Julie & Shaun's Medieval Wedding

A beautiful June day in 2010 Julie & Shaun had a mindblowing medieval wedding! Their photos from photographer WeddingsBySamuel takes you right back to the Middle Ages. I hope my wedding will look this wonderful. This wedding really shows how attention to detail, focus on historic acuracy and a talented photographer can make a medieval theme.

The groom prepared himself at a nearby hotel which wasn't easy with all the armor he had to wear.

The ceremony was held at Kenilworth Castle where the guest were greeted with waving red and yellow lion banners. To accomodate the theme the guests too were dressed in period garbs.

The first part of the ceremony -the leagal stuf - was conducted within the gatehouse in a room with dark wooden panels. Rings and vows were exchanged.The bride arriwed in her silky green dress with golden twisted trim.

 

Then they crowd walked outside and among the ruins Julie and Shaun was bound together by a handfasting ritual. It included the sharing of drink to ensure that the couple would always experience bounty together. I love the look of the bride's har from the back.

As the ceremony neared the end, a black knight appeared, threatningly claiming the right of Prima Nocta (if you remember from the Braveheart movie - it's the local nobleman's right to sleep with the bride on her wedding night.) Obviously that resulted in a dramatic fight.

The black knight was utterly defeated and the happy couple could continue to a walk in the ruins - a perfect place for proper pictures.

For the following reception Julie and Shaun had hired Guinevere's Dream Events, to transform an ordinay modern venue into the ultimate banquet dream. The bride and groom entered the room first and then guests were announced one by one. The entertainment during dinner consisted of several guests put on trial.

The night ended in dancing and merriment:

Congratulations on the incredible day and hopefully a happy marriage. :-)

Medieval hairdos for medium long hair - by Lillith moon

Youtube is a bride's treasure chest when it conserns guides to do your hair. That is the wonder of this computerized world, so much information a couple of links away. I love these guides to a medieval knot inspired updo, and decided that I wanted to post it. It is the beautiful Lillith Moon, who has made the instructions. So here it goes:

Hope some of these may inspire you, for your weddingday :)

Medieval seating chart - Bow and arrow

I came across this very medieval seating chart idea by Tammy from Uniquity Invitations / Cora's Photography /via Ruffled. It is something you can do yourself and it's a fun way to direct your guests to their seats.

It's worthy of a Robin Hood wedding to plant an arrow in a target board and have a couple of lists hang down from the arrow with the names of each guest at each table.

Best way to make sure it's stable is to use a big round slice of wood, drill a hole in it for and arrow-like long cylindrical stick and make the stick look like a real arrow by adding fletchings in the other end. The target board can be painted with concentric rings in shifting colors.

The table number notes can be printed on parchment paper to give it a medieval feel.

An medieval engagement shoot

Charlene & Phil had a magnificient medieval photoshot together, captured by Josh Cornell | Renaissance Studios Photography Toronto Weddings. I love that they incorporated ruins, waterfall, chess, Wilhelm Tell apple shoot all wrapped up in the tranquil forest. I'll just throw all these wonderful pictures at you then :)

 

 I love her dress, it's cute with the light blue fabric with a white pattern and the purple ribbons. They look very much in love and all their little props makes the shoot perfect.

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)

The Landshut Wedding Festival

Every fourth year a festival Landshuter Hochzeit takes place in Bravaria, Germany reenacting the wedding in 1475 AD between George of Bavaria to Princess Hedwig (Jadwiga) of Poland. It entails days of celebration and entertainment along with loads of medieval food and beverages. The impressive wedding procession invades the streets decorated with banners and flowers for the ocasion.
I just want to bombard you with the amasing pictures from this festival. Some of them are from the official website, others by estrangelo edessa:

Bride and groom

Medieval festivals can be amasing to attend, and when it is build around a wedding I simply have to post about it :)
The bride Jadwiga was 18 years old when she traveled to her groom's home to be wed. It was a lavish party and the records tells that the guests consumed no less than 320 bullocks, 1.500 sheep, 1.300 lambs, 500 calves, and 40.000 chicken.
The city takes the festival rather seriously, the young men stop cutting their hair, and the girls are hopeing for the honor of being offered the role of princess Jadwiga.

If you want to see more pictures, go to the festival's official website and see the many photos. There's some great inspiration for dressing both men and women. The next festival will be in july 2013. If you get the change, GO THERE :-)