The case of the missing bouquet: ‘Disaster’ struck on Elizabeth II’s wedding day to Prince Philip
It created a lot of chaosQueen Elizabeth suffered a huge mishap with her bouquet of flowers on her wedding day.
It was the wedding that everyone in the world was excited for. On November 20, 1947, Queen – then Princess Elizabeth married then-Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. Naturally, the day was a full royal spectacle that gathered quite a lot of viewers.
Royal weddings over the years often follow tradition. They take place in historic churches, and the brides wear gorgeous white gowns and glittering tiaras. And in all the photos, they are posing with their flowers. But Queen Elizabeth’s wedding day bouquet mishap turned into chaos. And ultimately changed the rules on royal weddings forever.
What happened on Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s wedding day?
It’s believed Queen Elizabeth wanted orchids for her wedding bouquet. And at the time they were among the most luxurious flowers available.
So, in her bouquet, the queen had white cattleya, ondontoglossum and cyrpripedium orchids in a freeform design that gave a look of elegance. The orchids also symbolise love, beauty, strength and luxury. So, they were a fitting choice for the future queen.
But on her wedding day, right before the photographs, Queen Elizabeth’s bouquet of flowers went missing.
It’s believed the bouquet vanished somewhere between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. And unfortunately for everyone, they were never seen again.
This meant that in her official wedding photos, Queen Elizabeth was posing with no flowers, breaking a very lengthy tradition. But it caused so much chaos behind-the-scenes that the photos were actually redone a few days after the wedding.
Wedding photos were replaced
In 2019, ITV aired a documentary, A Very Royal Wedding, which looked back at the big day, with Alexander Armstrong as host.
It was revealed in the documentary that it caused so much of a stir that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had to pause their honeymoon to pose for new pictures. In these photographs, the queen was given a replacement bouquet.
Florist Martin Longman said in the documentary: “Soon after the wedding day, father got a call from Buckingham Palace saying would they make a replica of the bouquet. Halfway through their honeymoon, Princess and Prince Philip came back to the palace.
“She put on her wedding dress and he put his naval uniform on. Then they had the photographs, just the two of them.”
The mishap actually changed things for all future royal weddings. Now, all royal brides have to have two wedding bouquets in case one ever goes missing.
Other disasters on Queen Elizabeth’s wedding day
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only mishap on Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s wedding day. However, thankfully the others were caught before the ceremony began, according to The Mirror.
The first mishap was with the tiara that Queen Elizabeth had chosen to wear. She selected Queen Mary’s Russian Fringe tiara. But as she was getting ready that morning, the tiara snapped.
Thankfully, the Court Jeweller was able to be rushed by a police escort to his workroom and returned with the repaired tiara just before the ceremony began.
But the second disaster came in form of earrings. She had been gifted beautiful pearl earrings by her father to wear on her wedding day. However, not long before the ceremony, she realised she had left them at St James’ Palace. This was thankfully resolved as her Private Secretary managed to get them to her in time for the photographs.
So, while royal weddings may look like they go swimmingly, it seems even they are able to hit a few bumps on the road!
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