

Many brides will avoid trying a veil, adamant they don’t want one, especially if there is no intention to wear it over the face. However, a veil can act as the essential missing piece, so I would encourage anyone to at least try one on; after all you only get to wear a veil once.

Likewise, if mum really wants to see her little girl in the complete ensemble, don't feel pressured into wearing something if you really don't want to. An ornate headpiece alone can be just as stunning.

The two most popular veil lengths have always been fingertip (or hip length) and cathedral length. You may often see wedding gowns referred to as having a chapel length or cathedral length train. Chapel length will have approximately 36” of excess fabric over the floor, cathedral length considerably more!

While the longer the veil, the more drama it can create, remember that it may be necessary to remove it at the wedding breakfast as the amount of tulle can be quite cumbersome to manage.

With tea length gowns still on trend, birdcage veils are increasingly popular too!

Here are the lengths of the most popular veil styles.

Veil Lengths

• 39" veil - often referred to as shoulder length
• 47" veil - often referred to as elbow length
• 59" veil - often referred to as waist length
• 72" veil - often referred to as fingertip length
• 98" - veil often referred to as floor length
• 126" - veil often referred to as chapel length
• 144" - size veil often referred to as cathedral length

Article by Wedding Dress Designer Linda Davey

Images Courtesy of -

1: From Flickr by jekert gwapo

2: PH Weddings

3: From Flickr by Du Žiedeliai

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