Photos
Are you tired of pictures yet?
These are from my Fahter-in-law.

Owen Gaurdian of the Dragons. he has both Zaha and my wrist dragon, I am not sure why, but it is a cute picture.

Photo of the site, you can see the banners that I made.

My Friend and her huband who came in their Civil War costumes, they are reenacters.

Rope Dragon that owen bought me at the fair as a wedding presant, he know is on top of the blinds in the dining room (away from the rest of my dragons.)

Yet more wedding pictures
Okay thes pics are from our photographer so she holds copyright

A black and white shot of our weding cake topper dolls that I made to represent us.



A black and white shot of my grandfather in his Henery VIII costume, many have said that it looks like a still from an old movie.



Black and white shot of our wedding rings in the wooden chest and one of our program scrolls.



Black and white shot of my Father's Royal nose. "Thats Prince Blue to you!"

Color shot of the cake.

Close up of our Handfasting cords

Owen doing a Dumbledor Impression. Isn't he cute?

Wedding day
First off, those of you who have been here before may notice that I deleted some entries that list how I was progressing in my sewing. they were just lists and are no longer needed.
But this is the sewing run down.
Banners were painted and sewn in time to be given to my mom on Friday so she could put them on the poles.
Maid of Honor's dress was finished and sent to her a few weeks before the wedding so she had time to add trim.
Owen's pants, shirt and hat were finished several weeks before the wedding.
I finished hemming my dress on friday night.
I finished sewing the buttons on to his tunic, and the dolls costumes the morning of the wedding.
I quickly basted and safty pined the hem of his black velvet over tunic that morning as well. "You never saw those safty pins did you?"
Now for some pictures:

The wedding party from Left to Right:
My sister and Bridesmaid Desiree, Owen's brother and Bestman/officiant Ryan, The Bride Amanda, The Groom Owen, Our Roman Gromsman/Ringbearer Daniel, My Maid of Honor/Officiant Crystal.

Desire, Amanda and Crystal. All are wearing dresses that I made.

Ryan, Owen and Daniel. I only made Ryans vest. Ryan made Daniels Armour.

Civil Ceremony
Well I was still sewing on Thurday night, and even on friday morning while waiting to be picket up to go to the civil ceremony.
I dressed up in a knee length Navy Blue dress that his grandmother had knitted. Since it is a knitted dress I needed a slip to wear with it. The slip I made was attached to my bra and made out of cotton cut on the bias. I twisted my hair around my head a bobby-pined it in place. I had lots of fun getting the garters attached as I had never worn them before, but I thought that back seam stockings would be the most period. I had a little box purse that had a mirror in the lid and carried a comb, my make up and even the digital camera in it.
Owen was dressed in a white linen shirt and silver gray tie. I had given him these for our 8-year anniversary on April 25th. He wore his customary suit jacket and fedora.
Owen's Aunt and Uncle picked us up and took us to the county recorders ofice where we ot our marriage licence and civil ceremony. we barely had any waiting.
The civil ceremony marriage room was lovely. Wood paneled walls and wooden pews like what older churches would have. The backdrop where the bride and groom stand was made out of wire mesh, in the pattern of a double wedding ring quilt. From a distance it is hard to tell it is wire, it looked very nice.
I had forgotten the wedding rings in the car so we exchanged our other rings. (He gave me mine 6 years ago, and I gave him his 3 years ago.) Which meant that my ring went on my left index and his went on his right index. A little different but it works.
Almost right after the ceremony my hair fell. It just went whoosh and it was all down. I put it back up and we took a few more photos and it fell again. So I took out all the bobby pins and let it hang down. It looks much better when it is up with the hat.

My dress, flowers, rings, hand fasting cord
First off my dress.
looks like nothing without a body in it

My flowers

girls' flowers 1

girls' flowers 2

Swords

Rings in chest:

Handfasting cords that he has been luceting.

Civil Cermony outfit
This is the vintage dress that I will wear to the civil ceremony on Friday. His grandmother knitted? the dress, and it fits perfectly. no one in his family could fit her clothes and I do, the shoes too.

Close up of Beaded Flower on dress

This is the hat that goes with the dress. this is my concession to a veil

His outfit
First layer: offwhite cotton/linen under tunic. cut in the geometric fashion (rectangle body, trapazoide sleeves, square gussets.) Blue silk drawstring pants

Second Layer: Blue silk long tunic with center back slit, 11 buttons.

Third Layer: Black silk/Rayon velvet over tunic lined with cotton. slits at sides, lucet cord trim on collar.

Close up of buttons:

From Left to Right
The first is the black button for the velvet over tunic. this is thread wrapped over a wooden bead. there is a meatl bead in the center.
Second is a 10 mm wooden bead that was used as a base for both the black and first blue buttons.
Third is a fabric covered wooden bead before being trimed.
Fourth is a trimmed bead button
Fith is a fabric covered wooden button.
sixth is a 1/2" wooden button.
in the background arre the hand bound buttonholes on his blue tunic. I got to be able to make one in 20 min!!

New buttons process:

From Left to Right:
Fist wooden button sitting in center of wool and silk circles.
Second wooden button covered by wool.
Third button covered by silk.

pre wedding photos
here are the pre wedding photos. we will start with banners.
these are the blue celtic knots that I painted.

these are the falcons that he painted, still need boarders:

here is the sterling silver circlet:

and Owen's hat.

so that takes care of the tutorials I posted here.

My dress
Hi all.
I am just about ready to cut out my dress. I think I have decided on going with the lighter blue over the one that matches Owen's outfit.
I thought you might like to see the inspiration for my dress. it is to be a very simple dress, form fitting and laces up the front (so I can get in and out of it by myself).
now the links.
Robin Netherton's Gothic Fitted Dress Seminar
Lia de Thornegge's dress diary
Morwenna's side laced cotehardie
Cotehardies from Greenland Gowns
Silverstash's Gothic Fitted Dress

and that should give you a good idea.

Circlet
Well I was trying to figgure out what to do with my hair for the wedding. I don't want to mess with a veil, so that was out. It was customary for a bride to wear her hair down, or braided on her wedding day. the next day she would be considered a married woman and would have to wear her hair up and covered under some sort of hat for the rest of her life.
A common theme in modern Medieval/Renaissance weddings is a circlet, either of metal or flowers. I looked around and nothing striked my fancy, or fit into the budget.
So I went to my local bead store and bought some wire. I came home and made myself a simple 4 strand celtic knot wire circlet in under and hour. and it cost me less than $10.00. I have still to decide if I will add beads to it, but here is the simple tutorial. I am sure that you could use it if you wanted to. (Sorry I don't have real pictures, but I don't have a camera.)

Supplies needed
 9 feet of wire (I used 22 gauge, 24 is too soft, but you may try 20 gauge.) Price depends on wire choice.
 Round pliers I had these on hand
 Some sort of fastener. Price depends on choice
 Scrap 2 X 4 (mine was about 5 1/5 inches long) I had this on hand
 19 X 1-1/2” 1mm X 38mm Brads Found at hardware store for $1.00
 Hammer I had on hand
 Graph paper 6 squares per inch I had this on hand

First thing you need to do is measure your head.

Making the Jig
To make the jig you will need to first need to make the dots for where the pins go on the graph paper. It is very important that graph paper has 6 squares per inch. You will only be using one column one square apart. So make two dots at the intersections one square apart (1/6 of an inch apart) for your next set of dots they will be one and a half squares apart which nicely is ¼ an inch apart. The next set will again be one and a half squares apart and will line up on an intersection. Continue down a section of paper for the length of your 2 X 4.
Mark each 1 inch increment so that you can count how many inches you have done easily.
Cut out the paper and tape it on to the 2 X 4.
Hammer in a Brad at each dot. Since they are so short, I used some narrow needle nose pliers to hold them in place with one hand while hitting them with the hammer in the other. You will want to have about ¼ of an inch sticking out of the board, don’t worry if they aren’t all the same height, just try to make them straight and evenly spaced.

Manipulating the Wire
First consider your fastening options, a clasp is a very nice touch as it allows for some adjustability. Second if you are using two colors of wire, you will want to make sure that they are aligned right.
You can either cut two stands of wire and bend them in half, or cut four stands of wire and fasten them together. The choice is yours.
The length of the wire should be about 27 inches. (54 if you cut it in two pieces and bent it in half.)
Join your fastening to the ends of the wire at this time.
Lay your wire on the jig; a rubberband is helpful for keeping it in place.

The outside curve of the wire goes around the pegs, the X is in between.
Make sure that it is over and under like a Celtic Knot should be. When you reach the end of your 2 X 4, peel it off and set the last inch or so on the top and continue working until you have the length you want.
You should make it about 1 inch shorter, for fastening room. (2 inches shorter than the desired finished length if you want to stretch it to bring it tighter and closer.)
After you have it to the length you think you want it, peel it off the board and measure it.
If it is too short, put it back on the board and continue.
If it is too long, just unweave it a bit.
I decided after peeling it off the board that giving it a small tug made the weave tighter and closer together. This does give you some extra length if you do this, but it is less likely to stretch even more later.
Then add the other end of your fastening or use jump rings.
The finished width will be about ¼ inch wide.

You may wish to add beads dangling from the band for even more beauty. Or add ribbons to the back. Use your imagination and be creative.

This could also make a nice bracelet or necklace.