British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century

Started by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, September 09, 2003, 03:24:09 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.



Kritter

Looking back at the wedding of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ? Royal Central

QuoteThe future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth married on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey. Prince Albert, Duke of York, was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary, while Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

They initially met as children before a dance in 1920 brought them together again as adults. Elizabeth was famously reluctant to accept Albert?s offer of marriage and refused him twice. Undeterred, the Duke proposed a third time in mid-January 1923 at St Paul?s Walden Bury in Hertfordshire, the country estate of the Bowes-Lyons. With his offer finally accepted, the engagement was officially announced on 15 January, and preparations for the wedding were soon underway. Elizabeth received a sapphire and diamond engagement ring, which she later swapped for a pearl and diamond one in the 1950s.

In mid-March, the fianc?s travelled to Edinburgh to visit the factory of McVitie & Price, where the main wedding cake, decorated with the coats of arms of the bride and groom in sugar paste, was being made.

Curryong

Bertie was the first of George and May's sons to be married and they were very pleased with his choice. You can tell from their reported remarks, letters etc.  It really was a new start for the BRF after the War.

LouisFerdinand

At the last moment Lady Elizabeth forgot her gloves and long afterwards fashionable brides dispensed with them in imitation.



Curryong

Elizabeth's dressmaker did a superb job. Wonderful workmanship. However I'm not in love with the rather shapeless fashions of the early 1920s, still less with the across-the-brow bathing cap shape of headdresses of the time, including Elizabeth's.

Kritter

Royal Weddings: the Wedding of the Earl and Countess of Wessex ? Royal Central

QuoteThe last major Windsor wedding of the 20th century became something of a turning point for the Queen and her family. It wasn?t just that this royal celebration was more informal and more relaxed than the spectacular ceremonial of previous royal marriages. The wedding of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, on June 19th 1999, seemed to mark a change in direction following a tumultuous decade that had at times seemed to cast a long shadow over the House of Windsor itself.

Much of the royal romance of Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis and Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones had been played out against the backdrop of that turbulence. The couple?s relationship began in 1993, at the height of the very public fallout of the end of the marriages of Edward?s brothers. Romance blossomed after Edward attended a real tennis event that Sophie, a PR expert, was working at.

LouisFerdinand

The article stated: The Queen lent Sophie a diamond tiara for the wedding.   
Is this statement correct? Does Sophie still have this tiara in her possession? Has she worn it at other royal functions?


Curryong

If you mean that cobbled together thing that Sophie wore on her head for her wedding, it supposedly was made by Garrards the then Royal jewellers from pieces of a diamond headdress once worn by Queen Victoria and other bits and bobs lying about in the vaults, though there was never any official announcement from BP that I can remember that referred to the origins of the piece. It matched the equally hideous necklace Sophie wore that was designed by Edward, that has hardly been seen together from that day to this.

I suppose that technically that tiara still belongs to the Queen but it appears to be more a lifetime loan than anything else, as Sophie has worn it on several occasions through the years, usually when she and Ed went to weddings of overseas royals. It was the one and only tiara Sophie had access to for years until she won the trust and liking of the Queen and she suddenly appeared in an aquamarine tiara overseas, and since then another aquamarine tiara has made an appearance, again worn at an overseas get together.

It's not quite clear what will happen when the Queen passes with regard to tiaras worn by the Wessexes. The Queen may leave the cobbled together piece to Sophie and maybe some smaller minor pieces of personal jewellery as well. However the Wessexes will be so far down the totem pole by the next reign that Sophie's not likely, IMO, to be left any other tiara, though I suppose if they continue the overseas visits to weddings, christenings, birthdays etc, cobbledy will be needed.

I doubt the couple will be appearing at many State banquets in the future (where a tiara will definitely be needed,) and later on, as James and Louise will be Duke's son and daughter only, when, after her wedding day is Louise likely to be wearing a tiara? If she needs one for William's Coronation she can borrow one, I suppose.

TLLK

QuoteIf you mean that cobbled together thing that Sophie wore on her head for her wedding, it supposedly was made by Garrards the then Royal jewellers
Oh how embarrassing for Garrads to be associated with that terrible tiara.  :blink: I'm sure that they did the best that they could, but it's really awful. I'm glad for Sophie that she has at least two others that she can use now.

I'm now convinced that if Meghan is not gifted a tiara similar to the one that Sarah received then,  the BRF should loan Meghan the Papyrus Tiara for her lifetime. It's a classic design that would be very versatile and would work for so many occasions IMHO.

Curryong

As I was lurking elsewhere today, reading this and that, I came upon the following statement issued by BP on the day on the Wessexes' wedding. I think it states very clearly that Louise and James have no HRHs and were never intended to have them.


Title of HRH The Prince Edward

The Queen has today been pleased to confer an Earldom on The Prince Edward. His titles will be Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn. The Prince Edward thus becomes His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex and Miss Sophie Rhys-Jones on marriage will become Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex.

The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales have also agreed that The Prince Edward should be given the Dukedom of Edinburgh in due course, when the present title now held by Prince Philip eventually reverts to the Crown.

The Queen has also decided, with the agreement of The Prince Edward and Miss Rhys-Jones, that any children they might have should not be given the style His or Her Royal Highness, but would have courtesy titles as sons or daughters of an Earl.

TLLK

^^^Which I believe did have something to do with the fact that at the time the couple planned on having careers and would only perform the occasional royal duty. Fast forward about two years and after the failure of Ardent and post-Fake Sheikh, the Wessexes were on the full time roster.

Curryong

That's true, TLLK. However, with the way public perceptions of the RF are now, nearly twenty years later, among  many sections of the British public, the Wessexes may be quite relieved that decision was made. After all, being HRHs has been no advantage at all to the York sisters in terms of publicity. The Wessex family knows that they are relatives of the monarch, and I'm sure that's enough.

amabel

I think as long as they got Sophi'es debts paid by the queen as I believe happened..they don't care about the children having titles. 

LouisFerdinand



LouisFerdinand

Today a lady and I were discussing the 1999 wedding of Prince Edward to Sophie Rhys-Jones.   
The lady wondered if there was a specific reason they did not have their wedding at Westminster Abbey?


Blue Clover

I looked it up and I can't find a good reason.  :unsure:

amabel

It was a quieter samller wedding because the RF had been having PR problems in the wake of the scandals of the 90s...

TLLK

#19
@amabel-I definitely agree that any plans for Edward and Sophie to marry at WA like his sister and Andrew were put on hold after the mid-nineties. The couple will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on June 19, 2019. The Wessexes will be the only couple among QEII and the DoE's children to reach this milestone with their first partner. However the Princess Royal and Cmdr Timothy Laurence have now been married for 26 years. :happy:

Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones's royal wedding: All the photos | HELLO!

amabel

Quote from: TLLK on May 24, 2019, 01:27:59 PM
@amabel-I definitely agree that any plans for Edward and Sophie to marry at WA like his sister and Andrew were put on hold after the mid-nineties. The couple will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on June 19, 2019. The Wessexes will be the only couple among QEII and the DoE's children to reach this milestone with their first partner. However the Princess Royal and Cmdr Timothy Laurence have now been married for 26 years. :happy:

Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones's royal wedding: All the photos | HELLO!
I think that it is now however becoming a trend for more and more royals to marry in a smaller church, outside London.  it was highly unusual at the time for Ed and Sophie.. but now while William married at W Abbey, harry married at Windsor, so did Eugenie.. Perhaps because of security needs (terrorist threats) and a paring of expenditure nad "grandeur", the RF wll now, mostly go for a smaller wedding outside the capital

LouisFerdinand

Did the demise of his sister-in-law Princess Diana have any factor in Edward deciding not to be married at Westminster Abbey?


TLLK

^^^Yes Diana's death and the public reaction to it was likely a reason to have a smaller and more family oriented service at SGC.

amabel

Quote from: TLLK on May 24, 2019, 10:58:35 PM
^^^Yes Diana's death and the public reaction to it was likely a reason to have a smaller and more family oriented service at SGC.
I think it was a lot to do with that..and   that was partly why Ed's children were also not going to use HRH.. it was a general "slimming down" of grandeur and expense, on the part of the RF.. but now it seems like it is becoming a trend.  Will and K married in Londn but he's the future King.  Harry married at Windsor, even though Im sure 10 year earlier it would have been expected for someone of his level in the RF to have a London wedding...

Princess Cassandra

I think that another reason they chose St. George's may be that the family think of it as their home church.  Family members are buried in the church itself and at nearby Frogmore, and it is the venue for lots of family events (both happy and sad). It must be so comforting to them.