Out of Pocket

Wow, Keri! Congratulations!!!

Have a wonderful ceremony and a fabulous honeymoon!
Best wishes....

CONGRATULATIONS, Keri!  That is awesome.  Your dress sounds wild!  Have a blast!!!

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you!

Welcome back, Keri!!!
Congrats to you and hubby!

http://www.angelfire.com/tn2/peardon/weddingpics

This is just a picture a friend took; I haven't gotten pictures back from the photographer yet.

I made all of mine and Stuart's outfits. His red outfit is made from silk and brocade and all those gold lines you see--with the exception of his necklace--is beaded trim--102 inches of it. Made by yours truly. The gold on his hat is also a row of beaded fringe--about 20-22 inches of that. The gold dots are wooden beads that I painted myself and sewed on as buttons. There are 33 of those. All of the buttonholes are hand-stitched as well. All visible edges are hand-hemmed and the collar was set on by hand as well. He's also wearing a linen undershirt that I made which is not visible. It was all hand-hemmed as well.

My dress is three layers, with a cotton flannel undedress which is not visible. It has 44 hand-stitched eyelets. My overdress is gold silk with my arms (as in "coat of arms") embroidered and beaded on one sleeve cuff, and Stuart's on the other. It has around 36 hand-stitched eyelets. My surcoat is a heavy cotton twill base, to which is hand-sewn rabbit fur (boy, was that ever a mess to cut out and piece together!!!) and 4 2/3 yards of brocade. I then sewed approximately 13,000 beads to the brocade, following its pattern. All of the edges and hem of the surcoat are hand-hemmed. I also made my beaded earrings and hair combs. My cross necklace is actually a solid piece of bead embroidery, backed by leather, and hung from a beaded necklace. It features sal***er pearls, jade, green averterine and gold-plated beads.

Lucikly for me, my mother made the dog's barding and bow! And even she has a few silver beads sewn onto her barding. Stuart made his black belt, although I had to help mark all of the studding.

Stuart's boots are authentic reproductions. My shoes aren't visible, but are also good reproductions as well (the only anachronism both my shoes and his boots have is that they have a tiny heel). Not visible are his spurs, which I bought for him a couple of Christmases ago; they are authentic brass reproductions of actual medieval spurs. Both of our outfits are almost completely authentic to about the mid-14th century. I made my own clothing patterns, which are historically accurate. Our fabrics--namely the brocades--would have been something they could have created in the 14th century, although they're not actually made from known patterns; they are made from less-used materials, such as cotton (mine), and unknow materials, such as rayons and polyesters (Stuart's). While I have no examples of beading such as I did on mine and Stuart's outfits, I have seen and read about beaded cotehardies, so I know that beads-on-clothing was done in the middle ages. Oddly enough, medieval women at this time aren't painted wearing any jewelry, despite our having dug up a good deal of it from that time, so it's harder to tell if what I wore is accurate. Crosses would have certainly been worn (although who knows if they ever beaded any) and I'm actually pretty confident about the earrings (simple beaded loops on fishhook wires). I don't know if they had hair combs, but they had reguar combs and all sorts of hair jewelry, so it's possible. Mine and Stuart's wedding bands are reproductions of some they dug up in England and are in a museum in Oxford.

My guts were almost always perfect the whole trip! Which is really saying something considering I took my last dose of antibiotics (for a cold) the day before my wedding. I did get nauseated during one dinner, but I think that was because I hadn't had a proper breakfast and no lunch, and then putting heavy seafood in cream sauces on an empty stomach didn't set too well. I had to take an extra dose of Welchol some days, but other than that, no real problems.