Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Celebrity Weddings: The Iconic One

Even if this wedding is before your time (like me), the images of the late Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles are now iconic.  Although many royals have wed over the years, the wedding of Lady Diana Frances Spencer to Charles, Prince of Wales, is known as the "wedding of the century".  The wedding took place on July 29, 1981, at St. Paul's Cathedral In London, England.  Many people may not know the engagement details: "Diana was 20 years old, Charles 32 years old. Diana and Charles had been seeing each other for about six months when he proposed on February 3, 1981 at a dinner for two at Buckingham Palace."(Source)

Just looking at the pictures it is clear that no expense was sparred for each detail small to large.  From her dress with a 25 foot train to the magnificent headpiece that she wore, everything was extravagant.  I was interested to find out some little known details while researching this wedding and I hope you find them as interesting as I did.  There are no pictures from the reception due to the intense privacy of the event but I did find a bunch of ceremony and official portraits.  Enjoy!
  • David and Elizabeth Emanuel, the designers of the wedding dress helped Diana to get dressed on her wedding day.  It cost £9,000 (Source)
  • Unfortunately the dress designers had not made allowances for the lack of space in the glass coach that should bring Diana and her father to St. Paul's Cathedral. When the bride alighted from the coach the dress was crumpled and full of creases, not that any of the thousands of spectators minded (Source)
  • When saying her vows, Diana changed the order of Charles' forenames, calling him Phillip Charles Arthur George which led Prince Charles to the joke: "Diana, you have actually married my father" (Source)
  • After Charles finished the vows he forgot to kiss Diana (Source)
  • Numbers: 3,500 people in the congregation at St. Paul's Cathedral, 750 million people watched the ceremony worldwide, yet a billion is the official number when the radio audience is added in. Two million spectators lined the route of Diana's procession from Clarence House, with 4,000 police and 2,200 military officers to manage the crowds (Source)
  • After the ceremony, the couple went to Buckingham palace for a small dinner for 120 (Source)
  • Diana was the first British citizen to marry an heir to the British throne in 300 years (Source)
http://mykateparkerwedding.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/princess-diana-wedding-gown-back.jpg

http://lisawallerrogers.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/princess-diana_wedding1.jpg
http://weddingtipster.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/shannons-1980s-princess-diana1.jpg

http://www.bunchesdirect.com/wholesale-flowers-guide/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Diana-Wedding-Dress-300x259.jpg

http://memorableweddingideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/Diana1.jpg 

http://s92860.gridserver.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/1981-princess-diana-wedding-cake.jpg

No comments:

Post a Comment