Easy DIY favor bags / rice bags

I wanted to make some small pouches for the rice/grain people will be throwing our way after the ceremony. In days gone by, the throwing of grain upon the couple was a symbol of the wishes for fertility in marriage.

To make the bags I used:
1 sissor
A large piece of undied linnen
A pencil that can draw on fabric
1 dessert plate
A roll of leather string - brown leather looks the best (mine was too dark I think)
Rice/grain
Stamp with a nice pattern
Green inkpad

1. I rolled out the linnen and placed the small dessert plate on it. Using the pencil I drew a line along the plate to make an even circle.

2. Then I cut a small piece of leather string and placed the rice in the center of the circle.

3. Bend the circle's edge up and tied the leather string around it.

4. The next step isen't necessary but it looks nice and decorative. It requires a stamp of some sort, mine is cirkular like sunbeams with a twirl at the end. Press it down on the inkpad and then on the linnen:

These small pouches can be used for both favors or rice, and they look very cute and rustic.

Medieval photowall

It's an increasingly popular wedding feature to have a photo booth or photowall at the reception to entertain the guests. If used properly it can ensure a huge amount of silly / fun / wonderful memories but it's mostly for the bride who really likes doing it herself and uses a lot of hours on the details - (Like me ;-)).
A classical photowall would look something like this:

But you can't really feel those medieval vibes with a couple of frames and a nice vintage tapestry. So: There are a couple of things you can do to make it medievalish - which is this blog's eternal goal.

1. You still need a big wooden plate to work your magic on, but instead of the vintage tapestry you can either choose a more contemporary-looking pattern like this red one, that bears resemblance to the fabric used in Mary of Hapsburg's dress, the green detail:

or you can paint a castle wall on the wood inspired by photos such as this:

2. Then you can either make a window in the medieval style and place a wooden bench in the front:

This tall and slightly pointed window is from the ruin
of Kerelaw (1488)

or you can hang up some big solid frames of gold or wood found at flea markets, along with a tourch or iron chandalier.
3. To finish it up you might want to get toy swords, shields and helmets, or maybe a rose a mirror or a very long wig. Just small geeky accessories to play with  and to make the photos really funny.
The end result could look something like this, without all the extra accessories:

Personally we were VERY lucky that the venue already had a photowall. It's a bit more cartoony and fitting for a carnival, but I adore it. And if you are a bit artistic, you might want to try painting something like it yourself. I considered it. But it's quite a project to take on and if you aren't happy with the end result it's a lot of work wasted.

I can easily imagine our guests having a lot of fun with it! And I might get a picture with me and Robert looking trough it as well. It just makes me love our venue even more.

Make your own gown - patterns

It can be hard to find the right medieval dress to the right price - I know I have had my troubles. So for those of us who have decided to try to make our own gown here are some patterns you can buy and use.
The great thing about doing it yourself is the freedom of choice. You decide the fabric, the color, the shape and finally all those little details like embroidery that makes the dress personal.

McCall's pattern website has a couple of historic dresses worth buying and trying. Here's the one I like the best:

Butterick also has a couple of good patterns:

The first one 

The second one:

All of these patterns have medieval elements both in shape, sleeves and neckline. Making your own wedding gown is a big project with the potential to be wonderful. I am going to try sow it together with my mother who's a bit more experienced than me.
Good luck

Coloring book 1

When inviting both adults and children to a wedding you can count on the little ones to grow restless if they have nothing to do. It is perfectly easy to search the internet for medieval drawings that they can colour, print them, and then all you have to do is buy some colored pencils. You can place all this at a little table - a little corner just for the kids.

Here are some examples from Skipton Castle that you can use freely. (The Skipton Castle is a medieval fortress in York Shire, AND they host wedding ceremonies as well (not reception).)

I will find more for you to put in the coloring book but for now, just enjoy theese beautiful examples.

My invitation

I want to share the invitation I made for my wedding with you. I made the drawing from scratch and colored it too. Later I will print them on paper similar to what they used for the medieval manuscripts, which are also the inspiration for my design. As I have been drawing for many years it felt natural to do the invitations by hand, but there's a lot of fine alternatives on the internet if you don't feel like making it yourself. :)
Some of the white spaces are to be painted with gold, so they will look mere like the manuscripts made by the munks. But the gold can't be copied and printet very well so that will have to be applied each of the invitations.

Medieval Invitations

One of the first things you'll have to do is make a guest list and when you have location(s), time and date set, you can make your invitations. These are things to consider:

1. Paper

In order to get that medieval look you can buy paper or parchment paper that has an old look, sort of yellow in colour and coarse compared to the modern kind. It can be recycle paper or just choose a suiting colour background in the writing program you use. You can also make it yourself by printing out the text on a regular piece of paper and then dip it in coffee and sprinkle some instant over as well. I will make an entry with a walk through later on.




2. Scroll or normal envelope?

Most people are familiar with the look of the medieval scroll - a very sophisticated way to deliver a message and off course you can make one on your own as well, and a walk through will follow later. The scroll requires a bit of work and some extra materials like 2 wooden sticks per invite and 4 beads for the ends of the sticks. I have yet to come across somewhere you can buy them finished, so you are welcome to comment if you know of some place.
You can also just use an ordinary piece of paper and an envelope, and with a wax seal - see prior entry - it can look just as great.


3. Font
There are plenty of websites where you can find a fitting font for the text. I always use Dafont.com and they even have an explanation if you don't know how to add a new font to your writing program. Some examples could be these:

4. Decoration
When it comes to decorations you have very free reins. It can be an illustrations of a castle or flowers in dusty colours and gold and maybe a French lily. There can be a picture of a knight and his maiden or you can just let the first letter of the text be a big beautiful and detailed picture in itself.

5. Text

You have a great opportunity to make some fun with the text and give the guests a little taste of what is to come.

Hear ye, hear ye

Lady - bride's name - and sir - groom's name - are to be wed on the blessed day of - date - and pray that you, - guest's name - will honour us with your presence on this joyful occasion. Finally the knight won his maiden and they shall be bound to each other in the ritual of hand fasting on - location - with a glorious feast to follow.

Come merrily and gay to our wedding day!

You can also write it as a little fairy tale.

Remember to write the link to your wedding website if you have one, so they can get the rest of the information from there and do remember also to write if you would like them to come in medieval clothing - this you should tell them as early as possible because not everybody will like the idea.

Wax Seal for Invitations

The wax seal was commonly used amongst the nobility when sending letters in medieval times. The initials or crest of the family or person were engraved in metal and then pressed into hot wax to seal a document and to authenticate it.
It will add a nice touch to your invitations and you can easily find somewhere they will custom make it for you. I found a cheap dealer on Ebay and chose R and C - our initials for the seal.

The monogram I had created in paint with a free medieval font found on the internet. Then the seller made my seal and this was the wonderful result:

It took some practice with the amount of wax and what pressure I should use, but in the end it turned out very well and will be put to good use when we make our invites. The red wax was bought in a hobby store and they had a size that fitted my glue gun so it wasn't difficult at all to control the melting. You can choose to melt it in a spoon over a flame instead, which is the original way to do it.

In the end you add a nice touch to your envelops like this:

Monogram

At weddings the monogram often play a role in the decorations, maybe on the napkins or at the the smal rice bags. It's not a medieval faenomenon but you can easily make it so it stays within the theme.

This webpage has a lot of fonts for different writing programs, and with a little help from paint you can make a lot of beautifal monograms using the fonts under medieval.
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=401&page=1&psize=l&text=C+R

These are my attempts with R and C:

 We ended up chosing a much more simple design for ourselves:

Knock yourselves out :)

DIY - My shield of Arms

I made both of our shields of arms in Paint and based on our personalities.


My boyfriend has both the Danish word for electricity and the word for hammer in his names, so I made a lightning bolt and a war hammer. He wanted it to be about force and war. Manchester united is his favourite soccer team, and they have a crest of their own with a red devil. As it looks like a dragon, a common medieval symbol, I included the devil on his shield as well but I switched the trident with a sword. The background I painted blue - his favourite colour and the colour of nobility.
This is the result:

It's simple, but my fiancé loves it :)
My shield of arms was equally simple. Green is my all time favorite colour so obviously it had to be a part of it. I chose red for love and green for life and growth, a black unicorn for secrets and fantasies and the tree of life. My names include the words shoe and spike. I translated it to a horse shoe and a spear. And here it is:

All sorts of decorations can be made for the party using the shields. First I made actual shields, or I bought some children shields for 4 pounds and painted them over:

Then we decided to use them as favors as well. Everyone gets a badge (pin back) with one of the two shields upon arriving at the party. My family gets my crest and Robert's family will get his:

Shield of Arms DIY

The shield of arms was a way during the Middle Ages to show people what family you belonged to. It was primarily the wealthier families who had such a symbol and there was much pride in the blood line.


It will add a nice touch to the party if you make your own - one for the family of the bride and one for the family of the groom. You can paint them on two big wooden shields and hang them over the bride and groom during the reception.
It will also look impressive with tall banners hanging along the wall, maybe with other shield of arms to represent the "connections" to the family.
If you aren't as lucky as to have an actual shield of arms in the family you can:
1. Make your own - takes a little creativity but it's very fun and you can make it very personal.
2. Borrow someone else's shield - most nations have an official shield of arms - or you can google it and choose amongst the many powerful ones that pop up.


Try not to make it too complicated if you choose to make it yourself. You have to decide on:
             a. Colours - should there be more than one? Remember the medieval is known for its use of bright strong colours. They may symbolise different virtues or something specific to you.
Red: Passion, war, love, blood fire. Blue: Purity, devotion, faith, royalty, water. Yellow: Sun, warmth, wealth, air, joy. Green: Hope, earth, fertility, family, children, courage. Black: Strength, power, night, secrets, myth, man, magic. White: Truth, day, woman, justice, clarity, superiority.
           
             b. Symbols - often there's a lot of symbols on a shield of arms. An often used example is the lion, which is associated with kings and bravery. The French took a fancy to the lily, a symbol of beauty. There are weapons such as swords, bows, hammers, staffs, spears, axes and arrows. All tokens of strength and conquest. Then there are animals like: Hog (strength), swan (beauty), eagle (power), unicorn (supremacy), deer/stag (hunt, grace), dragon (unearthly power), Bear (wildness/greatness), fish (Christianity), owl (knowledge). Flowers also appear frequently, roses, lilies. Nature symbols like sun, moon, tree, ocean, star and mountain are very old. An example of objects could be cup, sceptre, crown, heart, cross, kea, horse shoe, shell.
            
              (c.) a motto. Like: show no mercy, trust and fear not, Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus (Never tickle a sleeping dragon - Hogwarts, Harry Potter), or Splendor sine Occasu (splendour without diminishment).


Have fun now :)  - next entry I will tell you how I made mine.