BY DESIGN : In a Courtly Manner : Every bride wants to be unique. But some are going to truly unusual lengths.

To create the most memorable wedding in history, many brides are going back in time. Theme weddings are on the rise with Lady Godiva and Juliet vying these days for Scarlett’s exalted heroine status.

In fact, Barbara Tober, editor in chief of Bride’s magazine, says she is so enamored with medieval and Renaissance nuptials (the periods often meld), she recently joined the New York chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism in hopes of getting on guest lists.

“I love the chivalry, the innocence of it. They were very bloody times,” Tober concedes, “but what is being embraced in the weddings are the costumes, the charm, the beauty.”

Not to mention the drama. Rock star Dolores O’Riordan, of the Cranberries, recently shook Ireland with her medieval-gone-mod wedding.

Dubbed a “Lady Godiva wanna-be” by the British press, O’Riordan was married in Tipperary’s 814-year-old Holy Cross Abbey in an ivory costume. It consisted of a lace tank top and leggings, chiffon robe, tall lace-up boots, starburst jewelry in her navel and a sterling silver “crown of thorns” on her head, with a trailing veil attached.

Because of the veil and the robe, “she could have been Juliet,” opines Cynthia Rowley, the New York designer who created the wedding outfit, collaborating with jewelry designer Dayne Duvall.

The groom, Don Burton, wore a black leather tuxedo “that looked sort of old,” Rowley says. “But the coolest part was, he rode up with his best man on a black stallion.” O’Riordan arrived in a freshly painted white cart pulled by a white horse. Her bridesmaid, however, rode beside the cart atop a white bicycle.

“The priests were pretty cool, but Dolores sure shocked the whole country,” observes Rowley, who was there. “She wasn’t trying to be controversial, but she feels Ireland needs to make some advances. In her music, she has a lot of things to say, so I think this was saying something too.”

Huntington Beach artist-actress Ena Henderson says her fairy-tale wedding was a way of expressing gratitude to her groom “for making me feel like a princess.”

Henderson married John Burrud, a third-generation California filmmaker, at the Hyatt Regency where her father once was general manager. With her father’s experience in Renaissance banquets and her dogged research, the event was an historic marvel.

“I used every bit of the six months before the wedding,” says Henderson, who started the medieval ball rolling with a simple McCall’s pattern. A Huntington Beach seamstress made a butter-yellow and ivory drop-waisted, short-sleeved gown with a three-foot train. Then Henderson loaded it with feathers, faux gems, silk braid, and a pearl-and-gold belt. She trimmed her gauntlets with braid and crafted a hat from watercolor paper that she covered with fabric, adding a fingertip veil.

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Henderson selected the costumes and titles for the bridal party (her father was the king, her mother the queen, her stepmother a duchess). Guests had to come in medieval regalia. The minister, who stumbled over the ceremony Henderson concocted in pseudo old-English, dressed as a friar.

The groom wore black tights and boots; a green-leather vest, which Henderson ornamented with jewels and silk braid; a billowy white shirt; leather belt, and arm bands and a sword. He and his princess-bride sat on thrones, looking down as their guests feasted at long banquet tables and watched a juggler, belly dancer and sword-fighters.

“I just didn’t want it to be another wedding where you had to sit through a ceremony, then go to a place where you ate and listened to a weird band,” says Henderson, 28. “I wanted people to feel they were at a great party.”

Brides 25 and older are making theme weddings popular, says Tober, the magazine editor. “They have more fully formed personalities. They want to make a statement that says there is something special about them. When you’re much younger, you don’t have the confidence to do things like that.”

Oscar Garcia, the Long Beach florist who created Henderson’s peacock-plume bouquet and medieval table decorations (mountains of fruits and vegetables accented with fresh moss, river-polished stones, herbs, daisies, cattails, wheat), agrees with Tober.

He has done three theme weddings this year--medieval, Renaissance and flapper, with an antebellum wedding coming up. “That’s more than I’ve done in the past 15 years. All three clients were very strong women in terms of their personalities and careers--not just dreamers.”

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People who dream of fairy-tale weddings frequently call Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, the dinner theater in Buena Park where the Burruds first saw their sword fighters in action.

The restaurant’s Merrily Lennartson says most people decide to go elsewhere because of a lack of privacy. Wedding parties have to join everyone for the show and medieval dinner, which consists of roasted chicken, spare ribs and basted potatoes “all eaten with the hands.”

But a 35-year-old American bride living in Australia wasn’t deterred. “We did everything over the fax machine,” Lennartson says. “She was really into ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and she wanted to have her wedding here.”

On the other hand, memorable medieval engagements are a common occurrence. For a $25 fee, a man gets a suit of armor and a hiding place. At the appointed moment, “he pops out of nowhere to propose,” Lennartson says. “It could be in front of 300 people. That’s really taking a chance.”