A Medieval Poet

A week or 2 ago my attention was drawn to this wonderful lady, Anna, and her humorous medieval wedding poetry. She began writing her poems as a gift for friends at their wedding and it evolved from there. For now she only asks for a donation in return for a personal poem for your wedding and I wanted to share with you an eksample of her personal poetry:

 

 

Recently written for a medieval wedding held in France

The Mysterious Minstrel of Nice

Our tale begins with a sweet crème brulee,

served at the Duke of Nice’s birthday.

For the Duke did adore feasts and great celebrations,

he oft hosted gatherings of friends and relations.

.

Betrothed to the Duke, Lady Bridle of Nice,

tapped her spoon on the table for talking to cease.

She announced, “Let the troubadours take to the floor!”

The party of guests gave a thunderous roar.

.

Lady Bridle of Nice rolled her eyes in despair,

for she’d spent many hours seated on this same chair.

First to the floor came a sprightly young chap,

dressed in bright purple with feather in cap.

.

Lady Bridle tried not to appear very bored,

‘twas a welcome surprise when he swallowed a sword.

Then on came a fellow who played on a lute,

and impressed with some tumbles, then juggled with fruit.

.

Next, came a minstrel, fair-haired, dark of eye,

who spoke not a word, he was handsome but shy.

He held a strange drum upon which he beat,

Soon, the Great Hall resounded with tapping of feet.

.

The rhythm did alter, the beat gathered pace,

Lady Bridle appeared very pink in the face,

For the young dark-eyed minstrel beside her did stand,

she offered her freshly French-manicured hand.

 .

“Would you do me the honour, my good Lady Bridle?”

Our heroine blushed, but towards him did sidle.

As they walked to the floor, he moved closer to hold her,

it seemed his dark eyes with desire did smoulder.

.

Our heroine whispered, “From whence do you come?”

I have never seen such an unusual drum!”

“My lady, though French, I’m of strong Scottish stock,

this drum I play comes from the land of the loch.

.

One day I will wed in my family kilt,

return to the croft which my grandfather built.

My children will run free and breathe country air,

but first I must find me a wife, rich and fair.

.

The world of the Great Hall seemed suddenly hollow,

Lady Bridle knew then ‘twas her heart she must follow.

Of castle and court she had had quite enough,

No more of the smooth, it was time for the rough!

.

“Sir take me to Scotland, and I’ll be your wife,

For I crave mountain air and a simpler life,

I will dress as a servant, escape in the night,

we’ll elope on my horse then by boat we’ll take flight.”

.

Our young handsome minstrel could hardly refuse,

he had plenty to gain and nothing to lose!

Together they rode, braving seas in wild weather,

‘til they came to the land of mountain and heather.

.

They lived by a loch, eating freshly caught fish,

and despite thinking haggis an unusual dish;

Lady Bridle missed little of France, but the wine,

though as a replacement, the whisky was fine.

.

And so ends our tale of a Scottish romance,

but though it may seem we’ve departed from France,

On days when the mountains seem misty and grey,

our lovers enjoy eating sweet crème brulee.

Visit her website if you are interested in a fun gift for the couple, a fun toast for your special one or maybe some alternative invitations: www.medievalpoet.co.uk

Calligraphy Love Musings

The etsy-seller Sarah Chase Dessler is selling an illustrated qoute from  1st Corinthians about love. It's neat craftmanship and could be a sweet wedding present or may be used for the invitations.

I don't know if she does custom work for invitations and so, but it can't hurt to ask. Calligraphy can be so elegant and altough with some patience you can do it yourself, someone with experience might do the job more satisfactory. But swing by her shop and see for yourself.
I am also very envious of her marvelous working space:

Riding a Mythical Creature Invitations

I recently was made aware of Etsy artist deliciousness' amasing custom illustrated portraits, perfect for invitations or Save-the-date cards. You and your groom can choose your favorite mythical creature, send a picture of yourselves and recieve this bright, cartoony and sweet portrait of you riding the beast :-) For a medieval wedding a dragon/unicorn or the likes would do perfectly. Especially if you are having a more modern version of the theme wedding. One where you would like medieval to play a minor role in the details.
A Danish bride and groom ordered this picture from the shop, a sealion/dragon creature:

They are making postcards from it and used them as invitations for their garden wedding party. I must say a I am slightly in love with that picture. :-)

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: