Medieval Weddings
Medieval and Renaissance Weddings are the
"newest" old trend in weddings. Movies like "Ever After" and "Elizabeth" are
helping the resurgence in interest. Medieval and Renaissance fairs are growing
yearly and doing a booming wedding business as well. Today's weddings have most
people wearing clothes they would not normally wear. Medieval weddings take this
one step farther to renting a costume instead of a tuxedo.
Medieval weddings also have the added
advantage of being an unusual event with all the excitement of a costumed ball.
Many modern wedding customs are holdovers from medieval and ancient times.
Tossing the bride's garter is from the belief that a piece of the bridle attire
was a lucky token. Medieval brides started wearing many ribbons to keep their
clothing from being shredded by over zealous luck seekers. The bride's hair was
often worn loose and uncovered or held down with a golden circlet. A married
women's hair was almost always covered. A reception with food and drink followed
weddings then as now, with the drink of choice being honey mead. The new couple
would drink honey mead for a month after the wedding, leading to the modern
"honeymoon".
Medieval feasts were served in courses and
each course was like a meal in itself. There was entertainment during and
between the courses. There was a presentation of the courses as well as
sotelties and warners. Sotelties are scenes or sculptures and entertainment made
with foodstuff and warners are disguised food. The nursery rhyme about the
singing blackbirds baked in a pie, is a soltetlie from a medieval feast. An
example of a warner would be a peach made of marzipan. Feasts were often served
on medieval disposable plates, bread trenchers. People ate with their hands, a
spoon and a small knife the size of a steak knife. Forks were not used in the
middle ages. They were not unknown, but were only conversation pieces among
royally and very wealthy.
Clothing Ideas Page
One of the most
important elements for a medieval wedding is the costumes. They really give the
medieval feel to the event. The bride should pick a time period that has gown
styles that she likes. If warm weather, time or budget is a major factor,
choose an earlier medieval time. The clothing was much simpler. Therefore can
be made of lighter weight materials and the styles are cheaper & easier to make.
Renaissance and Elizabethan gowns are time consuming and costly to make also
wearing such heavy clothing can make you and your guests very hot. If you live
in the warmer states and want a Renaissance or Elizabethan wedding, be sure to
pick a cool or cold time of year for your wedding. There are many good costume
and history books in the library and at the book stores that will help you pick
historic clothing. Most Hollywood movies are not a good source for accurate
costumes. Here are some links to help you.
All these links take a long time to download.
But the images are well worth the wait.
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