The medieval bride

A lot of today's traditions regarding the bride can be traced back to medieval times, and even further.
The dress wasn't necessarily made for the occasion. Often the less rich girls just wore their finest garments. White was not the usual color for the gown, instead the fabric was bright and colorful. Red and blue were amongst the finer colors and later black also became a sign of wealth. Some dresses were made of silk, while others were less refined.

On her wedding day the bride was allowed to let down her hair and flowers were braided into it. If your family was rich you would also wear the bridal crown. After the ceremony the bride should cover her hair with a hat or fabric because it was considered to be indecent for a married woman to have loose hair.
Many brides were younger than their husbands - so my boyfriend and I will fit right in :) - Women of noble birth were often the only ones to turn 20 before their wedding.

The bride herself was normally considered to be a part of a bargain and marriage was a way to establish your social position. The tradition of the father giving away the bride was a very literal thing in the middle ages. He decided who he wanted to give her to, and it was the father who paid for the wedding. At the ceremony he also had to answer on her behalf.

When she received her new title as a wife her new husband would give her, the key to the house and the chests, along with a knife as a sign of her status.

The garter was already a part of the equipment and if any of the unmarried men got a hold of it they would give it to their own sweet hearts as a sign of fidelity.

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:

Shield of Arms 2 - an inspirational website

Hi again
I came across this website and obiously I had to share with you. In an earlier entry I wrote about how you can make your own crest or shield of arms, but you might already have one. Look in the index under the first letter of your surname and check out the many crests to see if your family name has one.

LINK: http://www.heraldry.ws/index.html

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.