A kiss

The offbeat bride: Cecilie, Archaeologist (and Tribesmaid)

Her offbeat partner: Robert, IT technician

Date and location of wedding: The Nykoebing-Falster Medieval Centre, Denmark — September 8, 2012

our offbeat wedding at a glance: We are both huge history geeks since he likes famous warriors and I love material culture. Our wedding was wrapped up in a magical medieval madness, and every detail was all about history.

The guests

The rings

Busted

Robert came as a knight with chain mail, cape, and sword, while I wore a green linen dress, flowers in my hair, and a golden cross hanging around my neck. The fact that we rented a medieval museum, including their tavern which takes pride in serving original food, made it easy to set the scene. I made us both a crest that played on our personalities, like dragons and unicorns, and the tables were decorated with nothing but candles and whatever could be found in the woods that day.

About marriage

I do

Tell us about the ceremony: We got married by the lake at the museum, and wrote the ceremony ourselves. My dad spoke to us about marriage, which meant a lot to me. We also sang two songs, one of which was my favorite when I was a little girl. It's a tale of a knight who meets a maiden and asks her to marry him.

Musketeers

I had no reservations about keeping religion out of it, since in early medieval times a marriage was binding simply if a man and a woman made each other a promise of eternal love before a witness. Robert is an atheist, and even though I am a pagan, I didn't feel like mixing it into the wedding.

Rice and petals

Our biggest challenge: Our two main challenges were budget and theme. We didn't have a lot of money to spend, but because I did so much DIY, like invitations and place cards, it wasn't a problem. Having a medieval theme and wanting to make it look truly historic required a lot of research, but it was a fun challenge that gave wedding planning a new dimension.

Close

namescrolls

My favorite moment: The wedding was made extra special because of all the people who had contributed, and I loved seeing everything put together. My dad brewed a strawberry champagne in his basement, my mum altered the dress and made my bouquet and flower wreath. A cousin of mine did my hair and makeup, while my mother-in-law baked the wedding cake. The little linen pouches with rice or flower petals were my sister's doing.

1291

My funniest moment: The whole day was very casual and fun, but I was so surprised when my old granddad got up and danced with me. He is an old-school ballroom dancer kind of guy, but he got up and did a completely cool Pulp Fiction-style dance to a '60s song with me. I'll never forget that.

Closest family

Was there anything you were sure was going to be a total disaster that unexpectedly turned out great? I was excited and nervous to see what the reaction would be from our guests when they found out about the theme. Some guests were worried they had to dress up in costume, although we just told everyone to come wearing whatever they wanted. But in the end, almost everyone dived into the medieval experience, and only a couple of guests did not come in costume. My aunt even wrote us a song using an old Danish medieval tune.

Salat

My advice for Offbeat Brides: Don't stress out, if you can avoid it. I got so sick during the main course because all of the previous weeks of planning came crashing down on me, and I had to take a nap to get better. Just make sure you aren't stressing about things that are less important. You won't be able to enjoy your wedding if you are dizzy and nauseous from stress.

Invitation

What was the most important lesson you learned from your wedding? I really learned how much our families love and care for us and wanted to contribute to our wedding. Ask your family if they want to help you. My family took pride in helping with whatever skills they had, like sewing, baking, and styling.

I love your A**

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Offbeat Wed Vendor

This page features vendors from our curated Offbeat Wed Vendor Directory. They're awesome and we love them. If you're a vendor let's get you in here!

Meet our fave wedding vendors

Comments on Cecilie & Robert’s history geeks medieval wedding

  1. Dang, a photographer on my facebook a medieval wedding in my hometown and I thought this was it haha. Beautiful wedding though! That closeup of the two of you is perfection

  2. This is so wicked awesome! I wish I could have another wedding just to do this. Congrats, y’all!!

  3. I LOVE that shot of you getting it on in the hay. That’s hilarious! Also, your dress turned out beautifully. Congratulations!
    I also let stress get the best of me at dinner and could barely eat…had to dive into the “oh shit” kit snacks at midnight because I was so hungry!

  4. This is DIY heaven. This is how DIY is supposed to look-not like someone DIY-ed it! What a beautiful day! And a beautiful couple 🙂 Congrats on having such wonderful and loving friends and family who dived right into the whole day with you, it looks like it was a blast!

  5. I am so thrilled that our wedding is featured on offbeatbride! I feel so at home on this blog, and being a part of it is priceless.
    *LittleOrangeMonkeys : We were all about having fun with out photos. We only wanted a few “pretty” pictures. The rest was all about laughing and capturing our humor, which is such an important part of us.
    Corinne H.: Thank you, I had 2 years to perfect the wedding and I loved every moment og the DIY. 🙂

  6. I love how his hand is on her butt in the last photo! That is so cute and funny.

  7. This wedding looked awesome and like it was a ton of fun! I would love to be a part of a wedding like that.

Comments are closed.