Princess Diana’s wedding was named the “Wedding of the Century” and was declared as a national holiday all around the UK. It was, after all, the most famous royal wedding and considered the “last great state event of the 20th century”.
The love story of Charles and Diana was just as interesting as their wedding details. Even though the couple tied the knot on 29th July 1981, they met each other in November 1977 when Charles was dating Diana’s sister Sarah.
However, Sarah and Charles did not last long as a couple since she refused to marry him at any cost. Although Diana was only 16 years old then, she and Charles hit it off. It was no secret that Charles was still in love with Camilla Parker Bowles, but the royal family disapproved of her as a suitable match for the heir to the throne.
Details of Princess Diana’s 1981 wedding
Four years after their meeting, Lady Diana Spencer stepped out of St Paul’s Cathedral with her father, Earl Spencer, to say “I do” to Prince Charles. The wedding was witnessed by almost 4000 guests and over 700 million people on television in 74 countries.
The wedding took palsy only five months after the royal newsletters announced their engagement. The wedding was highly extravagant and cost about $135 million, with high-profile guests like Grace Kelly and 27 different wedding cakes.
About the dress
Her wedding dress became the most iconic wedding dress of all time, designed by the young designer couple David and Elizabeth Emanuel. The ivory silk taffeta wedding dress was befitting with eighties era-defining puff sleeves. The 25-foot train was recorded as the longest in the history of royal dresses, which were embellished with 10,00 mother of pearl sequins which cost around £90,000. Later sources revealed that Diana even had a backup dress in case of emergency.
About the shoes and tiara
Princess Diana’s shoes were personally designed by the celebrity shoemaker Clive Shilton. There were sating and lace slippers with low heels and decorated with 500 sequins, 00 seed pearls, and the soles had Charles and Diana’s initial painted under the heel with a hart in between.
However, unlike the dress and the shoes, her tiara was a Spencer family heirloom made up of different pieces of jewelry that belonged to her family. On their wedding days, the tiara was also worn by Diana’s two elder sisters, Lady Sarah Spencer and Lady Jane Spencer.
Bridesmaids
Diana’s bridesmaids consisted of the seventeen-year-old daughter of the Earl of Snowdon, Lady Sarah Armstrong Jones; thirteen-year-old daughter of David and Lady Pamela Hicks, India Hicks, and the six-year-old Catherine Cameron, daughter of Donald and Lady Cecil Cameron. The other two bridesmaids were the daughters of Nick Gaselee and the great-great-granddaughter of Winston Churchill.
India Hick is Prince Charles’s second cousin and goddaughter, and in recent reports, she revealed that she felt alarmed when was asked to wear a frilly dress at the iconic wedding. She describes herself as a tomboy and feels mildly panicked by her appointed outfit and hair-do. The bridesmaids were created to compliment Lady Diana’s dress and echoed the royal’s puffy sleeves and lace-trimmed skirts.