The royal weddings we’ve seen over the past decade have included enormous guest lists and processions through crowds of thousands, however Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi yesterday in a small intimate ceremony at The Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor. It’s fitting for this small family ceremony that Beatrice’s wedding dress was such a sentimental choice—she wore a vintage Norman Hartnell embellished gown that belongs to her grandmother, the Queen.
Beatrice made some alterations to the vintage dress, working with Stewart Parvin and Angela Kelly to add delicate organza puff-sleeves underneath the existing statement straps and adding a new deep hem trim on the skirt (when the Queen originally wore this the dress had a distinctive bubble hem). The Queen first wore this evening gown in 1961 to a state dinner in Rome and then a year later to the premiere of the film Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 at Leicester Square in London. It is a special piece from the Queen’s fashion archive and was previously displayed at an exhibition of her memorable dresses at Buckingham Palace.
Beatrice’s tiara is also ‘something borrowed’ from her grandmother as it is the beautiful Queen Mary Diamond Fringe, which Queen Elizabeth II also wore on her own wedding day to Prince Phillip in 1947. With such an elaborate tiara and heavily embellished dress, Beatrice kept the rest of her bridal look simple with minimal jewellery and a delicate veil.
