"Royal Family Ties - HRH Princess Beatrice . . . "

Greetings,

We certainly had more than our fair share of Royal news over the weekend . . . and I thought I'd take a bit of time on a Monday morning and make certain that we had all the details and traditions all organized and set straight!  Let's take a closer look at the history of last Friday morning's private ceremony for the wedding of Princess Beatrice of York and Edo Mozzi.

Because it was a private ceremony, and no details

were announced in advance . . . there seemed to

be an endless scramble to get everything documented

about Beatrice's beautiful ensemble.

So let's start from the top . . .

The Queen Mary Fringe Tiara

This has always been one of my favourite Tiaras

(if one can have such things!) . . . because of the

many formal occasions on which it has been worn.

Here is *then* Princess Elizabeth on her own

wedding day to Prince Philip wearing it.

Somewhat hilariously, it broke the morning

of her wedding and had to be repaired on site

before she left for the Abbey - you can see that

the 'spikes of diamonds' just to the left of center

look a wee bit irregular. 

Here is her mother - formerly Queen Elizabeth

- later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother wearing

the same tiara in the early 1940's.

We can even go back a generation before to see

HM Queen Mary looking every bit a monarch's consort

crowned in diamond and wrapped in pearls.

The State Gown - by Norman Hartnell

Norman Hartnell created gowns for the ladies of

The Royal Family for generations.  He designed

HM The Queen's wedding dress as well as the dress

she work for her coronation. 

This is a different dress than either of those were . . .

HM The Queen wore it to the Opening of

Parliament Ceremony in 1967 (shown above) . . .

She also wore it to the film premiere of

"Lawrence of Arabia" in the early 1960's.

Let take another look at the gown in

its current state . . .

The charming chiffon cap-sleeves are a new addition,

I wonder if it was a nod to not wearing bare shoulder

in the church.  Or maybe Beatrice just liked them?

HM The Queen is somewhat notoriously 'not tall' -

so the satin banding around the hem of the gown

was likely just to let the hem length down

to better fit HRH Princess Beatrice.

There was another lovely tradition from the wedding . . .

As with all royal brides . . . Beatrice had her bouquet

sent to Westminster Abbey to be placed on The Tomb

of the Unknown Soldier.