Princess Beatrice’s impromptu ‘road trip’ honeymoon
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi have headed off on their honeymoon which has been a distinctly low-key affair, just like their nuptials.
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Newlyweds Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are officially enjoying their honeymoon, but much like their July 17 wedding, it’s substantially more low-key than you’d expect for a royal couple.
According to a friend of the Princess, the newlyweds have taken advantage of easing coronavirus restrictions and set off on a short mini-honeymoon, roadtripping across France.
The couple reportedly packed up their car and headed for the English Channel days after their understated wedding, and are planning to take a longer, more luxurious break when border restrictions ease further.
“They have a longer, more luxurious honeymoon planned for August,” a source told People, saying the pair are planning to head to Kenya’s Lamu Island, where Edo’s family owns a house, in August.
Despite public scandal surrounding him, Prince Andrew played a pivotal role in his eldest daughter’s wedding.
According to new details, the Duke of York walked Princess Beatrice down the aisle and gave a speech at the couple’s reception, which was held on the grounds of Windsor Castle’s Royal Lodge.
Due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions, 31-year-old Beatrice and her husband, Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi invited just 20 guests to the ceremony at All Saint’s Chapel, and around 30 people to the outdoor party that followed.
In addition to Prince Andrew’s speech, Mapelli Mozzi’s stepbrother, Alby Shale, also gave a toast to the newlyweds.
It has also been revealed that in addition to borrowing her wedding dress from the Queen, the bride also upcycled her shoes.
Princess Beatrice previously wore the sparkling pair of Valentino heels, which could be seen peaking from underneath her grandmother’s Norman Hartnell gown, to the 2011 wedding of her cousin Prince William to Kate Middleton, and the 2014 Rome wedding of Prince Amedeo of Belgium to Elisabetta Maria Rosboch.
According to British media reports, Beatrice hand selected her grandmother’s Norman Hartnell gown and had it remodelled and fitted in the weeks leading up to the top-secret wedding, adding organza sleeves, diamonds to the bodice and having the hemline altered.
The evening gown is made from Peau De Soie taffeta in shades of ivory, trimmed with ivory Duchess satin, encrusted with diamantés, and has a geometric checkered bodice.
The Queen first wore the dress to the premiere of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and later at the opening of parliament and a state dinner in Rome.
As if a dress wasn’t enough, Princess Beatrice was also given the honour of wearing the same tiara that the Queen did on her wedding day in 1947, the Queen Mary diamond fringed tiara.
The Queen’s double display of generosity is being viewed by the British media as an acknowledgment that Princess Beatrice was upset at not being able to have a huge wedding due to COVID-19, on top of her distress over the Prince Andrew scandal.
On Monday, Princess Eugenie paid a heartfelt tribute to her “beautiful big sister” following the top-secret wedding.
Princess Eugenie joked she “couldn’t Bea happier” for the couple, who tied the knot over the weekend after dating for two years.
“What a complete joy and privilege to watch you, my beautiful big sister, walk down the aisle to dear Edo,” she captioned a photo on social media.
“I am so proud of you and I’m so excited to support you in the next chapter of your life. We are going to have so much fun together!”
The message of support comes after Buckingham Palace released photos that show a seemingly tense Princess Beatrice at her wedding.
Shared by the Palace on Sunday morning local time, the images show the bride walking hand-in-hand with Mapelli Mozzi among the grounds at Windsor Castle’s Royal Lodge.
The second image released shows the groom looking lovingly at his bride as the couple pose in the gardens at Windsor Castle, the unofficial home to the royals, and where Princess Beatrice’s grandfather, 99-year-old Prince Philip, has been isolating amid the pandemic.
Noticeably absent from the photos are the bride’s parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, who continue to be engulfed by scandal following the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell.
But while the bride may be all smiles in the pictures, body language and behavioural expert Dr Louise Mahler says her pose in the photographs tell a different story.
“Beatrice’s upper body leaning forward in every single photo shows an insecurity,” Dr Mahler says. “Her posture is buckled, her fists are tight, her smile is a little tense and her elbows are bent – showing a need to hold the breath.”
The stance, Dr Mahler says, “is a stark contrast to the incredible confidence of Meghan and the sophisticated flow of Kate.”
By contrast, Mapelli Mozzi “gets the prize for looking most regal.”
Dr Mahler says, “The man was made for pressure. Look how upright he is, how long and free his arms are, how unclenched his fists appear, how upright his postures, how warm his smile, how unclenched his jaw. This is obvious in every photo, but in the close-up with Beatrice, he shows an absolute delight of freedom of facial expression.”
The Queen and Prince Philip also posed for official photographs with the couple that were released by Buckingham Palace, drawing a bold underline on the support she has given Prince Andrew’s daughter.
Royal biographer Penny Junor said the Queen’s attendance at the wedding was the best gift that Princess Beatrice could have received.
“Beatrice has every right to be happy and it was lovely that the Queen and Prince Philip were able to be present – that is a very important endorsement for her,” she said.
“I’m very pleased for her that she was able to have her wedding, even in private, I don’t think it would have been appropriate to do anything more elaborate.
“She’s in love and who can deny her a chance at happiness.”
The 20 guests was a marked contrast from the thousands who lined the streets of Windsor and the two billion who watched Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding on television in May 2018, and the 850 guests who attended Princess Eugenie’s October 2018 wedding to Jack Brooksbank.
The couple, like more than 73,000 others in the UK, had their wedding plans thrown into disarray when coronavirus hit in March.
Buckingham Palace insisted that all social distancing rules, including the ban on hymns, were followed for the ceremony, which was held on Friday night Australian time.
The Queen, 94, and Prince Philip have been wrapped up in a bubble in Windsor Castle to prevent them from catching COVID-19, and it was understood that all precautions had been taken to protect them.
The Queen meets Peter O'Toole at the premiere of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 #RoyalFilmReception pic.twitter.com/SaVzCW4SO1
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 4, 2013
The wedding had been clouded by Prince Andrew’s ongoing scandal over his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged pimp Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Duke of York has vehemently denied that he had sex with Cairns-based woman Virginia Roberts-Giuffre when she was underage in London in 2001, despite being photographed with his arm around her bare midriff.
Prior to her recent arrest and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Maxwell was considered to be one of the Duke of York’s close friends and had visited Buckingham Palace as recently as 2019.
Ms Junor said that Princess Beatrice’s day should not have been spoiled, by either Prince Andrew or her scandal-plagued mother Sarah Ferguson.
“She didn’t choose her parents, you can’t put the sins of the father on the children,” she said.
Princess Beatrice was also given the full royal treatment in the flower department.
Walking down the aisle, Princess Beatrice carried a bouquet of trailing jasmine, pale pink and cream sweet peas, royal porcelain ivory spray roses, pink o’hara garden roses, pink wax flower and baby pink astilbe.
And it would not be a royal bouquet without sprigs of myrtle, which were also included.
Reverend Canon Paul Wright, Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal and the Queen’s domestic chaplain Reverend Canon Martin Poll conducted the service.
The couple chose a popular reading from St Paul to the Corinthians, including the famous line:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare was also read out, as well as the poem I Carry You In My Heart by E.E. Cummings.
Princess Beatrice’s bouquet, as is tradition for royal brides, was placed on the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, central London.
Mr Mapelli Mozzi’s four-year-old son Wolfie was best man and pageboy.
Earlier, the Queen described her joy at the surprise wedding.
The Queen, who has now witnessed six of her eight grandchildren marry, shared her joy in a conversation with Captain Sir Tom Moore, whom she knighted at Windsor Castle just hours after the ceremony.
“My granddaughter got married this morning both Philip and I managed to get there – very nice,” she told the 100-year-old World War II veteran, who made global news for his fundraising efforts for Britain’s National Health Service.
An official photo of the newlyweds was not immediately released after reports said they didn’t wish to overshadow Sir Tom’s day.
The Palace said in a statement: “The private wedding ceremony of Princess Beatrice and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi took place at 11am on Friday 17th July at The Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor.”
“The small ceremony was attended by The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and close family.
“The wedding took place in accordance with all relevant Government guidelines.”
A friend of Princess Beatrice told The Sun: “A massive wedding was out of the question because of coronavirus.
“They were obviously very keen for the Queen to come so the wedding had to happen before she goes up to Balmoral so this was a great opportunity.”
Princess Beatrice reportedly spent the night before the wedding at the 30-room Royal Lodge with mum Sarah Ferguson and dad Prince Andrew, before making the walk to the church in the grounds, reported The Sun.
A large delivery of beer was seen outside Windsor Castle, although it is not known whether it was used for the wedding.
BEATRICE’S STUNNING MAKEOVER
It comes after Princess Beatrice unveiled a seek and sophisticated style in her latest shoot.
The royal appeared in a black and white image, looking decidedly more done up than usual.
With her hair in loose Hollywood-esque curls, Princess Beatrice, 31, is pictured front on and portrait-style, with a beaming smile.
The images – taken for UK magazine Chaos SixtyNine – also include a shot of Beatrice’s lips covered in red lipstick and glitter, with make-up by British artist to the stars Pat McGrath, who has worked with Kim Kardashian.
The previously unseen images were shot by famed photographer Phil Poynter, whose celebrity shoots have appeared in Love, Interview and Vogue magazines.
The images of Beatrice, taken in 2017 and released by the photographer today, marked a much more chic image for the daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson.
It is a noticeable a departure from her usually less-than-polished style, which includes a preference for over-the-top hats such as the much-mocked Philip Treacy headpiece she wore to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.
Prior to the outbreak of coronavirus, the royal nuptials had been scheduled at London’s St James Palace on May 29, with a reception to follow at the Buckingham Palace.
But like so many others, the couple announced their wedding had been paused due to the current global pandemic.
The high-society couple held a star-studded engagement party at London’s Chiltern Firehouse in December. It was attended by Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton, Robert De Niro, Ellie Goulding, and James Blunt, though members of the royal family – including the bride-to-be’s father Prince Andrew – were noticeably absent.
Announcing their engagement last year, the Princess of York said: “We are extremely happy to be able to share the news of our recent engagement”.
“We are both so excited to be embarking on this life adventure together and can’t wait to be married.”
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