Medieval, Renaissance, or Fantasy?

The Medieval period ran approximately from the beginning of the 12th century to the late 15th century. (1066 to 1487, or 1100 to 1509, or something else depending on whom you ask.) The Renaissance period began in the late 15th century and ran through the 16th century (1485 to 1599, or some other dates, again depending on the source.) Fantasy is make-believe, though it’s quite often based around one of these two periods, and is sometimes mistaken for reality. It can be wild, with fairies and magic, or fairly mundane but historically inaccurate.

Because neither Todd nor I are scholars of history, and because we’re both pretty eclectic, and most of our friends are more into imagination than absolute hard fact, we opted for a “Themed” wedding rather than a historically accurate one. A historically accurate wedding would take a lot more research than I was interested in doing, and would restrict certain aspects of the event. I knew that if I wanted something modern, dammit, I wanted it. To each their own, though. There are plenty of resources online to help you in recreating a historically accurate wedding for whatever year or country you want. What I describe in this site is about fun, “ambiance”, and partying.

We invited our guests to dress up in “Medieval/Renaissance/Fantasy” clothing, and left it up to them. We did not insist everyone come in costume, nor did we place any restrictions upon the costumes. I was really hoping someone would show up as a leper and sit on the floor with an alms bowl…

In keeping with the theme, both Todd and I wore semi-period clothing. His included leather pants, leather boots with a modern rubber sole, a leather jerkin, and a satin shirt as well as a feathered hat. Mine consisted of a velvet gown and rhinestone jewelry. Our clothing was “semi” accurate. Rubber soles on shoes. Hammered grommets on the bodice of my dress. Silver brocade fabric which would only possibly have been available to insanely rich women, and not even sure about that. Non-natural fabrics. Dad also opted for period clothing, but he went more authentic, and even removed elastic to add ties to his shirt.

Basically, we were going for a “look and feel” instead of something that would stand up to scrutiny by scholars. It’s a party, after all, not a history lesson. If one of the kids shows up with fairy wings, hey, works for me. A "theme" wedding will be much easier to plan than a historical one. I think keeping in mind what you're going for as you're planning will help immensely in either case