Fire and Sword are involved in all aspects of the event and are working closely with Historic Scotland to create a spectacular show. Unfortunately we don't have too many pictures of the preparations and we can't tell you too much for fear of spoiling any surprises.The preparations involve everything from costuming to food preparation and require much research for us to be as true to the time as possible. Food preparation started months ago, looking through records to try to find out what was eaten at the wedding feast; little is documented so our cook devised a menu which would have been eaten at the time and includes the dishes we know were on the table.
As it would have been at the time there is too much for one person to prepare so a number of the groups are working together to produce the wedding fare. Research has included everything from learning how to make medieval pie crust to discovering table manners and etiquette; and the preparation from guilding leaves to carving moulds for sugarcraft.
All the groups involved are working on their costumes which involves making items of clothing in the materials available at the time, from hats to shoes, and if you see someone wearing spectacles - they did have them at the time.
Weaponry has to be correct, right down to the tips on the arrows, again a lot of research goes into this and the Fire and Sword archery team will have period accurate arrows on display with arrowheads hand made by a specialist medieval arrowsmith. We have also recently aquired firearms of the period, some pictures are shown here, taken at a recent display at the National war Museum.