In this post I will discuss the dress worn by Princess Beatrice on her wedding day. Sometimes a bride for sentimental reasons will wear a wedding dress from a beloved relative, maybe the bride’s mother or in the case of Princess Beatrice a dress which was previously worn by her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Princess Beatrice is the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew the Duke of York, and Sarah Fergusson, this made her a member of the British Royal Family given the fact that her father was the second son of the current Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Special Note: If you are interesting in information about the wedding of her younger sister, Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, please click on the link.
It has been reported that Princess Beatrice had meet and began dating Edoardo Mozzi in 2018, a property developer and the son of Alex Mapelli-Mozzi and Nicola Diana Burrows. One of their first joint public appearances was at a fundraising event at the National Portrait Gallery in London in March 2019 and later that year at the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor to Thomas Kingston in May 2019.
After a seemingly short courtship, the official announcement by the office of the Duke of York of the engagement of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo took place on September 26, 2019.
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mozzi at the time of their engagement announcement
Princess Beatrice’s engagement ring was made by Shaun Leane in collaboration with Edoardo and features a 2.5 carat round brilliant diamond flanked by two small round diamonds and tapered baguettes on either side, set in platinum with diamond pave extending halfway down the band.
Special Note: Originally the wedding was scheduled to take place on May 29, 2020 at the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace with a private reception to have followed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After a short delay and under the guidance of the strict pandemic restrictions, Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mozzi on July 17, 2020 at the Royal Chapel of All Saints near Royal Lodge at Windsor, England in a small private ceremony. It was reported that Prince Andrew, Princess Beatrice’s father, was able to walk her down the aisle and her grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, were able to attend along with the couple’s parents and siblings.
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mozzi on their wedding day
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mozzi with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip
Princess Beatrice wore a vintage dress designed by Norman Harnell and previously worn by her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, it was loaned to her by the Queen as her “something old”. The dress was made of ivory peau de soie taffeta trimmed with ivory Duchess satin and featured diamante embellishments with a geometric checkered pattern on the fitted bodice. The dress was restyled by Angela Kelly, the Queen’s personal dressmaker, and Stewart Parvin, a designer who specializes in bridal dresses. The previous puffed hemline of the dress was altered to form a straight edge and organza short sleeves were also added.
Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mozzi
notice the altered hemline and the addition of the organza sleeves
compared to the original version of the dress, shown in the photo below
Queen Elizabeth wearing the original Norman Hartnell dress in the 1960s
Princess Beatrice wore another sentimental item on loan from her grandmother and it was the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara that Queen Elizabeth had worn at her wedding in 1947. Special Note: The tiara had been made by the Royal Jewelers, Garrard, in 1919 from a diamond necklace that had been given to Lady May of Teck (later to become Queen Mary) by Queen Victoria on the occasion of her marriage to the Queen’s grandson, Prince George (later to become King George V), in 1893.
As you can see from the photo of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo leaving the church, there was a massive floral display designed by the Savill Garden with flowers and foliage provided by the Windsor Great Park. Princess Beatrice’s bridal bouquet was designed by Patrice Van Helden of RVH Floral Design and featured trailing jasmine, pale pink and cream sweet peas, royal porcelain ivory spray roses, pink o’hara garden roses, pink wax flower and baby pink astilbe. The bouquet also included the traditional sprig of myrtle from the garden at Osborne House which all British Royal brides have incorporated in their wedding bouquets since 1858.
Princess Beatrice’s bridal bouquet
In another British Royal wedding tradition, later Princess Beatrice’s bridal bouquet was placed on the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. This custom first began when Lady Elizabeth Bowles Lyon (later to become the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) married Prince Albert (later to become King George VI) in 1923; the Royal couple were the parents of the current Queen Elizabeth and thereby the great-grandparents of Princess Beatrice. In a spontaneous gesture Lady Elizabeth had laid the bouquet on the tomb as a tribute to her brother Fergus, who was killed during World War I, thus beginning a tradition for all the British Royal brides to follow in the years afterwards.
