One of the most highly anticipated aesthetic elements of any royal wedding (apart from the ) is which glittering headpiece the bride might choose to accessorize on her big day. The British royal family are a jewelry watchers' dream, with the closely protected vaults of Buckingham Palace heaving with rings, bracelets, necklaces and tiaras, all with fascinating provenance and (sometimes controversial) histories. Tiaras have become a favorite element of a royal bride's ensemble, with loaning many of her personal pieces to her daughter, granddaughters and granddaughters-in-law during her lifetime.
looks at five of the British royal family's sparkling wedding tiaras. When Queen Elizabeth II while she was still a princess in 1947, she did so wearing a diamond tiara she had been loaned for the occasion by her mother, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). The tiara had been made for Elizabeth II's grandmother, Queen Mary, the consort of King George V.
Mary gave the tiara to Elizabeth's mother in the 1930s and its graduated diamond bars set in a sunray pattern follows the model of highly fashionable fringe tiaras and necklaces of the nineteenth century. The tiara was also loaned to Elizabeth's eldest daughter, Princess Anne, for her first marriage to Captain Mark Philips in 1973. And in 2020, it was worn by Elizabeth's granddaughter, Princess Beatrice, for her marriage to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
When married (then Prince of Wales) in 1981, she did not need to borrow a tiara from he.
