Creating a Beautiful Medieval Themed Wedding

For your wedding day, travel back in time. Back to a time and place that was much simpler, much more relaxed and joyous. Go all the way back in time to an era before electricity, before cars and before the rat race. Let yourself and your guest relax and be a part of the merriment of medieval times.

By choosing a medieval theme for your wedding you can add elegance to even the simplest of decorations. A buffet style table for the dinner will actually look elegant and keep with the atmosphere of your wedding. So you can save money by serving food this way and your guest will never know it.

First you will need to start with the attire for you and your soon-to-be spouse along with all your wedding party. There are many shops online and even some costume shops off line that can help you with the attire for the wedding party. Choose your wedding dress based on the style of wedding dresses for that era. Do the same with the groom's attire and the rest of the wedding party. Even ask the preacher or priest who is performing the ceremony to dress according to the styles worn by clergymen back in that era also.

Horse drawn carriages are the perfect choice for arriving to the wedding and the reception. There are a lot of different choices you can make with the horse drawn carriages. Just make sure that you keep it with in the bounds of that era. Even arriving on horse back will keep with the atmosphere of your wedding day. The bride should be riding side-saddle for this to keep true to the times.

Lighting is another factor that has to be dealt with. If you truly want to keep true to the medieval era then you can not use any modern forms of lighting. You will need lots and lots of candles to light the church and reception hall. A way around this would be to hold the ceremony and reception outside during the day time. This can be restricting since it leaves you only being able to get married using this theme during warm and clear weather.

If the wedding date does not provide for appropriate weather then you will need to stock pile lots of candles and candle holders. To lend a truly authentic look to your candles use antique looking candle holders. You can find antique looking candle holders cheaply at most flea markets.

Photographs are another area where this theme helps to cut down on the entire decision making. You need to go with black and white photographs to keep with this theme. I have seen this done with black and white photographs and with photographs in color. Trust me the black and whites look so much more elegant than the ones in color did. To save some money only have a few professional photos done with a photographer. The rest can be done by your guest using black and white one time use cameras. Just hand some out and let your guest just go picture happy at the wedding and reception. You will end up with some really great candid shots that a professional photographer may miss.

For the wedding cake look into getting a cake that replicates the types of wedding cakes used during that time period. Most bakeries can pull one of these together for you. All you have to do is a little research and give the baker a clear idea of what you are wanting.

The feast at the reception can be laid out buffet style. Modern drinks of course will be served but you can add a medieval touch to all drinks by serving them in goblets. Any style of goblet will do. To save on expenses and clean up, just use paper plates for eating with. This minor detail really won't take away from the atmosphere of your wedding theme.

Now a reception would not be a reception with out some form of entertainment. This is where you can really offer your guest an experience of a life time. For the music hire a band that is good with using banjos and the likes and can really pull off some good folk music. Do some research and then try to get your guest to dance like peasants did back in medieval times. Really want to shake things up a bit. Try adding some more classical type music and see if you and your guest can pull off the styles of dances that the higher social classes did. When all else fails at least everyone will be laughing and enjoying.

A jousting competition can add some old time fun to your reception. Just create several foam jousting sticks prior to the wedding date and have them ready at the reception hall. Unless you really hate your guest you do not want them hurt so make sure to use foam when creating these.

To finish things off the groom needs to become the king of his castle. Create a stone using cardboard and paint it to look like an actual stone. Now insert a plastic sword into the stone. The groom gets to pull the sword out of the stone, reminiscing on the legend of King Arthur.