How the Queen NARROWLY averted a wedding day DISASTER - and THIS is why
ROYAL WEDDINGS are quite the spectacle, with millions of fans across the world wanting to know every detail of the ceremony, dress and wedding party. On her wedding day, Queen Elizabeth II narrowly averted disaster, here is why.
Queen Elizabeth holds state dinner for Vladimir Putin in 2003
As Princess Elizabeth was leaving to travel to Westminster Abbey, her heirloom diamond tiara snapped.
The wedding hairdresser was fastening Elizabeth’s veil with the tiara on the morning of her wedding and the antique metal frame snapped.
According to royal jeweller Garrard, the Queen Mother tried to console her daughter by saying “we have two hours and there are other tiaras” but Elizabeth was determined to wear that particular one.
Royal protocol states that only married women can wear tiaras, so a bride’s wedding day is usually the first time she can wear one.
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The tiara was Queen Mary’s kokoshnik-style diamond Fringe tiara and was made in 1919.
Queen Mary had passed the tiara on to her daughter-in-law the then-Queen Elizabeth – late the Queen Mother – who subsequently lent it to her daughter, Princess Elizabeth for her wedding day.
This meant the tiara was Princess Elizabeth's ‘something borrowed’ for her wedding to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Fortunately, a royal jeweller was present in case of any such disaster - and the tiara was transported with a police escort to the Garrard workshop for repairs.
It took an emergency welding before the tiara could be returned in one piece to Princess Elizabeth.
The tiara was worn for her wedding, and stayed intact for the whole day, with only a small noticeable gap between the central fringe and spike to its right.
The tiara was designed for Queen Mary in a simplified interpretation of a Russian kokoshnik - a style which was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Queen Mary was known to regularly take apart her jewellery to make new pieces, and the fringe tiara was created from diamonds taken from a transformable tiara-necklace which her mother-in-law, Queen Victoria, had given her as a wedding present in 1893.
Mary trusted royal jeweller Garrard with the diamonds and he set them in gold and silver forming 47 diamond bars separated by smaller diamond spikes.
After Princess Elizabeth’s wedding, the tiara was returned to the Queen Mother - who kept possession of it for the rest of her life.
The tiara was rarely seen in public but was lent to the Queen Mother’s granddaughter - Princess Anne’s wedding to Mark Phillip in 1973.
After her mother’s death in 2002, Queen Elizabeth II inherited the tiara and no doubt looks back fondly on the piece for the memories - and stress - it brought her on her wedding day.