The late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip tied the knot 78 years ago at Westminster Abbey, but two last-minute hiccups nearly ruined the historic day
Prince Philip and The Queen were ‘adorable’ says Prince Harry
The late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip tied the knot 78 years ago today in a historic ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey. When Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on November 20, 1947, the ceremony itself ran smoothly but there were two disasters that happened hours before that could have derailed the entire day.
The historic wedding was recorded by BBC Radio and was broadcast to 200 million people around the world. After their nuptials, the couple were given the titles of The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, The Earl and Countess of Merioneth and The Baron and Lady Greenwich.
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While to royal onlookers it seemed the day went off without a hitch, little did they know at the time that the then Princess Elizabeth experienced two nightmarish problems with what she was going to wear.
The late monarch had decided to wear Queen Mary’s Russian Fringe tiara for her wedding, but as she was getting ready for the ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the tiara snapped. The Court Jeweller had to be rushed by a police escort to his workroom and made it back just in time with the repaired tiara.
The second disaster came when the Princess realised that she had left the pearl earrings that had been gifted to her by her father to wear on the day at St James’s Palace. Her Private Secretary managed to get them to her just in time for her official photographs.
While many royal weddings come with an enormous price tag nowadays, The Queen and Prince Philip’s nuptials are remembered for being almost opposite.
With their wedding taking place so soon after World War Two ended, the United Kingdom was still financially recovering and many questioned whether the Princess would be able to afford her stunning wedding dress.
Hundreds of people up and down the country sent their clothing ration coupons to the Palace to help the Princess but they had to be returned as it would have been illegal for her to use them. Despite this, the government allowed the princess the use of 200 extra ration coupons to have her dress made by designer Norman Hartnell.
The late Queen Elizabeth also encountered another issue after the ceremony as she misplaced her wedding bouquet before the large group photographs were taken, meaning that the royal bride’s hands were noticeably empty.
When staffers were unable to find a solution, the couple instead decided to put their wedding clothes back on during their honeymoon and posed for their individual pictures again.
Royal wedding florist David Longman revealed the story, saying: “If we go back to the Queen’s wedding in 1947, when you look at the state photographs of all the bridesmaids and the royal guests, and there is the Queen without a bouquet. It got lost.
“So in the middle of their honeymoon they had to get dressed up again in their wedding clothes and my father had to provide another bouquet for those photos.”
This mishap ended up paving the way for future royal weddings, as David revealed: “To ensure this mistake never happens again every royal bride now has two bouquets, just in case someone accidentally puts it down and forgets about it.”
