Days Of Majesty: The British Royal Weddings-part 1

Since the day the first images were shown on cinema screens Britain’s royal weddings had become major international events. For almost the sentry these state occasions had been watched all over the world and attracted huge crowd. This is the photo story of Britain’s royal weddings from the Queen mother to present date.

* Prince Albert & lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later King George VI & the Queen mother) April 26, 1923

Prince Albert was the second son of King George V and Queen Marry. Lady Elizabeth was the ninth child of the Earl & countess of Strathmore & Kinghorne. Since their childhood they had known each other. Prince Albert began their courtship with Lady Elizabeth who was in age of twenty in 1920. But she rejected it as she did not like to involve with the royal family. She did not want to lose her freedom. Nevertheless, she agreed to marry him on his third request at one of Elizabeth’s family homes in Scotland, in 1923.

Their engagement was announced officially on 15^th of January 1923. There was something special in this marriage that, at the first time a Britain prince married a foreign (Scottish) princess.

Their wedding was held on 26^th of April in 1923 at Westminster Abbey. The bride arrived to the Abbey in a State Landau, with her father from her family’s London home in Mayfair. Before entering the Abbey the bride placed her bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. That was a strange custom of the royal family and then the wedding ceremony was started with royal traditions.

After the ceremony the new royal couple made their way in the Glass Coach to Buckingham Palace. They appeared on the balcony of Buckingham palace with their parents. After that the wedding breakfast was held and Lady Elizabeth wore a beautiful ivory colour gown designed by Mrs. Handley Seymour. Prince Albert wore the uniform of the Royal Air Force, with the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle. The Weight of the wedding cake is 365 kg.

They were given a title, what the Duke & Duchess of York, by the King. They received so many gifts including a diamond tiara for the bride from her father. Other gifts included a seventeenth-century English clock and various items of silverware.

The couple was happily married for twenty-nine years, and had unexpectedly become King and Queen in 1936 following the abdication of Edward VIII, Prince Albert’s brother. Prince Albert became George VI, and died in February 1952. He and Elizabeth had two daughters, the current Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother outlived her husband by fifty years.