Princess Beatrice wears Queen’s gown for secret wedding
Princess Beatrice looked to her grandmother’s wardrobe for the first secret royal wedding in over two centuries.
Princess Beatrice of York looked to her grandmother’s wardrobe for the ”something borrowed’’ accoutrement for her secret wedding on Friday — wearing one of the Queen’s re-worked vintage Norman Hartnell dresses.
Her Majesty loaned Beatrice the ivory gown, encrusted with diamanté and made of Peau De Soie taffeta and trimmed with ivory Duchess satin for the low key nuptials with Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, which was attended by just 15 people who had been sworn to secrecy.
The Queen wore the dress, originally a sleeveless design, in December 1962 at a performance of Lawrence of Arabia.
Beatrice, 31, walked to the church, which is in a private part of the same estate where her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson reside, with only a handful of close family members aware of the occasion — the first secret royal wedding to have taken place in over two centuries.
As well as the 94 year old Queen, the wedding was attended by Prince Phillip, 99, Andrew and Sarah, Edo’s mother Nikki Williams-Ellis and stepfather David, as well as his half-brother, Alby Shale.
Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, whose wedding nearly two years ago could not have been more different, featuring horse drawn carriages and three receptions over two days, were also guests.
Edo, a 37 year old millionaire property developer has been a family friend of the Yorks, and his relationship with Beatrice was ignited when they both attended Eugenie and Jack’s wedding in October 2018.
Edo’s four year old son Wolfie was best man and pageboy for his father and Beatrice was walked down the aisle by Andrew. The wedding makes Beatrice a stepmother.
The hastily rescheduled wedding – originally an extravaganza planned for St James Palace with a reception in the grounds of Buckingham Palace for May – was organised by the bride and her mother once government guidelines were changed at the beginning of the month allowing up to 30 people to attend a wedding.
In line with the government rules, no hymns were sung, but a selection of music was played. In what could have been a first for the Queen, the national anthem ‘’God Save the Queen’’ was played, but not sung.
The very private nature of the wedding allowed Andrew to take a prominent role despite the controversy raging around his close friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. He was not pictured in either of the two official portraits released by the Palace.
The last secret royal wedding is believed to have been in 1785 when George IV wed his mistress Maria Fitzherbert in her London town house.
The ceremony for Beatrice and Edo was officiated by The Reverend Canon Paul Wright, Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal and The Reverend Canon Martin Poll, Domestic Chaplain to The Queen.
Photos of the wedding, conducted at the The Royal
Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor on Friday, were released on Sunday morning Australian time.
The delay in providing the photos was attributed to the couple not wanting to deflect from the Queen’s second appointment on Friday, knighting 100 year-old Captain Tom Moore for raising tens of millions of pounds for the National Health Service during the coronavirus pandemic.
Buckingham Palace also confirmed that Beatrice wore one of the Queen’s favourite tiaras, the Queen Mary diamond fringe tiara, which was worn by The Queen on her wedding day.
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