For all of you who watched with anticipation the huge royal wedding celebrations of Prince Charles and Diana or Prince Andrew when he married Sarah Ferguson the most recent royal wedding may have been a bit of a letdown. This month the oldest grandson of Queen Elizabeth ll married. It was a private ceremony between Peter Phillips, son of Princess Anne, the only daughter of the Queen, and Autumn Kelly a Canadian graduate of Quebec’s McGill University, at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
Autumn was dressed in a long white wedding gown designed for her by the relatively new wedding gown designer Sassi Holford. The bride wanted a dress that would not make her stand out, but be an expression of herself as a low key, but beautiful woman. The gown was fit for a royal wedding with a fitted bodice, shoulders made solely of lace, and an A-line skirt. The gown was made of a combination of French Chantilly lace and Italian duchesse silk. The embroidery was all done by hand. The designer believed that the best way to express beauty was not to show cleavage but instead to show a glamorous woman.
Following the tradition of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue the bride wore a tiara borrowed from her future mother-in-law. For the blue item, the designer sewed some small blue bows into the bodice of the gown. The new item was the dress and some jewelry that the groom gave her for their special day. The old item is believed to be the tiara she borrowed. Autumn was looking for a traditional wedding. That is one reason she had her father walk her into the chapel. Guests to the royal wedding included Queen Elizabeth ll, her husband Prince Philip, Prince Charles, the groom’s mother Princess Anne, Prince Harry and his current girlfriend and the bride’s parents. The groom’s younger sister was one of the bridesmaids, all of whom wore light green dresses.
This marriage is obviously based on a beautiful love story. When they began dating he wanted her to like him for who he was. Peter did not try to win her by telling her that he was a member of the royal family. She discovered it herself when looking at a magazine after they had been seeing each other for a while. The bride gave up her religion, renouncing her Roman Catholic beliefs to join the Church of England so she could marry her true love. This was done because Peter Phillips is eleventh in line to the English throne and was that to change, were a tragedy to strike and he to be closer in succession, he could not take the throne if he married a Catholic girl. Still, this is an interesting thing for him to have wanted her to do considering that he does not have any official duties for the royals.
There has been some controversy surrounding the couple’s decision to sell their royal wedding story to a British magazine for a million dollars. This is looked down by many as something that should not be done by a royal. But, as the groom works for a Scottish bank and the bride is a personal assistant it seems that all they are trying to do is ensure themselves a good start to a life together.
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