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.
I think that planning a medieval wedding sort of appeals to the do it yourself characters. There aren't as many shops to buy medieval wedding stuff from as for a classic wedding, and certainly no discount medieval shops :)
ReplyDeleteBut it's a matter of being creative. Much like you we have a venue that doesn't need all the extra garnish to be medieval. It's not that expensive to get medieval food though. It's probably not the most wanted menus so they are rarely that expensive it seems.
If one is having the wedding in a "modern venue" the work and money put into creating a mood might grow. Still medieval is all about natural resources, things you find in the forest, so decorating can be very simple and something you can do yourself for free. Like pinecones, ivy, apples, moss and candles :)
We are on what I would call a medium budget. Most of the budget are dedicated to food and venue. :)
I think you're right, you can't exactly go for a "polished" look in the same way you can with a modern wedding or it doesn't look right so that really helps.
DeleteGetting the venue is a massive step towards getting the look you need and done well you can coast on it. We're not doing any decoration really - we've got candles and place settings - because the venue holds it's own and I think we'll be going the opposite direction to do anything else to it.
Sadly we don't have Medieval food, it is our big compromise area because we're aware that if we want the food we need a different venue and we couldn't beat what we have. We have a fairly modern wedding cake too (well a wedding cake is anyway) but we're trying to dress food and cake so it's sort of camouflaged.