Blingy thingy

When my mom and I bought my wedding dress back in November, Foxy Mama also decided to gift me with that blingtastic headband that my consultant adorned me in. (Isn't it nuts how they do that? You know, just happening to give you all the little accessories to make you look like a model bride just like those you see in the magazines, and then you're convinced you need everything?) The consultant said that the headband (headpiece? hair piece? blingy thingy?) was made of Swarovski crystals, which in my mind, justified the exorbitant price a bit more.

Drooling. I love it.

I mean, I know my dress wasn't terribly expensive, but the blingy thingy ended up being almost two thirds the price of the dress. Nutso. It did indeed compliment and accent the dress perfectly, and my mom was in love and adamant about getting it. I? Immediately told her I'd just go to Claire's and hot glue a sparkly thing to a ribbon. Wham bam thank you ma'am.

BUT IT'S SWAROVSKI!! insisted Foxy Mama.

Le sigh. Ok, mom. I suppoooose I can give in to a shnazzy sparkly hairpiece (again, you can never go wrong with sparkles. Ever.). It is amazingly gorgeous, and it's attached to a pinkish velvet ribbon with more crystals at each end that would peek below my hair if I kept it short or wore it up. And, if we bought it with the dress, they'd give us 10% off! So we'd fall well within the price range my mom offered to put towards the dress.

Done and done. Dress and blingy thingy: check!

Here's the possible issue (or possible realization that I just don't know my crystals): a while back, I was going through my wedding binder and inspiration photos that I keep on my computer, and realized I didn't have a picture of the hairpiece. I kind of forgot what it really looked like, so I tried to check out Swarovski's site, to no avail. I then honed in to my detective skills looked on the receipt from the bridal store, decoded the consultants handwriting, and found the designer online. The description her website gave of blingy thingy was this:

"A 6" floral rhinestone filigree side décor 3" wide on a 7/8" velvet ribbon."

My initial thought was that we paid that much money for RHINESTONES?!

And I was kind of upset. I mean, the part of me that thought I just should have just bought a sparkly thing at Claire's was really pissed - both myself and my mom were led to believe that it was indeed Swarovski.

But now I'm wondering if Swarovski is actually technically rhinestone? I feel like this is something I should know.. or Google.. but blogging about it is SO much more fun. And if the blingy thingy ends up not being Swarovski, I really don't know if I can justify the price for a hairpiece I'll probably only use once in my life. Albeit it's perfectness in every way and the fact that I have the image of me wearing that bling at the wedding cemented into my brain.

So. Between this possible ruse and the dress debacle, I may just show up to the wedding in my birthday suit and crazy person hair. Me-yow.

Does anyone know anything about this Swarovski nonsense? Or are you just as clueless as I am?