Celebrity Weddings

Royal Wedding Dresses

By wendylady2 on | From wendylady2.livejournal.com

A RIGHT ROYAL AFFAIR !!...

THE BEST ROYAL WEDDINGS DRESSES

With the Royal Marriage of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton taking place next Friday, I thought that it would be interesting to have a look at what other royal brides have chosen to wear when treading that bridal path, over the last hundred years or so...there have been some amazing wedding gowns designed for royalty over the years and our own immediate royal family is not the only aristocratic family to make sure that their wedding gowns are memorable...but we'll start with them anyway !!

First off, I wanted to show you this - this is a short little video featuring Historic Royal Palaces senior curator Dr Joanna Marschner who explains the history and detail of six very rare royal wedding dresses, and except for Princess Margaret's dress from 1960, they are dresses which date from before my own starting date here...including that of Princess Charlotte ( m. 1816) and Queen Victoria( m. 1840 )

Here, for all of you who were enchanted, as I was, with Princess Charlotte's wedding dress, is a photograph:-

Isn't it exquisite ?!!...

The first royal wedding dress I'm looking at in this piece, dates from 1923, and belongs to a dearly beloved and fondly remembered member of the current royal family...

PRINCE ALBERT & ELIZABETH BOWES-LYONS

26th APRIL 1923

The Lady Eizabeth Bowes-Lyons became, of course our very own Queen Mother, who passed away back in 2002, but when she was a young lass, she fell for her handsome prince, who was destined to become the future King George V, and the parents of our current Queen...

She chose what was considered to be a very daring choice at the time - departing from tradition and taking up with new trend of the day - this was a full length dress in the new-fangled 'flapper style' with a dropped waist, giving her a boyish silhouette, and quite a few commentators from the time considered it to be very unflattering !! It was one of three designs submitted for her perusal and this was the one she chose, which was then specially made-to-measure for her by her dressmaker, Madame Handley Seymour.

The traditional family portrait, with the new Princess Elizabeth's parents on the left hand side, and her new husband Prince Albert ( later to become King George VI ) with his parents King George V and Queen Mary on the right...

Recently, the prototype of this dress was auctioned in Bristol and was sold for £3,500 - here is a close up shot of the bodice showing the intricate beading in straight rows across the chest...

Interestingly, she and her fiancé decided that their wedding would be a very public affair, held in Westminster Abbey and attended by hundreds of guests and filmed for newsreels in order to lift the nation's spirits after the ravages of the World War I, which had ended five years previously...this was essentially the first public Royal Wedding, in front of the nation, and set the tradition for all royal weddings to come...

HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II & HRH PRINCE PHILIP

20th NOVEMBER 1947

In November the eldest daughter of King George VI, and the immediate heir to the throne, Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten of Greece...

Princess Elizabeth's wedding dress was designed by the famous British couturier of the day, and a favourite with the royal family for great occasion dresses - Norman Hartnell - who was also responsible for the Queen's Coronation dress in 1952...

The traditional family portrait with all the important members of the immediate royal family - Queen Elizabeth and King George V can be seen on the right hand side...
Here, below is the first of the 'happy couple' portraits taken in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace - this particular style of photograph has become a big tradition with the royal family - almost every couple have been snapped by the official photographer standing and/or sitting on these steps - it seems to be a particular tradition for the heirs to the throne actually ...

On to the actual dress then - I managed to get some really good pictures showing close-up details of all the amazing embroidery, and other bits and pieces...

In order to pay for her wedding dress, Elizabeth famously saved up ration cards to purchase the material needed. The beautiful gown was made of ivory duchess satin and decorated with around 10,000 white pearls imported from America, silver thread and tulle embroidery. Her bridal ensemble also included a 15-foot patterned full court train attached at the shoulders, and a silk tulle veil held in place by a tiara lent to the princess by her mother. On her feet, she wore ivory duchess satin high heels, embellished with silver and pearls.

Here are close-ups of the bodice showing some of the amazing embroidery encrusting the entire dress, and her wedding shoes in their boix...

Here is her beautiful and very modern looking tiara, which was lent to her by her mother...
This tiara (which can also be worn as a necklace) was made for Queen Mary in 1919. It is not, as has sometimes been claimed, made with diamonds that had belonged to George III, but rather, it re-uses diamonds taken from a necklace/tiara purchased by Queen Victoria from Collingwood & Co as a wedding present for Queen Mary in 1893. In August 1936 Queen Mary gave the tiara to Queen Elizabeth, from whom it was borrowed by Princess Elizabeth for her wedding - this was her 'something borrowed'...

It converts into a necklace by being unclipped from the thin gold base circlet, and letting it become a loose flexible necklace when you turn it upside-down - absolute genius !!

Below are the two sketches by Norman Hartnell for her beautiful wedding dress on the left, and also her exquisite bridesmaids dresses on the right...

This is the Bridesmaid dress belonging to Lady Pamela Mountbatten, cousin to Prince Philip and a former Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen...she was one of eight bridesmaids chosen to help her up the aisle...

PRINCESS MARGARET & ANTHONY ARMSTRONG-JONES

6th MAY 1960

This was also the first royal wedding ever televised, and was watched by over 300 million viewers worldwide...an amazingly high figure considering that not everyone had a television set at that time...
Her affair with Anthony Armstrong-Jones had been kept very much a big secret after all the public kerfuffle about her affair with Group Captain Peter Townsend, who she was forbidden to marry because he was a divorced man...
I have to say that it appears she had the most appalling choices to make about this affair, because the protocol of the time dictated that she had to renounce her right of succession if she insisted on marrying a divorced man - just like King Edward VIII before her, the same question of marrying the wrong person reared its ugly head...she decided, after much soul-searching that she didn't want to take away the right of succession from any children she may have in the future, and so she broke off the affair and broke her own heart in the process...

When she met Anthony Armstrong-Jones, later Lord Snowdon of course, she found love again, but kept the whole affair very hush-hush, as she couldn't face the inevitable media attention, so the announcement of their engagement took everyone by surprise !! They were married in Westminster Abbey on May 6th 1960...

Designed by royal favourite Norman Hartnell, Princess Margaret's dress was made of silk organza, and involved 40 yards of fabric in the skirt, supported by a stiffened tulle underskirt to make it stand out...

The dress is remarkably plain for a royal wedding dress, but it set a precedent for more modern styles - it was actually her future husband Tony Armstrong Jones, renowned for his keen eye for design, who suggested that with her petite frame and low height, she should choose a classic unfussy style that would help streamline her look. So there was no lavish embroidery, thick antique heirloom lace or any other heavy embellishment. The bodice had a V-neckline to elongate the line from face to waist and the sleeves were also long and slim, all contributing to make her look taller than she actually was.

Thus Princess Margaret's wedding dress was very simple and uncluttered and the oval-shaped, silk tulle veil was satin bound. All in all, her wedding dress looks very classy nearly 50 years on.

The Poltimore tiara, made in 1870 for Lady Poltimore, was bought at auction specially for Margaret. Her hair was augmented with a hair piece to combine with the tiara to add extra height to the pint-sized princess. Incidentally, this tiara also converts, very cleverly into a necklace and three brooches - by turning it upside-down and undoing the component bits - here's how it comes apart:-

How utterly amazing !! This tiara was sold at Christie's Auction House by her two children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, in June 2006 for $1,704, 600, in a grand sale of her jewellery after her death, to cover the crippling cost of death duties...

PRINCESS ANNE & CAPTAIN MARK PHILLIPS

14th NOVEMBER 1973

In 1973, the daughter of the Queen, Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips, in an amazingly ground-breaking dress designed by Maureen Baker, who was the Chief Designer at the Susan Small label, a firm favourite of Anne's for many years...

The bodice featured a high stand-up neckline with pin-tucking detail all down the bodice in lines, and the most enormous bell-sleeves with a medieval style over-sleeve trailing down - very unusual and very individual - I have absolutely no doubt that Anne had a huge amount of input into the design of this dress...

As with Kate Middleton's dress, the designer identity was successfully kept under wraps until the actual day of the wedding, and of course, no-one was privy to what the design actually looked like until she stepped out of the coach at Westminster Abbey !!

I remember this wedding first-hand myself, and I also remember my mother being very enthusiastic about this design, but I can't love it really - the high-necked bodice looks so buttoned up and stiff and the bell-sleeves look huge and unwieldy...however, this dress does convey a very strong sense of personal style, and is very much a matter of personal taste - many, many people really liked her choice of a smaller British design firm and the unusual style she chose !!

Incidentally, she borrowed her own mother's wedding tiara which converts into a necklace, just like Princess Margaret's does...and it suited her plain and simple but very strong style extremely well...

PRINCE CHARLES & LADY DIANA SPENCER

29th JULY 1981

In 1981, Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer, the mother of William and Harry of course, and she looked absolutely radiant in her iconic dress...

Design team David and Elizabeth Emanual were selected to produce the wedding dress for Lady Diana Spencer, soon to be known as Princess Diana. It was made of silk taffeta and featured embroidery, lace, sequins and pearls -- 10,000 pearls. It also involved a 25 foot train, large puffy sleeves and lace at the neckline. This dress has become one of the most photographed and exhibited dresses in the world, as it has gone on tour across America with the 'Princess Diana' exhibition...

Here is the original sketch for Diana's dress from the design studio of Elizabeth Emanuel...

For Emanuel, that life-changing event had begun five months earlier with a phone call bringing news beyond a young designer's wildest dreams.Here is an excerpt from a very revealing interview with Elizabeth Emanuel at the time :-

"The whole experience was such a life-changing event for us," Elizabeth Emanuel said."I was in a fitting at the time, and the phone kept ringing and no one would pick it up, and I was probably a bit stressed out anyway with the fitting and everything, and I picked up the phone and it was Diana herself. And the fact that she called us up herself and said, 'Would you do us - do me the honour of making my wedding dress?'"

Diana chose a design from the rails in the Emanuels' studio. During the months that the wedding dress for a princess was coming together, everyone wanted to know what it would look like. So the Emanuels designed elaborate subterfuge to safeguard their work.

"All the windows had blinds down so nobody could look in - we used to leave false trails of thread outside, because there would be newspaper people going through all the rubbish bins, looking for scraps of fabric. So we used to leave different colored threads and wrong coloured fabrics just to throw them off the trail. The fabric was specially made for us, using the silk from British silk worms. And the lace was specially handmade for us. It would be impossible to duplicate," Emanuel said.

By the time the royal wedding day arrived, Diana had rehearsed walking with the heavy 25-foot train -- the longest in royal history. Elizabeth Emanuel helped dress the bride that July morning, and recalled an atmosphere filled with joy.

"The bridesmaids were there, the TV on, people outside screaming -- Diana was in a great mood, singing. The girls were drinking orange juice, cookies. It was quite fun," she said. "They were speculating on TV what she was going to look like, and of course we knew, so it was great fun."

***ATTENTION PLEASE !!***

Here is the Spencer family tiara, worn by Princess Diana on her wedding day - and please note - this is the tiara that has been offered to Kate Middleton for her wedding day on Friday - so look out for it !!

From the official description in the Princess Diana Exhibition :-

The Spencer Gold Tulip Tiara c.1830

A gold tiara in the form of scrolling foliage and tulip and star shaped flowers decorated with diamonds in silver settings. Although the Spencer tiara is traditionally believed to have been made in 1767 the style would suggest a date around the 1830s. The tiara has been remounted in the 20th century and the small scrolls at either end are what remains of an earlier setting.

PRINCE ANDREW & MISS SARAH FERGUSON

23rd JULY 1986

A few years later, Prince Charles's younger brother Prince Andrew followed his elder brother up the aisle of Westminster Abbey, for his marriage to Lady Sarah Ferguson,

Sarah’s wedding dress was deemed a huge success by fashion designers and royal watchers. Designed by Linka Cierach, a couturier who had a modest shop in Fulham, West London, the dress was a very ornate, Edwardian-style gown of ivory satin, heavily embroidered with anchors and waves - all symbols alluding to Andrew’s naval career - and bees and thistles, symbols of Sarah’s own coat of arms. Completing the intricate embroidery was the letter "S" on the bodice. It also featured the heavily padded shoulders with slightly leg-of-mutton sleeves that were very popular in the 80s...
The train was 17 1/2 feet in length, with a large bead-worked letter "A" near the end. Sarah's veil was of pure silk and the edging embroidered with hearts and sequins, and was anchored in place by a diamond tiara lent to Sarah by her mother-in-law, the Queen. Her shoes were covered in matching beaded duchess satin, and sewn into the underskirt of Sarah's dress were several blue bows containing good-luck messages from her family.

In her arms, Sarah carried an S-shaped bouquet created from gardenias, cream lilies, yellow roses, lilies of the valley and a sprig of myrtle – traditional in all British royal wedding bouquets.

The four bridesmaids wore frothy dresses of peach taffeta silk, trimmed in ecru and peach cotton lace and beautiful floral headdresses. The page boys, including a four year old Prince William here, wore midshipmen and sailor's uniforms of the Royal Navy from 1782, complete with sailor hats.

DAVID ARMSTRONG-JONES (VISCOUNT LINLAY) & MISS SERENA STANHOPE

8th OCTOBER 1993

Viscount Linley is of course, the son of Princess Margaret and he married Lady Serena Stanhope at St Margaret's Church in Parliament Square on the 8th October 1993...they met when her father, the Earl of Harrington, commissioned David to make a new walnut dining table for the family home in Chelsea...
Here she is, accompanied by her father up the aisle to meet her future husband...

Designed by young couturier Bruce Bobbins, her £5,500 dress, with its fitted oyster-satin bodice and full tulle skirt, was a little reminiscent of Princess Margaret's 1960 wedding gown, in that it was very plain and a beautiful cut, rather than embellished with any embroidery or beading...and has the same deep V shaped neckline and long sleeves. Serena's diamond tiara (on loan from her soon-to-be mother-in-law) and her upswept blonde hair (arranged by Nicky Clarke for a reported £900) gave her the air of a latter-day Princess Grace.

I like her dress enormously, for its flattering neckline and also the unusual arrangement of the top layer coming together in a knot at her waist. She really does remind me of Princess Grace - see further down for her beautiful dress...

PRINCE EDWARD & SOPHIE RHYS-JONES

20th JUNE1999

This was the year that the youngest of the Queen's children finally got married, and his bride was Miss Sophie Rhys-Jones - later they became the Earl and Countess of Wessex, bestowed upon them as a wedding present from the Queen. Prince Edward will also take over the title 'Duke of Edinburgh' on the death of Prince Philip...

Royal bride Sophie Rhys-Jones wore a simple ivory silk and organza coat-dress with a long train, and carried a bouquet of ivory roses. The dress, by designer Samantha Shaw, was made of hand-dyed silk organza and hand-dyed silk crepe. It was full-length, with long sleeves.
The detail on the dress consisted of rows of pearls and crystal beading around the neck, sleeves and train, with further beading down the back and front.
In total, 325,000 cut-glass and pearl beads were sewn on the dress, which was corseted inside and featured a deep wide v-neck.

The bride also wore a black-and-white pearl necklace, interspersed with white gold rondels, and a matching pair of black-and-white pearl drop earrings, designed by Prince Edward and made by Asprey and Garrard as a wedding gift from him. She also wore a diamond tiara, borrowed from the Queen's private collection, consisting of three open-work scroll motifs, designed and remodelled by the Crown Jeweller, David Thomas, at Asprey and Garrard.

I loved this dress - it's very simple, but romantic and flattering, and I love the fact that the royals are quite happy to remodel valuable bits and pieces, like the tiara that Sophie wore, to fit whoever is wanting to wear it...that makes me feel as if they value all their jewellery as living pieces, to be used and worn, and not stowed away in a museum...

PRINCE CHARLES & CAMILLA PARKER-BOWLES

9th APRIL 2005

In April 2005, Prince Charles finally did what he should have done years ago and got hitched to his true soul-mate, Camilla Parker-Bowles...everything would have been so different if he had decided to commit to Camilla, and had a 'yes' to a marriage proposal the first time around, when they were both in their twenties...of course, we wouldn't be having the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton this week, but there you go ...that's history in the making !!

The mid-calf dress and coat ensemble worn by Camilla consisted of a very elegant cream silk chiffon dress hemmed with vertical rows of appliquéd woven disks, underneath an ivory silk basket-weave coat with herringbone embroidery. The whole ensemble was designed for her by Robinson Valentine...

Her hat designed by milliner Philip Treacy and consisted of ivory straw overlaid with ivory French lace and feathers. She wore pale beige suede, 2-inch high court shoes with almond-coloured toes, designed by Linda Bennett of 'L K Bennett' fame.... Her little clutch was made of embossed calf leather and lined with suede, and came from from Launer's "East-West" collection.

Camilla had her blond highlights retouched and wore her hair in the flicked-back style by Gugh Green of Hugh and Stephen. Her make-up was done by Julia Biddlecombe.

The whole wedding outfit was described by the Press as "elegant, glamorous, and feminine" - a description which I would wholeheartedly agree with - I loved her dress and coat and I thought that she pitched her outfit exactly right for someone of slightly older years who was getting married for the second time...

Prince Charles did not wear a military uniform, but wore a formal morning suit consisting of grey trousers, a silver tie, a charcoal long coat, and a cross-over waistcoat. I thought that his wedding outfit was exceptionally smart and entirely proper morning dress for a morning wedding ceremony !!

After the marriage ceremony they went off to the St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle for the Church of England blessing on their union, for which she changed into another outfit which was equally elegant...a porcelain-blue silk coat-dress with the slightest of trains, that was woven with five varieties of gold thread. The effect, intricate yet subtle, made the bride glow in the light of St. George's Chapel. She wore grey silk shoes, from L K Bennett again, and a gold-tipped feathery fascinator-style hat, designed also by Philip Treacy...

PETER PHILLIPS & AUTUMN KELLY

17th MAY 2008

Peter Phillips is the son of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips of course, and he and his Canadian girlfriend, Autumn Kelly decided to get married in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle...she looked lovely in a wedding dress designed by little known designer Sassi Holford, who created a beautiful gown and lace bolero jacket...

When Autumn Kelly made her visit to Sassi Holford's bridal shop in London's Fulham Road, she was simply an attractive blonde who wanted to look beautiful on her wedding day... here is an interview with the designer herself:-

"She was incognito," says Sassi, "She made an appointment just like a regular client. It wasn't until her second visit she told me, 'I think I should mention I am marrying Peter Phillips, it's going to be a Royal wedding.' Her main concern was that the dress expressed her personality, but most importantly was appropriate."

Sassi's first concern was almost disbelief. "I couldn't believe that after 27 years, here I was making a bridal gown for a royal wedding. It's the sort of thing that only happens once in a lifetime, if at all. It's not as if I am a big celebrity choice; I am a bit of a hidden secret."

Sassi says, "Right from the start, Autumn Kelly and I completely understood each other. She wanted a dress which was romantic and classic. She had found out about me because some of her friends who got married in London had chosen me to design their wedding dresses.

"Our ideas completely matched. My absolute icon of wedding perfection is Grace Kelly. When she married Prince Rainier in Monaco, she looked breathtaking, glamorous, and she did not show an ounce of flesh. That principle has always guided me and it has never dated: you don't need cleavage to look beautiful on your wedding day."

Autumn's desire to look romantic, but understated was perfectly expressed in Sassi's design of a classic gown with fitted strapless bodice and a graceful A-line skirt in Italian duchesse silk and French Chantilly lace, matched with a short bolero jacket of the same lace and a hand-embroidered and beaded silk tulle veil, over her hair in a high chignon style.

"She didn't want to stand out in a glaring way, so we made the front quite regal and then at the back of the dress I expressed her vivacity, sense of humour and personality with little lace bows. She was completely delightful to work with, very easy-going and very composed considering it was such a high-profile wedding."

Here is the immediate wedding party, complete with bridesmaids in their sage-green dresses designed by Vera Wang...

The marriage of Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly was the last British Royal Wedding before the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton this Friday...we shall, of course, await the appearance of Kate outside Westminster Abbey, with complete calm and decorum, and give her outfit all the attention it deserves after the event !!

Until then, I shall be speculating wildly, along with the rest of the fashion world, about who has landed the royal commission of a lifetime, and got to design her dress, and everything else, with my next post...

Meanwhile, here are some other interesting royal weddings from around Europe and the rest of the world to keep you all going until Friday morning...

OTHER ROYALTY

PRINCE RAINIER & GRACE KELLY

18th APRIL 1956

First off, this is probably the most famous bride from European royalty of the 20th century - the fairytale story of the Hollywood actress who married a prince and got herself a country, even though it is only a tiny Principality, caught the imagination of just about everyone at the time !! She was already a very popular actress of the day, reknowned for her extraordinarily cool beauty...and was famous for quite a few appearances, in some very iconic films, like Hitchcock's 'Rear Window' 'To Catch a Thief'and 'Dial M for Murder', and also 'High Society' and 'High Noon'...

The wedding gown was made from antique Valenciennes rose point lace, twenty-five yards of silk taffeta and ninety eight yards of tulle. Her veil was covered with appliquéd lace lovebirds and thousands of seed pearls.The lace decorating upper bodice and high neck of the wedding gown was a decorous choice for an actress who could have absolutely no doubt cast upon her suitability as a royal bride and princess.

As a very interesting side-note, apparently Prince Rainier immediately banned the showing of films in Monaco with Grace Kelly in the cast. Fiction was not to be blurred with fact, and it's still against the law in Monaco to show films featuring Grace Kelly !!

The whole wedding attire was designed by Helen Rose, wardrobe designer at MGM. The studio's wardrobe department made the wedding dress as a gift to her from MGM. At the time, film star Grace Kelly was tied to an MGM contract for another seven years, and in order to get out of her contract, Grace Kelly had to agree to the wedding being filmed by MGM for worldwide distribution. In later days she regretted the filming intruding on her wedding day.

KING ABDULLAH & QUEEN RANIA OF JORDAN

10th JUNE1993

Rania Al Abdullah has been the queen of Jordan since 1999, when her husband Abdullah became king. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, Rania graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1991. She worked briefly for Apple Computer in Amman, Jordan before meeting Prince Abdullah at a dinner there in 1993. They were married later that year, on 10 June 1993. Upon the death of his father, King Hussein in 1999, Abdullah became king as he was the eldest son of his father's second wife...and Rania became queen of Jordan.

The future queen, destined to grace international best-dressed lists, wore a gold-trimmed, short-sleeve gown by British designer Bruce Oldfield for the traditional Muslim ceremony. Her choice of Oldfield would invite comparisons to the United Kingdom's stylish Princess Diana who often turned to Oldfield for her custom formal attire.

CROWN PRINCE HAMZEH & PRINCESS NOOR OF JORDAN

27th MAY 2004

Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein of Jordan is the eldest son of the late King Hussein bin Talal and his fourth wife, Queen Noor of Jordan. Princess Noor Al-Hamzah is the daughter of Prince Asem bin Nayef and Princess Firouzeh. The couple were married in a private ceremony at Al Baraka Palace, Amman, on August 29, 2003. The official wedding ceremony was held in Amman on May 27, 2004. Crown Prince Hamzah wore his military uniform, his head covered in a traditional red-white chequered keffieh. Princess Noor wore a white lace dress and a white lace mantilla covered her head.

The couple have known each other for years, mainly through family events, as they are cousins. Though politically effective, unusually, their marriage was not arranged. "They are deeply in love," one relative said. The couple lives in the USA at the moment.

This is a very beautiful dress indeed - graceful and romantic, with all that thick lace - and very covered up in the Muslim tradition...she looked absolutely lovely...

PRINCE EDOUARD DE LIGNE DE LA TREMOILLE & ISABELLA ORSINI

7th SEPTEMBER 2009

Edouard is the son of Charles-Antoine Lamoral, Prince de Ligne de La Tremoille, the third cousin once removed of Michel, the 14th prince of Ligne. Michel is the current head of the House Of Ligne, one of the oldest and most prestigious Belgian noble families dating back to the 11th century.

Prince Edouard's marriage to Italian actress Isabella Orsini took place in the family's ancestral home, a 12th century castle in Antoing in Belgium.

She wore a beautiful strapless A-line wedding dress by designer Gerald Watelet, topped off with a delicate lace jacket, and a traditional veil was adorned by a sparkling tiara made up of aquamarine gems and diamonds. I specifically chose this Royal wedding because her dress bears striking similarities to one or two of the dresses I featured in my last post, looking at Bridal Fashion Week over in New York recently, especially with the use of a lace long-sleeved jacket to cover up a strapless dress...

I also loved her beautiful blue aquamarines in her head-dress - absolutely gorgeous !!

CROWN PRINCE FREDERIK OF DENMARK & MISS MARY DONALDSON

14th MAY 2004

The Crown Prince of Denmark, Frederik was a member of the Olympic Danish sailing team, and he met Mary over drinks at the Slip Inn in Sydney, Australia, where the Summer 2000 Olympics were being held !! They fell in love and got married at Copenhagen Cathedral in May 2004.

Her exceptionally gorgeous wedding dress was designed by Danish designer Uffe Frank, and featured an off-the-shoulder boat neckline and waterfall pleats down the skirt which revealed an underskirt of 100 year-old Irish lace...and the sleeves have been dubbed 'Calla-sleeves' as they fold around the arm like the petals of a Calla Lily...

Here is the original design sketch by Uffe Frank :-

PRINCE JOACHIM OF DENMARK & MARIA CAVALLIER

24th MAY 2008

When Prince Joachim of Denmark split from his first wife, Alexandra, in 2005, he was the first in Europe's oldest monarchy to divorce in 160 years.

Looking radiant on the arm of her new husband, Prince Joachim, the French-born bride chose an off-white full-skirted gown designed by Arasa Morelli, and made of 19th century-inspired Calais lace and tulle. The lace-bodiced dress also boasted a train measuring three metres long.

For her "something borrowed", the bride wore a stunning tiara from her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe, dating back to the 1890s. It held her lace-bordered tulle veil in place. It has been something of a royal tradition to borrow a tiara from your future mother-in-law, it seems - practically every wedding featured in this post is a similar story...

Paying homage to the region of her future home, the bride's bouquet contained winter barley from the fields of Schackenborg, where Joachim has his official residence. The flowers also featured 200-year-old myrtles from Fredensborg Palace, an key ingredient in all Danish royal bouquets.

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I hope you've enjoyed this piece about the Royal Wedding dresses and other accoutrements from the last hundred years or so...next up will be my look at the major Fashion Designers who have sketched what they think Kate Middleton should wear for her historic walk down the aisle this Friday, and also I shall be talking about the speculation over who will get this major design commission !!

Whoever it turns out to be will be guaranteed immediate inundation with orders for copies for the next five years or so... and they can pretty much charge what they like !!

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