princess Beatrice wedding

All the Details from Beatrice’s Romantic Royal Wedding

The vintage dress, the Queen's tiara, the secrecy!

Thank you for your application, Cinderella and Prince Charming, but we’re calling it: Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi just had the most romantic royal wedding in recent memory.

To begin with, the wedding, which took place on Friday, was truly, properly private—an intimate ceremony about 1.9 billion people removed from the public spectacle that usually accompanies any marriage in the House of Windsor. And it was full of special, memorable details that truly set it apart: The dress was vintage, the flowers beyond dreamy. 

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So grab a handful of confetti, angle into position to catch that bouquet, and let’s run down everything we know about Princess Beatrice’s ultra-romantic wedding.

1. It was a secret wedding!

If there’s a phrase more swoon-inducing than “royal wedding,” it’s “secret royal wedding.” It sounds like the title of a well-thumbed romance novel your great-auntie Mildred might devour, and well…that’s not far off. We’ve got a pair of star-crossed lovers, a villainous duke and a fairy godmother (technically, a grandmother) who waved every wand in her arsenal to make sure this princess had the fairy-tale wedding of her dreams.

Of course, the fact that Beatrice, 31, was going to marry her Edo—a 37-year-old property developer born into a noble Italian family—wasn’t hush-hush. Recall their very sweet engagement photos taken by Eugenie last September! Heck, the official palace announcement is the pinned tweet on Beatrice’s profile. But the wedding’s date, hour and location were known to only a tiny circle before it happened, which is unusual, given royal wedding details are generally announced in advance. And it was, the first time: The originally planned date for their wedding was May 29, to be held in London with a reception at Buckingham Palace. A few things went awry, the most obvious being a global pandemic, which kiboshed many more weddings than Bea and Edo’s. The big bash they’d planned was cancelled, and this socially distanced affair took its place on July 17, nearly two months later. We’re not sure why they got married on a Friday—the usual justification that it’s cheaper doesn’t seem to apply here.

2. It was a much smaller-scale wedding than her sister Eugenie had

At less than 20 guests (in keeping with current U.K. guidelines on gatherings), it’s probably one of the smallest royal weddings ever—a marked contrast to her younger sister, Eugenie’s, much grander wedding two years ago at St. George’s Chapel, the same venue where Harry and Meghan wed. But we suspct the much smaller, more private event suited Beatrice—and the entire Royal Family—just fine. As ninth in line to the throne, Beatrice was never destined for life on the front row of the balcony at Trooping the Colour. She’s a semi-working royal, holding down a day job as VP of partnerships at a U.S.-based software company while acting as patron to various charities—most recently she chatted via Zoom with Youth Cancer Trust, alongside Eugenie. Bea is said to be quite a shy person and has been burned by international media attention for the crime of choosing an unusual piece of headwear for Will and Kate’s big day, so a televised wedding was likely not her dream. Plus, of course, there’s the fact that her father, Prince Andrew, is persona non grata.

3. The spectre of Prince Andrew’s sordid situation hung over the day

Prince Andrew’s relationship to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been back on the front pages of newspapers around the world since the recent arrest of his friend Ghislaine Maxwell. And his presence at this wedding has been all but scrubbed from the record. While it has been reported that Andrew walked his eldest daughter down the aisle, you’ll notice that he is conspicuously absent from any of the official wedding photographs released so far.

4. The setting was utterly romantic

Edo and Bea were married on the grounds of Windsor Castle, in the achingly picturesque Chapel of All-Saints. It’s literally a minute’s drive from Royal Lodge, her childhood home (and the place where Prince Andrew and her mother, Sarah Ferguson, still live together, despite being divorced for years). They did not skimp on the details: Just take in that glorious floral archway at the church, all peach and pink roses and hydrangeas, designed by Danish florist Rob Van Helden, who also did Eugenie’s wedding flowers and is apparently a favourite of Elton John. Edo’s four-year-old son, Wolfie, from a previous relationship, acted as page boy, and there was a bouncy castle set up for him to enjoy afterwards. Bea and Edo’s mothers did the readings, which were classic and sentimental: 1 Corinthians (“Love is patient, love is kind”) and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 (“Love is not love which alters when alteration it finds”). And the couple set up a makeshift tented pub dubbed “the Duke of York,” complete with a jukebox and dartboard, where they celebrated with a small group of friends later in the evening. Because this was not a public event, nothing about the celebration had to cater to the national interest, so it could all really be for them, and them alone.

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5. The Queen played a key role

The Queen and Bea are thought to be particularly close, and we get the sense that Her Maj was pulling out all the stops to make sure that her granddaughter felt the love in challenging circumstances (originally, she was going to host the reception at Buckingham Palace, an honour last given to William and Kate). She and Prince Philip, aged 94 and 99 respectively, were the two guests of honour, out and about for the first time since lockdown began. Posing for those official pictures—and making sure those were the first ones released—was a rather moving show of love from the usually undemonstrative monarch. (Later that day, Liz knighted a 100-year-old veteran who raised money for charity by walking around his backyard, and she apparently told him the wedding was “very nice.”) 

6. Beatrice’s dress was vintage! And the Queen’s…

For the ceremony, Beatrice wore something both “borrowed” and “old”: a vintage gown owned by the Queen herself. The sumptuous ivory peau de soie gown embellished with crystals was custom made by Norman Hartnell, a mid-century British couturier who designed the Queen’s own wedding dress in 1947, as well as her coronation dress. Bea had it modified for the occasion by Angela Kelly, the Queen’s dresser, and Stewart Parvin, her dressmaker: The crinoline was removed from the skirt, and darling organza puffed short sleeves were added. Her maj wore this gown several times in the 1960s, on a state visit to Rome, to the premiere of Lawrence of Arabia and to the opening of parliament.

 

7. She also wore the Queen’s wedding tiara 

Interestingly, Beatrice’s middle names are “Elizabeth Mary,” and she is named after two women with close ties to the spectacular tiara she wore to get married. Her great-great-grandmother, Mary, had it made in 1919, using diamonds gifted to her by Queen Victoria, which she wore in a necklace on her own wedding day. Queen Elizabeth wore the tiara when she married Philip, on loan from her own mother—another Elizabeth—who had inherited the piece.

Princess Anne, the Queen’s daughter, wore it to her wedding, too, but Beatrice is the first of her generation to be lent it—and that’s reportedly because Her Maj “reserved” the piece especially for her. It’s “arguably the most sentimental [piece] lent from the Queen yet,” a source told People.

8. There was a snafu with the wedding photo release

Bea’s new husband, Edo, posted three images of the wedding on Sunday morning on his Instagram account, captioned with a poem by e.e. cummings, “I Carry Your Heart,” said to have been read at the wedding. But the post was swiftly deleted and the photos, taken by Benjamin Wheeler, went up on the official Royal Family Instagram a few hours later. Edo may have jumped the royal protocol gun, but it was such a normal, happy groom moment we love to see. Judging by the body language in their portraits together—lots of adoring gazes and endearingly giddy glee at being in each other’s company—this sweet and down-to-earth approach is very Bea and Edo. Here’s to a lifetime of happiness!

 

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