DIY: Lady Mary Crawley Inspired Wedding Tiara

There is no bones about it, I am a huge Downton Abbey fan. Ever since I first entered the world of the Crawley's I have admired the style and poise of all of the "Lady's". Naturally when their weddings aired earlier this year for all of the world to see, I couldn't resist admiring Lady Mary's bejeweled tiara that weighed in at 45 carats and cost about $200,000. Being a bride on a budget, that tiara was most definitely out of my price range, however I could not shake the lovely laurels from my head. Thankfully I happened to stumble upon this laurel brooch while browsing eBay and I found myself an affordable solution. I ended up ordering 2 brooches and a pack of 10x5 Navettes on eBay, buying myself a comb in a craft store and some super powerful glue (E6000) and seeing what I could do with a little bit of grosgrain. All in all, I think I spent under $20 for my own laurel wedding tiara. While it's not as large or bold as Lady Mary Crawley's I think I still get to have a little touch of Downton on my special day.

The pieces I ordered on eBay were actually brooches, so the first thing I did was snap off the backing by pushing in on the brooch pin and pulling back and forth a couple of times.


My next move was to weave some thin 3/8" grosgrain ribbon through the wire comb to give myself a bit more surface area for the glue to set. I trimmed the ends in a diagonal angle.

Next I applied some glue and allowed it to sit a couple minutes to become really tacky before carefully placing both brooches centered over the comb. I overlapped the end slightly to create a continuous line. There were a few funny gaps where the grosgrain ribbon showed through, so I carefully took one of the navette crystals and glued them to fil in any awkward spaces.

I let my creations sit overnight until the glue secured everything into place.

The next day, I carefully glued down the ends back onto the comb and voila a tiara to call my own. I think to make sure that it's extra secure I'm going to have to use a couple of bobby pins horizontally to make sure it won't fall off my head, but otherwise it's everything that I hoped it would be :) It almost makes me wish I ordered 3 combs instead of 2.