Imagine this: It’s the day of your wedding, you’ve made sure everything’s perfect. But two hours before the ceremony, the beautiful tiara you were planning to wear down the aisle snaps in two.
That’s stressful for any bride. Now imagine that you’re the future Queen of England and that your wedding will be broadcast to an estimated 200 million people.
That’s a nightmare.
The ordeal happened to Queen Elizabeth II – then Princess Elizabeth – in 1947, before she was set to marry Prince Philip.
Just two hours before she was set to walk down the aisle of Westminster Abbey, the Queen’s diamond tiara broke when her hairdresser tried to secure it to her veil.
Though flower crowns are a beautiful flourish to any brides wedding dress, you can imagine that breaking a historic (and not to mention incredibly expensive) family heirloom right before you’re set to get married would be devastating.
Though the then Princess was understandably upset, the Queen Mother comforted her daughter and reminded her that, “we have two hours and there are other tiaras,” according to The Telegraph. However, Elizabeth was set on wearing the beautiful fringe-style tiara.
Luckily for Elizabeth, in the palace planning to the tee is the norm. On standby were members of the royal jewellery house Garrard, in the case of an outfit malfunction of royal proportions. The tiara was driven under police escort to the jewellery workshop in order to be repaired and was welded back together in time for Elizabeth to walk down the aisle. Talk about a stressful job!
The only sign of the nightmare ordeal is a slight gap between the centre diamond spike and the one on the right. You definitely couldn’t tell from the happy look on Princess Elizabeth’s face that anything had gone wrong.
The story behind the beautiful piece?
The tiara was to be Elizabeth’s ‘something borrowed’ for the big day, as it belonged to the Queen Mother.
The Queen Mother had inherited it from Queen Mary (Elizabeth’s grandmother) who had it made by the Garrard jewellery house in 1919. That would make the crown older than Elizabeth herself, so it’s reasonable why it was so fragile.
HRH looked beautiful on her wedding day, the tiara proving to be the perfect finishing touch to her stunning dress.
