Bridesmaids Dresses Done!

So glad, it's about time! Due to technical difficulties we couldn't get my sister in the week we were unable to get the bridesmaids in whilst we were away, unfortunately we've still not managed to get one of them in but my sister has been so we've designed the dress and the other one only needs to be measured when she can get in.

My daughters will be done in Easter which is great because that's when Mum, my sister and I are having our next fittings.

All I can tell you is it's loosely based on my dress, but different colours and the girls will have a slightly different design...

Men in Tights...

I get asked this so much I thought I'd share one of my favourite songs from the brilliant film "Robin Hood, Men in Tights" I remember when I was younger, my sister, her friend and I would "dance" along to this, my sister as the smallest would get thrown over (with lots of cushions pulled from our parents sofa of course!)

Question for you, what character is a myth - Robin Hood or Arthur?

Maybe surprisingly it's Robin Hood and just as myth like as Robin himself, is the idea that any man will be wearing tights to our wedding.

The basis of the man's outfit is black trousers and a black or white shirt (like a pirate shirt). I was going to show you a picture but The Costume Company are updating their website at the moment. It's not dressing up.

There is then a variety of tabards to choose from and some leather pieces (collar, arm braces and a belt with a pouch for your phone). If you're not up for too much dressing up then you really don't need to.

If you're feeling a little braver then there are other options for you...

(again, I'd show you more pictures but with the work on the website there's not as much there)

Be warned if you did fancy going for this one, Isobel is terrified of beards so you won't be in anyone's good books!

There are some short trouser options (I could only find this one at the moment) but they're paired with football socks.

For ladies it's a similar story, you can choose your clothes depending on how you feel.

Either the full dress

 I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, that's satin backed dupion. All the dresses are made in good quality fabric, it's not the cheap polyester type thing you get from a fancy dress shop.

I was going to say "depending on how brave you feel" but I think with the women's outfits it's rather subjective. Some women will feel more comfortable in a full dress like this and some in the other option below. If full dresses aren't your think, maybe you'd feel more comfortable in a knee length or long skirt with a blouse and waistcoat...

 The ladies at The Costume Company are used to dressing all sizes of people, hiding the bits you don't like and showing off the bits you do. They have all sizes and heights, although if you are an unusual size it may be worth calling to let them know to bring something for you.

There is even clothes for the children.

I'll add something for the girls when they've added them to their site.

We would ask you that whatever reservations you have now that you wait until the wedding before you decide. Most people who have been unsure have changed their minds when they've seen what's available and you may feel differently when you're all in it together and it's not about whether you dress up or not.

It's been an interesting week

I'm away in Wales for the week, the first few days we've had all our wedding party visit for their fittings.

So far I've seen my dad in his outfit as they've already made it for someone else; designed Mum's outfit; seen Mark's Mum in her outfit as she fell for something they had in the shop and it could have been made for her; Mark's Dad chose the same outfit and colours as Mark without knowing (Mark's Mum is in the same colour too) which is cool, we were leaving it up to him but Mark wanted him to match; Mark's sons looked gorgeous in the outfits they tried on his eldest looked very regal, I'm not sure there's going to be any heads to turn but I'm sure he would if there were; Mark and the other men had a play with swords and dressing up which was a lot of fun and very entertaining! The ladies have convinced them to leave the crests to them (to my relief!); I've designed my dress with a little help from Mark!

All that's left now is to designed the bridesmaids on Saturday, I'm hoping they talk to each other soon and let me know what they're doing! That and enjoy a holiday in Wales!

I have got lots of pictures but it's all top secret at the moment ;)

How much?!

A question that comes up a lot, often in hushed tones, is “How much is all that costing you?” I can never get over people actually asking it, if I was having a more modern wedding no one would ask so surely it’s pretty rude? It’s tempting to shoot back an equally rude response but I thought I’d answer it here, mostly for anyone who is reading this and interested in having a Medieval wedding then hopefully I’ll put your mind at rest that this doesn’t have to be an expensive wedding.

Firstly, I’m not going to tell you what my budget is, it is private and none of anyone else’s business.

However, it’s surprising how cheap it actually is to get married like this. When I first started looking and set out to plan it all on my own it was getting to silly figures and I had no idea how we could manage to do it. One day I was looking up different medieval venues and seeing how they do their meals and I went to the Warwick Castle website, knowing that they do medieval banquets. I spotted that they do weddings and “for a laugh” decided to see what they charge. I was pleasantly surprised so booked us in for a visit. Once we’d booked the castle everything else started to fall into place. Booking the hospital was a similar experience, pleasantly surprised at what it was costing.

When we were in planning meetings with our coordinator at the castle she asked if we wanted linen, we declined because the furniture they’ve got is gorgeous and linen would take away from the affect we wanted. We’re not having lots of flowers because it would take away from the effect. We’re just having their candles on the tables because anything else is adding to it which we don’t need. The venues are perfect for what we need so we don’t need to add to it and risk going over the top.

With some lovely packages, in amazing venues and a minimalist scheme, it’s costing a lot less than if we were to have an equivalent modern wedding in a hotel. We are aware of our budget, what we can save and not ending up in debt after the wedding, so please don’t worry about us, if you’re a guest just appreciate the amazing day we have planned for you, if you’re not, look out for our photos coming sometime July.

What is a Medieval Wedding?

I've said on this blog and often said elsewhere that the words "theme" and "fancy dress" are banned and I know often people don't get me, so I thought I'd try and explain.

As far as I can see there are three types of "medieval weddings".
A fancy dress wedding

Clothes have come from the costume hire shop, so they're polyester, not fitted because it's only hire. It will have the same sorts of things as the theme wedding too.

A medieval theme wedding

This would be where the bride is wearing a dress inspired by medieval style, it's probably white, it may be in a castle or old building but not essential, the main thing is the themeing of the wedding - the stationery has pictures of castles/princesses/fairy tale, table decorations, table names etc - is medieval. It would be a wedding where you'd say that they loved history/ the period.

What we call a medieval experience wedding (happy to accept suggestions for a better name)

The clothes are authentically made in nice fabrics, you feel like you've just walked out of a historical movie or TV show to be wearing these. The men are wearing leather and metal. The venues are carefully chosen for the feel, the stationery doesn't have pretty pictures of castles it looks like it's from the period, every part of the wedding is chosen for maximum authenticity, you could have stepped back in time (apart from being cleaned up of course!)

There have been a few places where we've had a debate about something, how do we incorporate it. The rule we have is as authentic as reality will allow. To be authentic we wouldn't have a bath anytime until the wedding, in reality it wouldn't go down very well if we didn't! To be authentic Mark and the other men should have a certain coloured background to their crest, in reality it won't work with the wedding colours and as we don't have to worry about their armies knowing who to follow, reality wins!

What is most important to us is that we keep our guests immersed in the wedding as much as possible, we don't want to leave people walking down the road thinking "I'm walking down Warwick high street dressed in 15th century clothing!" and start to worry about how they look, keeping the experience going the whole day will hopefully help everyone to enjoy it more and relax into it.

Food and drink!

An important part of a medieval wedding or any celebration is the food! Whilst food is one of the areas we have compromised on we've tried to keep the idea of free flowing food.

A medieval custom is that when a man from another village marries a woman he should buy all the men from her village a round of drinks to "compensate" them from losing a potential wife. Mark and I aren't quite from different villages, although we're marrying in one but we thought this was an easy one to fit in.

At the hotel there will be a light lunch with tea and coffee.

Following the service at The Lord Leycester Hospital we are having a drinks reception whilst photos are taken there.

We then move on to Warwick Castle where there will be another drinks reception and canapes.

After the drinks reception we move into the Undercroft for our four course banquet - starter, main, desert, cake - and drinks (beer, wine and soft drinks - sodas and squash for the children) will be free and unlimited. To add to the feasting there will be fruit, sweets, fudge and hot drinks following the meal.

When we return to the hotel there will be more refreshments, this is the first time that guests will need to use money as the bar will be open until 1am.

If you wish to take advantage of all the free drink, we've booked the hotel B&B for exclusive use. Warwick Castle will welcome back our guests so if you wish to stay over, you could always make a weekend of it and have a proper visit to the castle on the Sunday.

Favours

I didn't want favours to be an area where we did something that was too modern but I didn't want to do something that wouldn't be recognised for it's meaning and age - like sugar cubes or almonds.

Not long after we started planning the wedding someone told me to watch Heston's Feasts as he was doing an episode on Medieval food. One of the themes that came out was "gastronomic trickery" and he used chocolate to replace other things - cutlery, plates, cups etc. As I'm not a molecular gastronomist I couldn't really replace everything on the table with chocolate versions, but an easy version of this is chocolate coins. I'll take them out of the nets they come in and split them between the favour bags.

My grandad used to work for Cadbury's as a draftsman (which is pretty much what Mark is the modern version of) so using Cadbury chocolate for favours would be a lovely little nod to his memory as he died shortly after we started our planning. I asked my other grandad to speak to his brother as he owns a shop and he got me all the coins I need and some spare.

Doing some reading into wedding customs I found that it's supposed to be good luck to get a piece of the wedding dress and that in medieval times a bride could be almost naked by the time she reached her bedroom from guests tearing up her dress for a piece! As time went on this was dealt with by hanging ribbons to her dress for them to pull off and by the groom throwing the garter, in the ensuing chaos of the guests trying to be the one to get hold of the garter, the couple would escape.

So I thought it would be nice to make the favour bags myself and I started looking at some trying to decide how to make them and sizes. Eventually I decided that better than using just a square favour bag, would be to make a pocket - a little dolly bag to keep money in (as a child I could never understand how Lucy Locket lost her pocket but of course it was talking about this, not a modern pocket that is part of a garment) - and I thought this would be a good way to combine the tradition of taking home a piece of the dress with favours. I am going to ask the dress designer very nicely if I can have a couple of meters of my dress fabric which I'll make into pockets (if anyone would be kind enough to help me out with sewing a few, I'd be very grateful to you).

These are my two ideas for patterns so far:

This one is two piece, with a round base. The top would have a channel for a drawstring. I'm starting to think that it needs to be wider than the circle to allow it to sag otherwise it will be a tube...

This one is three piece. The semi circles are there to give a channel for the drawstring.

I think I'm leaning towards the first one but really I need to have a practice make up to see what works. Sewing with circles is always a pain, so I think either is going to be fun! If you can sew and have any suggestions, I'm happy to hear them!