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