Our wedding festival was a self-created renaissance style event. My wonderful bride Sandy,  her way awesome sisters, and her mom (The most amazing human being in my life to this day. Her story is by far a greater tell than any I could even imagine. Knowing her has improved my desire to be more forthright in all of my endeavors and to believe in a greater power than myself.) were in charge of the fine decorations and I and my guys were responsible for the canvas which they decorated to perfection by my view of it.

Nicole Tadgel, Sandy, Mom, Susan Schmiesser

My Bride, Sandy,  with her sisters and Mom 

      I began my side of the creation with sewing some 18 cloaks from 2 bolts of fabric my Bride and I found after drudging through some 10 or so fabric shops. We were seeking some cloth that gave the cloaks an old world look but also a regal type liner material was needed. The Idea was for the men who wore the cloaks to wear them with the flashier bright crimson liner on the out side for the beginning of the service. This was to symbolize the knave type nature of the single man I was. Then as I took vows to be with my lovely bride till death do us part, they were to turn to the outer layer of drab cotton to indicate that I was no longer a seeker of attention from others as I had found the last person I ever wanted to be with. Success was found at a shop on Long Island and I began the task of sewing the cloaks we wanted in our wedding.
       Task 2 was to find a location we could remake so that it seemed medieval. We scouted for this all over NY and finally found it in a state park in Orient Point NY. The pavilion was just large enough and had a vaulted roof supported with laminated beams that gave the look of a great hall. After finding this structure we began designing our event.

       Task 3 was to assemble everything we needed. This included sources for these supplies and a way to collect and transport them all to the site. Enter Ryder truck rental.

A 28' truck became the collection, storage and delivery system for the wedding. AKA wedding in a box.
      Task 4 was the day before the wedding to go with the truck and get 50 bales of hay, a pallet of pumpkins (some 140 of varying sizes), and about 100 perennials from our good friends at Talmage Nurseries. I then set out to pick up the various cuts of meat from BJs and Pheasants from Milosky's turkey farm in Calverton NY.

Task 5 had me in the back of the truck with my oversize cutting board, a folding chair, various knives, and a few pales with new garbage bags filled with marinades for each of the meats. There I was until 2:30 am cutting and plopping pieces of beef and pork into their respective seasoned juices and of course doing a once over on the Pheasant which thankfully was unneeded. The folks at Milosky's did a great job so the birds were very clean of feathers and fatty parts. A small pig was also brought by my best mans brother Jarod, who I have shared many a commercial kitchen with on eastern LI. We had sooo much great roasted food. Several meats, sweet potatoes, and acorn squash all on an open wood fired grill. Jarod was the King of the grill. Thank you brother Jarod. We found through our friend Karen Gebhardt the most awesome artisan breads from Featherstone in NYC that also helped to set the vibe.

This Beautiful Medievil Helmut 

is a replica of a 1300AD crusader

It comes with a stand.

       $167.97

   Task 6 was to get the site set up in 3 hours so the ladies had some time to do their thing with the toule and flowers as well as the dining set up. They placed a bottle of Meade at each table, some breads and decorative fare. I tossed bales to my guys and directed them to where I felt they would improve the setting most. I had also cut banners   that were about 5 feet long and 20 inches wide at the top out of varying colors of material in the days before but they still needed designs on them. So in between the tossing of bales, I strung an impromptu clothes line down the inside of the truck and hung them from it so I could hold stencils (also cut out days before) of chevrons and shields and spray paint them while waiting for the guys to return  for the next load of bales and instructions. The overall effect was incredible when we were done. The site looked amazing. Even the state park police were so fascinated that they called the other 4 parks on eastern Long Island to get the officers from them to come over and see it and of course the weapons tournament  that was held too. I participated and won with all events and overall points but was the ruling entity of said event. So I ceded the win to Ghost, a friend who had a leather shop on the cape during the 70's.He was also a founder of FALO a group to which my lovely wife and her sister Nicole Tadgel ( a renowned children's book illustrator) belonged in their teens and twenties. The wedding went on and Sandy took my hand to place the ring and was humorously aghast at my paint-covered fingers. She gently smiled and slid the ring on and there it has stayed for near a decade now. There was a taste of what she has contended with in our lives together and the reason for the dichotomy that is My Shabby Streamside Studio (ladies lair) and The Actual Man Cave.
      Ceilidh dancers and a 4 piece renaissance band also performed at our wedding. The band, literally made up of rocket scientists of a sort from Brookhaven National Laboratory, played all period instruments.

Thanks for reading about our wedding   
               See you around the cave
                         Cave dweller