Evolution of the Royals' weddings
Charles and Diana were married in 1981. William and Catherine were married in 2011. Two weddings in two different centuries and two “marriage of the century”... But are they different or similar?
On July 29th, 1981 Charles, the oldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II, got married to Diana Spencer, daughter of the 8th Earl Spencer John Spencer, at Saint Pauls Cathedral in London. Charles was 32 and Diana only 20. Unfortunately they divorced on August 28th, 1996. But they had two sons: William and Harry.
On April 29th, 2011 William, the first son of Diana and Charles, was married to Catherine Middleton, a commoner contrary to Diana Spencer. The ceremony took place at Westminster Abbey in London. William and Catherine were 29. They have one little boy who was born on July 22th, 2013: George Alexander Louis.
At the moment of his wedding Charles was 32 and a bachelor. He could not get married to his childhood friend: Camilla Shand. So he had many girlfriends. But the Queen insisted he marry with Diana Spencer. Indeed, the future wife of the prince had to be accepted by Lord Mountbatten the great-uncle of Charles who had arranged the wedding between Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. The future wife had to be aristocratic, of course single, protestant, because the British church is also the leader of the Anglican Church, and with an excellent reputation, or better, without any reputation. Diana was exactly that. What’s more, Camilla, who became Madame Parker-Bowles, did not want to get married to Charles because of the official life. She was always the best friend of Charles and advised him to get married to Diana, an assistant in a nursery: Young England. On February 24th, 1981 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement between Prince Charles and Diana. Lord Mountbatten did not accept Camilla because she is older than Prince Charles by sixteen months. What’s more, Diana dreamed of being a princess.
Contrary to his parents William wanted to choose his future wife alone. William met Catherine Middleton at Saint Andrews University, in Scotland. In 2007 they separated but only some months after they were together again. In October 2010, while they were in Kenya just the two of them, William proposed to Catherine. The marriage was confirmed on November 10th, 2010. On April 29th, 2011 William and Catherine tied the knot at Westminster Abbey in London.
So, the two ceremonies are 30 years apart. There are some notable differences but also some similarities. First, the date was really different. Diana and Charles chose to get married in summer while Catherine and William got married in spring. Catherine and William got married on April 29th because it is Saint Catherine’s day. What’s more they wanted to be sure of their love.
William gave to Catherine the ring that Charles gave to Diana. It is an 18-carat oval sapphire surrounded by diamonds. He took it in his backpack for three weeks during their vacation in Kenya because he wanted to wait till the right moment to give it to Catherine. It cost $60.000 when it was chosen by Diana, it was controversial. Also both marriages took place in different churches. Charles and Diana got married in Saint Paul Cathedral in London where there are 3,000 seats whereas William and Catherine preferred the more intimate Westminster Abbey and its 2,000 seats. William and Catherine wanted to know all their guests.
Since Queen Victoria’s wedding the dress of the bride is white. Before it was a colourful or a black gown. The dresses of Diana and Catherine are very different. Millions of people remember Diana’s very long train: it was eight meters long! The dress was created by David Emanuel. Alexander McQueen, the creator of Catherine’s dress did less: 2.7 meters long. This dress looks more like Princess Grace’s dress than Diana’s dress. The wedding of Princess Grace, with Albert II the sovereign of Monaco, was celebrated in 1956. These dresses are clearly different from Diana’s dress. Indeed Catherine’s dress is simple, with a lace bustier from Sophie Hallette workshop, in Caudry, in France. This sort of lace was worked in a tradition of Carrickmacross’s technique. It is an Irish technique. The lace was handmade. It is very different from the puffed-out dress of Diana. But this dress was in fashion 30 years ago. Their wedding veils were not very eccentric even if the tiara of Diana was more impressive than Catherine’s tiara. Diana’s tiara came from the Spencer Family whereas Catherine’s tiara was lent by The Queen. It was made by Cartier in 1936. The Queen’s father,George VI, recommended it three weeks before he became King. Elizabeth received the tiara from her mother on her 18th birthday. The tradition says that the bride must have “Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue”. Catherine had these four things. “Something old” was the traditional lace “Carrickmacross”, “something new” was the diamond earrings given by her parents, “something borrowed” was the Queen’s tiara, and finally, “something blue” was a blue ribbon sewn into the bodice.
Diana’s wedding shoes was created by Clive Shilton. Diana’s size is 40.5. Under the shoes there were initials of Diana and Charles. In 2011 Diana’s dress and shoes wedding were sold for £117,930, approximately 140 000€. Catherine’s wedding shoes come from Alexander Mc Queen’s firm too. They were in lace like the dress. Finally, their bunches of flowers were very different. Diana’s bunch was really beautiful but weighed three kilograms! Catherine’s bunch was less weighty! Tradition wants that the bunch consists of a sprig of myrtle, this plant is nicknamed “the herb of love”. But the bloom does not come from any plant: it comes from a bush that was planted by Queen Victoria herself following her wedding in 1840. Since 1923 and Queen Elizabeth the Queen mother’s wedding, following the wedding the wife has placed her flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in Westminster Abbey.
Catherine and William, like Diana and Charles, kissed each other on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The cakes of both couples were also similar: they were white. There is a tradition about horses during a wedding: only white’s horses can pull the Queen or heir of the crown.
To conclude, these two marriages are separated by 30 years. They respected some traditions but the brides put also their touch. These weddings were also very covered by the media. Indeed for Diana and Charles’s wedding there were 750 million people in front of their televisions. For Catherine and William’s wedding, there were, without internet, 300 billion people or half of the planet’s inhabitants. Finally there were some parodies about the entrance of the brides in church for example by T-mobile, Sims 3 or Lego. The T-Mobile parody is the most popular video with 27 million views. So, the British Monarchy always respect wedding traditions during the ceremony but the future Royal can be chosen and is not obligatory to choose a member of the English nobility. The British Monarchy thus adapts itself partially to our modern society but keeps its wed anchored traditions.
The T-Mobile's wedding parody