The Princess Elizabeth's Wedding: HRH The Princess Elizabeth
I may be a little biased, because she is one of my faves, but I really think that Lilibet was one of the prettiest royal brides of the last century. Simple, appropriate for austere times, yet absolutely regal and gorgeous.
The tiara I've written about here a little before -- it's Queen Mary's Fringe Tiara, and this is the famous occasion where its frame snapped as it was being placed in Elizabeth's hair before she headed to the Abbey. Can you see the little extra space between the center spike and the one beside it? They fixed it, but it was still a little off-kilter for the day!
Doesn't matter, though -- still beautiful. And she and Prince Philip were quite the handsome couple:
She really did look so beautiful on her wedding day, the perfect Princess. And so young! It's rather sad to think they only had five years until the whole burden of monarchy fell on them.
It's delicious to imagine the panic when the tiara broke - imagine them all running round in their dressing gowns and curlers like every other bridal party! Apparently the flowers went missing too, until a footman remembered he'd put them in the fridge to keep them fresh.
She's very pretty and he's so handsome! But...shoot me...I don't like the dress. The skirt reminds me of a chenille breadspread of my Aunt LeeAnna's. Fussy and frou frou.
They were such an attractive couple. Harry got all the best of his granddad's looks.
The tiara is beautiful, and is surely going to be sported by Zara? The tradition would be too irresistable to resist.
I agree, Paula, the dress is not to my liking either. I think the design is slightly better than the execution, here, which is a dreadful shame. But after the war, I'm sure it looked divine and was very much in keeping with the austerity of the time. Margaret's was the better of the two, in my opinion. However, the lace veil was stunning for this one.
Thanks, dear Ella Kay, for letting us enjoy this wedding trip back through time! So enjoyable!
I also think, in her understated beauty, our Lilibet was among the loveliest brides of the 20th Century. Not so stunning as Margaret, but equally pretty and genuine...
I've always thought the off kilter tiara added an extra amount of charm to Lilibets' wedding look. Lil and Marg were both stunning young ladies. And Prince Phillip was quite the looker.
I have the book Five Golden Rings which is about royal brides from Victoria to Elizabeth II. The close-ups of the embroidery on this dress are stunning. However, the fabric is rotting quite badly. Evidently the manufacturer of the silk satin used a process called tin-weighting and it made the fabric VERY fragile. I don't think this dress will be shown very often. My mother's wedding dress was very similar, although without the embroidery. She married in 1950.
@Ky Person- that book is very good. I liked it a lot!
I too am not a fan of Lil's dress. I'm more of a person who likes wedding dresses without embroidery.
Still, the Princess looked stunning on her wedding day and the tiara is very pretty.
Oh, I think she looked beautiful. Clearly the happiest day of her life! There's a story about how they couldn't find enough seed pearls for the dress in England, so they sent someone to America to get them. At customs he was asked if he had anything to declare: "3,000 pearls for the Princess's wedding gown!" was his response.
Yes, the close up picture of Lilibet really is quite striking, albeit quite calm, compared to the royal brides we saw this last year. Did anyone else notice Philip's face, and the way he is holding on to her? What's going on here? He's obviously thinking, but what? Any comments would be appreciated.
Here's a color photo of the newlyweds, if you want to show this: http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_03/QueenDM_468x674.jpg
I also dislike the dress. It just looks TOO BIG! The skirt is okay but the bodice was not fitted correctly!