Royal Wedding Confetti

Pearls for a Royal Wedding?

The flags are decorating the Mall and Buckingham Palace already. There will surely be a lot of red, white and blue confetti in London next week!

Keen royal watchers, fashion observers and the world's press will eagerly be looking for their first glimpse of Kate Middleton. What jewellery will the new Princess Catherine be wearing at Westminster Abbey and will she choose pearls for a Royal Wedding?


For centuries a white pearl has come to represent perfection, purity and love. The wearing of a pearl tiara, necklace or earrings is an elegant addition to any bride’s jewellery and the British Royal Family has helped define this tradition over many years.


At the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth II in 1947, the then King George VI and Queen Elizabeth gave her a present of a pair of pearl necklaces. The Queen Anne and Queen Caroline necklaces consist of 46 and 50 pearls respectively, but on the day of the wedding to Prince Philip the necklaces were almost forgotten. The Princess Elizabeth’s Private Secretary was despatched to retrieve them safely from St James Palace.


At the marriage of Diana Spencer to Prince Charles, the Queen gave a wedding present to Princess Diana of a diamond tiara called the Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara. The tiara was made by Garrard, the crown jewellers, in 1914 for Queen Mary and consisted of an open diamond lattice hung with 19 white pearl drops. Although the Princess wore the Spencer family tiara to her wedding, she wore the Cambridge Lovers Knot Tiara on many occasions subsequently.


Both Sarah Ferguson and Sophie, Countess of Wessex also wore necklaces of cultured pearls for their wedding day.


Will the new Princess Catherine follow this magnificent history and choose to wear pearls for her royal wedding? Or will she surprise us all? We will have to wait and see!

Image Credits:

With thanks to Patrick Hoesly at http://www.flickr.com/photos/zooboing/. Used under a Creative Commons licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

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