The Tutor Groom

Better late than never aye? The tudor era is sort of the English transistion from the Middle Ages to Renaissance, and a time of lavish clothing. I watched The Tudors, a series about Henry VIII, and marveled at the princly costumes. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who played Henry looks every bit a prince charming, in spite the darkness of the story. The producers have paid a lot of attention to the costumes and therefore I am comfortable showing them to you here as a historical reference. Henry got married quite a few times, and the screenshots below is from The Tudors: Henry and Jane's wedding.

Wealthy men in the Tudor Times, often wore either a fitted jacket with a high color and pants or a very broad almost square upper coat, and slim pantyhose like this:

So if you want to look like Henry, go for rich silky fabrics, often with a metal shine and a big impressive hat with feathers. The white tight hoses might seem strange to a modern man, but I donøt think that there's anything girly about a tudor man. A final touch could be the golden chain of office around his neck, an important power symbol.

Tudorshoppe

There are a couple of amazing jackets/doublets that would suit the tudor groom. These are from the Vikingstore and the tudorshoppe.

There are a few vendors who specializes in the tudor period like The tudor shoppe. You can also always have a tailer make the costume which will probably enable you to make it much more authentic. Just keep in mind that those handsome fabrics can be expensive.
The tudor king groom is majestic, powerful and rich and such a costume would be a very fitting for a wedding.

The Sword

1290 AD, a woman with a sword
from the Royal Armouries Manuscript 

For a long time I have been focusing on the medieval bride, but with every bride comes a groom, and certainly he must have had some influence on such a theme. So an entry on a primarily male accessory, the sword is in order. And although it was the exception rather than the rule, women did at times carry arms as well.

The middle ages weres a time of war, and so there was numerous weapons in the average arsenal. War is among the great motivaters for new technology. Professional armies ermerged i the Middle Ages, much like the effecient romans a 1000 years earlier.

The sword came in many variations in medieval times.
Such as the broad sword, that had 2 edges meant for cutting as oposed to stabing. It was the tool of the knights and very expensive. They can be made both for one and two hands.
The falchion sword wich was short and with a single edge. It was a cheap and low quality sword, meant for cutting and slicing.
The great sword is huge and also with two edges. It was meant to be wielded with two hands and could weigh around 4,5 kg / 10 pounds. It required a great amount of training to wield properly.
Longswords had an incredible reach and thrusting capacity and was also meant for two hands.

Broadsword

Falchion sword

Greatsword

A sword were (and is) not a cheap choice for a groom, but it does gives a man a certain something. In the Bronze Age a warship could be bought with 10 bronze swords so you can understand the value of this weapon. If you are having the wedding at a medieval festival or reenactment museum, you might be able to borrow one. And once again I will remind you that you need a permission to carry that kind of weapon.

(Source: Middle-ages.org.uk)

June's Groom Gear: The Knight

I promised to make a serie about the groom's outfit, and now that a year has passed with bridal gowns, I thought it was about time to get started. (Don't worry girls, I'll still post those gourges dresses when I come across them).
The knight is the obvious place to start, because I think the reason many men choose the medieval theme or agree to it, is that they are drawn by the strength and valor the the medieval man represent. The knight is the ultimate medieval warrior and real ladies man (plus you get to carry a sword!).
The title of knight could be bestowed anyone by the ruling king or queen, but by late medieval times the title was considered preserved for the nobility and those born into wealth. The thriving litterature ascribed the Knight a symbolism that idealised the title bearers. They became the perfect gentlemen, christians and guardians of justice. Today women sometimes say that they love when a man acts chivalrious, which is an ideal cultivated in the Middle Ages.
Now for an eksample of an outfit: I love this combination put together by Etsy and Ebay-seller Morgana's Collection. It's not as over the top as it could be but the elements: chainmail, helmet, tabard, sword, leather belt and shoes and gauntlets make an accurate and cool impression.

The tabard is like an overcoat that you wear over the chain mail to show off your colors. The colors could depend on the country you fought for, (like England was red during the crusades and the french was blue), they can represent a particular order of knights like the Templar Knights (white tabard with a red cross) or the order of knights of st john (black with white cross). Yet another background for the choice of colors could be the family crest, which often had a particular set of colors or animals that was embroided on the tabards and capes.

A tabard is fairly easy to make - a big rectangular piece of fabric with a hole for the head - or fairly cheap to buy. What I like about Morgana's Collection, is that they can make you a tabard with any color or pattern you can think of.

http://www.lrpstore.com/

The chain mail can be a lot harder to aquire and more expensive. Try contacting the local reenactment club or a medieval fair, to hear if you can lend their chain mail for a payment. You can also buy one yourself if you want to. You must remember that it's heavy and can weigh around 15 kilos. It might not be something you want to run around with all day and night on your weddingday. My fiancee will be wearing a chainmail during the ceremony and when we go to have our photos taken. At dinner he will wear only a shirt and the tabard.

Gauntlets, shield and helmet are not necessary, but like with women and their jewelry - the more details - the better. A belt and leather shoes are however essential to achive the look and sword will definatly be the frosting on the cake. :)