Royal Wedding Roundup: Wedding dresses of royals past; Kate will not ‘obey’
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
We’re just a week away from the big day, and more details of the wedding have started to leak. In this edition of Royal Wedding Roundup, we take a look at royal weddings past, present and future.
Item 1: Put Kate’s dress in context. The Telegraph has an excellent video that shows six recently restored royal bridal gowns, dating back to the ankle length gown Princess Charlotte wore in 1816. Historic Royal Palaces senior curator Dr. Joanna Marschner talks you through each of the six dresses, explaining what it was made of, who wore it and why it was so special. Another bonus to the video: Marschner has a delightfully understated manner, which is a welcome relief from all the know-it-alls blabbing about wedding nonsense on TV.
Item 2: Kate will ‘love, honor, comfort and keep’ but not ‘obey.’ Kate will deviate from tradition in her wedding vows, promising to ‘love, honor, comfort and keep’ her husband, but not to ‘obey’ him. Traditionally royals have used the vows in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which requires women to promise to ‘love, cherish and obey.’ Princess Diana, who was just 20 when she was married, also left out the ‘obey’ in her vows, but Sarah Ferguson and Sophie Rhys-Jones used the traditional language in their subsequent weddings. According to a poll on the Daily Mail’s website, 75% of readers think Kate has made the right choice.
Item 3: And on to the next one: The wedding hasn’t even happened yet, but for some people, the nuptials of Kate and William are so yesterday. What to do? How about speculate on what Prince Harry’s wedding might be like. That’s just what Time magazine has done in a feature called Royal Wedding Redux: Who Will Marry Harry? In journalism, it is always good to stay ahead of the curve.
-- Deborah Netburn
RELATED:
Interactive: Your guide to the royal wedding
