Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Royal wedding blunder: Why did Queen and Prince Philip have to retake wedding photos?

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip first met on two separate occasions in 1934 and 1937. The Queen fell in love with the future Duke of Edinburgh in 1939, when she was 13-years-old, and the couple started trading letters. Some eight years later – when Queen Elizabeth II was 21-years-old – the Palace announced their engagement. They married on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey.

Why did Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip retake their wedding photos?

When Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip married in 1947, the then Princess carried with her a bouquet of Orchids and a sprig of myrtle.

However, the Queen’s bouquet was notably absent from the first round of official photos.

The bouquet was misplaced during the wedding, meaning the newlyweds and their guests had to dress in their finery once more for new “correct” photos.

The Royal Family eventually learned from the mistake, according to David Longman, head of bouquet suppliers Longman’s florist at the time.

He told ITV: “If we go back to the Queen’s wedding in 1947, when you look at the state photographs of all the bridesmaids and the royal guests, and there is the Queen without a bouquet. It got lost.

“So in the middle of their honeymoon they had to get dressed up again in their wedding clothes and my father had to provide another bouquet for those photos.

“To ensure this mistake never happens again every royal bride now has two bouquets, just in case someone accidentally puts it down and forgets about it.”

Before they were married, the Queen and Prince Philip’s relationship stirred controversy.

Their engagement prompted outrage among royal fans, who drew on Philip’s lack of financial standing and his status as a foreign Prince.

The union also brought criticism within the royal ranks, from the court of King George VI.

Marion Crawford, governess to Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, said: “Some of the King’s advisors did not think him good enough for her.”

“He was a prince without a home or kingdom.

“Some of the papers played long and loud tunes on the string of Philip’s foreign origin.”

Some of Prince Philip’s family had also married into German aristocracy and joined the Nazi party before World War Two.

Philip’s sister Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark and her husband Georg Donatus of Hesse joined the party in 1937.

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