WEDDING FLOWERS: Britain
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Showing posts with label Britain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Britain. Show all posts

Sunday Tidbits for May 24: Jewelry Debuts and See-Through Shoes

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No less than three royal ladies debuted new jewels this week, and I'm always here for that. Sparkly tidbits await you:

--Queen Máxima was out and about with a napkin on her head, but check out those earrings. HELLO LOVER. These are new pieces for her, and she continues to have one of the best collections of pink gems on the royal block. [Zimbio]

--Speaking of Máx, she and King Willem-Alexander are heading out for a state visit to Canada beginning Wednesday (they'll be in Ottawa, University of Waterloo, Beamsville, and Toronto), and an official visit to the United States the following week (Washington, D.C., Grand Rapids, Chicago). Those links will take you to the official agendas, in Dutch. [Het Koninklijk Huis]

--The Countess of Wessex visited Prague and got a new brooch! [Countess of Wessex Blog]

--The Duchess of Cornwall visited Ireland and got a new brooch! [Jewel Vault]

--That brooch came during an historic and well-received trip with the Prince of Wales to Ireland and Northern Ireland this week. One particularly emotional moment came during a trip to the place where Lord Mountbatten was killed by an IRA bomb, and Charles' speech there is embedded below. [Storify, YouTube]

--There seems to be an epidemic of sculpture openings in the Netherlands this week. Throw some orange in the mix for Princess Beatrix's opening, and she could have played along with the M&M twin show. [Royal Hats Blog]

--We have a confirmed international royal guest for the upcoming Swedish royal wedding: Princess Hisako of Takamado, who also attended Princess Madeleine's wedding. The official guest list has not been released yet, but more royal courts will eventually publish their agendas independently, as the Japanese imperial household has done. [Imperial Family of Japan Blog]

--Cutie pie Princess Leonor had her first communion this week, with the royal family in attendance. Queen Letizia sported see-through shoes from Magrit with her Felipe Varela ensemble and a matching transparent vinyl clutch with silver lining. Worked well enough for Cinderella, I suppose. (Transparent vinyl peep toes are the new glass slippers, did you not get that memo?) [Hola]

Tomorrow's a holiday, but I'll be here to bring you some ~*gLamOur*~ anyway, so stay tuned...

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated, YouTube

Sunday Tidbits for May 17: Some Dresses, Some Sparklies

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Lots coming up on the blog this week: pre-wedding business in Sweden, national stuff in Norway, happenings in Spain, etc. But first, a tidbit or two...

--Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist have a service and reception today for their marriage banns and we'll be looking at that later. For now, they've released some new pictures, and Sofia's wearing a Reiss dress. Happy birthday to Prince CP, by the way - he turned 36 this week!
Foto Mattias Edwall, Kungahuset.se
--The Cannes Film Festival is in full swing, and French actress Clotilde Courau - also known as the Princess of Venice and Piedmont, though she doesn't use the title professionally - always turns up. Her dress is Valentino Couture, and I'm in sheer disbelief that we didn't see it on Crown Princess Mette-Marit first. Probably waiting patiently in that Norwegian closet.

--I'm also intrigued by her jewels, from Bulgari High Jewellery's Giardini Italiani collection. I love mixing stone colors in modern pieces.

--Also in Cannes, minus the evening gown: Prince Félix of Luxembourg. [Luxarazzi]

--Prince Harry continued his cuteness assault in New Zealand following my post earlier this week. Here he is trying his hand at a Maori Haka:


--I am intrigued by the Countess of Wessex's floral dress worn to a ballet performance this week, and am waiting to see it without the jacket. In her down time, she and Lady Louise have been having a blast at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, Savannah and Isla Phillips included. [Countess of Wessex Blog, Daily Mail]

--Over at the Jewel Vault this week, we talked about two of the Duchess of Cornwall's famous pearl chokers.

--And finally, here's a little something to drool over: stunning Cartier jewels auctioned at Sotheby's this past week. We'll be talking about some of the tiaras featured at that auction a bit later on. [YouTube]

Photos: via Getty Images and Kungahuset as indicated
Royal Trip of the Day: May 13

Royal Trip of the Day: May 13

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Do you need a midweek pick-me-up? Okay. Let's talk about Harry.
Day 1 of the New Zealand Tour
Following his time with the armed forces in Australia, Prince Harry embarked on a tour of New Zealand that runs through the end of the week. I'm glad we're nearing the final stages, to be honest with you. I've died several times already, and it just keeps getting worse.

In Sydney, before leaving for New Zealand
I take my hat off to the team that plans his tours. Good grief, these people know exaaaactly what they're doing. Harry's on a charm offensive and no woman, man, child, puppy, or cupcake is safe.

Day 4
For heaven's sake, he's even given an interview about wanting to have kids and wanting someone to share the royal grind with. (I know.)


 Day 1
Also, I warned you about the puppies.

Day 5
On the sartorial level, he's managed to stay out of his blue suit for quite a few engagements, which is great. (...Maybe that didn't come out quite right.)
Day 4
Casual wear and baked goods, I don't know what more you could ask for.

Day 4
I mean... {SOUNDS}

Photos: Chris Jackson, WPA Pool, and Martin Hunter via Getty Images

Sunday Tidbits for May 10: Commemorations, an Enthronement, and Bonus Cuteness

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Lots going on out there! Tomorrow, we'll be attending to princely christening business; meanwhile, ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day are ongoing, and several royals in several countries have been participating in several ways. Just a few of those appearances kick off today's tidbits edition:

--Today's VE Day anniversary service in London is covered at the Jewel Vault, and so is Queen Elizabeth II kicking things off on Friday, together with a unique recording of her memories of that historic day. [Jewel Vault]

--The Countess of Wessex, looking stunning in a green dress from Suzannah, visited the Channel Islands to mark the 70th anniversary of their liberation. Here's a great entry at the Countess of Wessex blog, where eagle-eyed Anna gave me the heads up that Sophie was wearing earrings on loan from her mother-in-law. Her latest loan from the master jewel vault is a pair of ruby and diamond earrings I have previously covered at ye olde Vault blog. That red and green combo isn't any accident, by the way: green is for Guernsey, red for Jersey. [HRH Countess of Wessex Blog]

-- The Hereditary Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg were in Paris for the VE Day anniversary events, and I like this color on Stéphanie. [Luxarazzi]

--In other news, the enthronement of the Sultan of Perak, hereditary ruler of one of the states of Malaysia, happened this week. The Sultan came to the throne last year. Below is a video of one of the ceremonies this week, featuring quite a nice tiara on the Sultan's wife, Tuanku Zara Salim. (You may recall that the Sultan of Johor, another Malaysian state, had a coronation earlier this year.) [YouTube]


--Gotta love it when royal hats join forces: Queen Sonja and Princess Beatrix jointly opened the exhibit Van Gogh+Munch at the Munch Museum in Oslo this week. [Dagbladet]
 See also this NRK video.

--And finally, spring greetings for you from Princess Estelle and Haga Palace! [Kungahuset]
Kate Gabor/Kungahuset.se

Stay tuned this week for Monaco and Harry and more...
Royal Flashback of the Day: May 6

Royal Flashback of the Day: May 6

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Monday was the Met Gala, a.k.a. the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the red carpet was filled with the usual assortment of celebs in competition for the most eye-catching outfit. (Click here for a gallery of this year's looks, or here for smart takes from the Fug Girls.) But turn back the clock a couple decades, and you'll find a guest straight out of our realm.
The appearance of Diana, Princess of Wales at the 1996 ball wasn't as random as it might seem: Diana was a guest of her good friend Liz Tilberis, then-head of Harper's Bazaar and hostess of the event that year. And more importantly, the event celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Christian Dior label, which had just appointed British designer John Galliano as its creative director. Diana's dress that evening was Galliano's first couture creation at the Dior helm. It was a highly anticipated moment, coming a month before the debut of his first collection. (The dress, now a part of the brand's history, was included in a Dior exhibit at Harrod's in 2013.)
Galliano fit the lingerie-inspired midnight blue slip dress with black lace trim to the Princess himself in a series of meetings at Kensington Palace, and she did make some requests for changes to his original design. The final product was accompanied by a dark wrap to guard against the December cold and a small navy version of her favorite Dior handbag, a style she liked so much it was renamed Lady Dior in her honor. She added her signature sapphire and pearl choker on top (created from a sapphire and diamond brooch given to her as a wedding gift by the Queen Mother, mounted with seven strands of pearls), with sapphire and diamond earrings and bracelets.
It feels so dated now, doesn't it? It takes you right back to the underwear-as-outerwear trend of the 1990s that saw starlets in simple slip dresses all over the red carpet. And it was perhaps too trendy for its own good, sacrificing the structure that would have been more flattering to her figure. For Diana, it was a daring choice, another dress (and event) fit for her new post-divorce life. The whole look feels unfathomably understated in comparison to the looks we see at the same event today, but it made a huge splash at the time. Many reviews of the dress itself were not stellar - it really is terribly hard to resist pointing out that a princess left the house in her nightgown - but the publicity worked its magic and its place in fashion history was secured.

(P.S.: If you really want a flashback, check out this Hard Copy segment on the appearance. It's...a blast from the past.)

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated

Saturday Tidbits: Baby Cambridge Edition (Updated)

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Hellloooo! Sunday tidbits comes a day early in the form of an edition devoted entirely to the newest member of the Windsor clan. Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the birth of their baby girl!

--Update: We have a name! Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, to be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge. Here's my post on the wedding of a previous British Princess Charlotte.

--Here's how it went down, tweet-style. All this happened while I was asleep, and I woke up to tweets for articles about all the ways lives have gone wrong for those in the "spare" position - TOO SOON, PEOPLE, GAWD - which left me totally confused until I kept scrolling. But total confusion is my normal morning state, so nothing out of the ordinary there.





--By the way, count me among the, like, five or so people in the world today that were surprised it was a girl. Only because when everyone is united in a prediction, I always assume it will be the opposite. But YAY FOR FUTURE TIARA WEARERS!

--Prince Cheeks Part 1 a.k.a. George came to visit his little sister, matching his dad in blues. He didn't really seem to understand all the fuss outside, but who among us truly does?

--His wee wave on video for you:


--Speaking of George: His name was announced two days after he was born, which was one day after he left the hospital and after QEII had stopped by to see him. So that's an FYI for those wondering when we'll get a name for Cambridge No. 4. I would like to officially sign the petition in favor of Princess Consuela Bananahammock.

--And then, lickety-split, it was time to take the new princess home to her palace. Here's a big gallery for you. [Zimbio]

--The Duchess wore a bespoke Jenny Packham silk shift dress with a yellow buttercup print. She also wore Jenny Packham when leaving the hospital with Prince George, so it's now the Official Royal Baby Carrying Label. Obviously Kate looked better than I do on any given day in which I have not given birth to a child just hours before, so that's not fair.

--The new mum didn't wear pink, but The Queen had an engagement today, and she did! She also wore a brooch with a skull and crossbones on it - yes! - which I find entirely too entertaining. You can read the full story behind the brooch and the very good reason she had for wearing it today over at the Jewel Vault. Or you can just decide she was having a Mette-Marit kind of day and leave it at that. YOUR CALL.

--And one more thing before we go:
CHEEEEKKKKSSS!!!!


We'll be back on Monday with a return to the non-Cambridge royal world, including the answer to this question: Which royal went out in public knowingly dressed like a banana? Stay tuned.

Photos: Telegraph video and via Getty Images and Twitter as indicated

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