Royal Weddings

From Queen Victoria marrying Prince Albert to Kate Middleton and Prince William’s spectacular ceremony at Westminster Abbey, Royal weddings have always been a cause for national celebration. We look back at some of the most memorable of these joyous and historic occasions…

When a British Royal gets married, they (thankfully) don’t ever opt for a quiet Registry Office affair. In many cases the wedding day itself is declared a public holiday, and even when it isn’t there are always massive crowds of well-wishers gathered to cheer the happy couple on their way to the church and back.

Let’s start out brief survey of momentous Royal weddings with Queen Victoria’s. She was just 18 when she succeeded to the throne in 1837, amid mounting speculation about whom she would marry. But her German uncle, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had already introduced the monarch to his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg at the Princess’s 17th birthday celebrations in Kensington Palace. The young Queen Victoria was smitten with Prince Albert, whom she thought extremely handsome, and in February of 1840 the couple were married, at 1pm in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace.

On the day, Queen Victoria arrived in a procession of carriages from Buckingham Palace, wearing a white dress of heavy silk satin, trimmed with Honiton lace. She had a white lace veil and wore a diamond necklace and earrings as well as a sapphire brooch given to her by Prince Albert, and she carried a wreath of orange blossoms, a symbol of fertility, which was to prove markedly prescient – the couple would have nine children together!

Prince Albert was in a British field marshal’s uniform and was escorted by a squadron of Life Guards. He entered the chapel to the strains of Handel’s ‘See, the Conquering Hero Comes’, followed by Queen Victoria, who was given away by her uncle the Duke of Sussex. Twelve young bridesmaids carried her train.