Synopses & Reviews
The Romance of Victoria's Wedding"
Really, I do not think it possible for any one in the world to be happier, or ashappy as I am. He is an Angel, and his kindness andaffection for me is reallytouching...What I can do to make him happywill be my greatest delight."
--Queen Victoria's journal,
February 11, 1840Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on February 10, 1840, set the stage for the beautiful, romantic weddings we hold today. Although it is hard to imagine the dour, blackgowned Queen Victoria as a young bride, when she was twenty, the tiny British monarch became a wedding trendsetter.
Unlike many royal marriages of the time, Victoria and Albert's was a love match. After they were introduced in 1836, Victoria wrote in her journal, "Albert ... is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression ... full of goodness and sweetness, and very clever and intelligent." She proposed to him on October 15, 1839. "It was a nervous thing to do, but Prince Albert could not possibly have proposed to the Queen of England. He would never have presumed to take such a liberty."
The date of her proposal remained forever special to Victoria, and she had it engraved in Albert's wedding band. Although the Prince had given Victoria a diamond friendship ring four years before their marriage, her engagement ring would be considered decidedly unusual today. It featured a snake with diamond eyes! In the nineteenth century, snakes were popular emblems of love, their wound coils symbolizing eternity.
Theheadstrong young monarch oversaw all of the wedding preparations. She was the first royal bride to ignore the tradition of wearing a heavy brocade dress decorated with jewels and half hidden by a velvet-and-ermine mantle. Instead, she ordered a lovely white satin gown trimmed with sprays of delicate orange blossom. Although white silk or satin dresses had been "de rigueur" for "best dresses" since the 1820s, Victoria's choice of one for her wedding made them popular bridal gowns as well.
In one area, Victoria did not ignore tradition. Her gown, like other bridal dresses of the era, was trimmed with lace. Lacemaking is an ancient feminine art, even older than the weaving of cloth. In the sixteenth century, lengths of bobbin lace, made by crossing and twisting thread around pins on a small pillow, were used to trim bridal posies, much as a length of lace ribbon is used today. Later, the manufacture of needlepoint lace, which was made with tiny stitches overlaying larger stitches on a paper pattern, supported many communities throughout Europe. Generations of lacemakers laboriously produced the same secret patterns, their precious fabric named for the towns in which they lived: Alencon, Lyons, Chantilly, Honiton. By Victoria's time, machine-made lace was available, but wealthy brides or those whose ancestors had spent many hours producing family heirlooms still wore hand-crafted lace.
Jane Bidney, a lacemaker from Beer, outside Honiton, was commissioned to supply the handmade lace for Victoria's royal dress and fingertip-length veil. Jane, who had never been outside Devon, fainted from nerves white waiting to be received by the Queen in London. Once she recovered, the two womendiscussed the lace for the neck and sleeve frills and for the front panel of the wedding dress. It took more than one hundred lacemakers six months to make the exquisite lace. (The average time for making 1 1/2 square inches of lace is from five to eight hours.) In appreciation, Victoria invited Jane to attend the ceremony and sent each of the lacemakers 10 pounds to celebrate the wedding.On February 10, the Queen awoke to a steady downpour. Shortly before nine she wrote a charming note to Albert, who was staying at the palace: "Dearest -- How are you to-day, and have you slept well? I have rested very well and feel very comfortable to-day. What weather! I believe, however, the rain will cease. Send one word when you, my most dearly loved bridegroom, will be ready.Thy ever-faithful, Victoria R."
This small message of concern for her husband-to-be, who had suffered from seasickness on a stormy five-hour crossing of the English Channel, shows not only Victoria's thoughtfulness but also her passion and her anticipation of what her life together with Albert would be like.
After breakfast, her governess gave Victoria a "dear little ring" while she was helping her former pupil with her hair and wreath of orange blossoms. The Victorians loved accessorizing -- with lockets, cameos, tong drop earrings, and jeweled hairpins and combs -- and their queen was no exception. Diamonds glittered in Victoria's hair, a diamond necklace graced her neck, and Prince Albert's gift of a sapphire - and-diamond brooch sparkled over her heart, the traditional spot for a brooch on an English bride's wedding day.
While Victoria was getting ready at Buckingham Palace, the wedding guests filed into the ChapelRoyal of St. James's Palace, and the twelve young bridesmaids gathered excitedly in a room set aside for the Queen and her attendants. In contrast to the extravagant gowns and jewels of the women guests, the bridesmaids were a study in understated loveliness. Their enchanting white tulle dresses, trimmed with creamy white roses, had been designed by the bride herself in the classic ballerina style that continues to inspire wedding gown designers today.
About noon, Prince Albert's carriage left Buckingham Palace, followed a short white later by Victoria, her mother, and her Mistress of the Robes in the royal coach -- as thousands tined London's Mall, waving and cheering. In the century ahead, Victoria's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would follow the same route on their wedding day.
Synopsis
From Queen Victoria to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, "Legendary Brides" captures the magic of eight prominent brides and their weddings, providing timeless ideas for gowns, flowers, menus, table settings, and other essentials. 250 illustrations & photos.
Synopsis
Let the "something borrowed" for your own special day be inspired by the most celebrated weddings everJacqueline Bouvier, Lady Diana Spencer, Grace Kelly, Wallis Simpson, Carolyn Bessette ... Each name evokes an individual style that still fascinates the world and continues to influence fashion. Now, the unforgettable weddings of these legendary women -- along with other famous brides of the past century -- are chronicled for the first time in a single, highly illustrated volume that is sure to provide inspiration and ideas for a new generation of brides.
From Queen Victoria's lavish court wedding in 1840 to Carolyn Bessette's intimate and understated ceremony on Cumberland Island in 1996, each of the weddings featured in this charming and informative book set the stage for the bridal and entertaining styles of the day. And each of them contributed, in a unique way, to the wedding traditions that young brides still follow.
But Legendary Brides is much more than just a lovely look back at the past. Author Letitia Baldrige -- with the same grace, humor, and command of etiquette that marked her tenure as social secretary for the Kennedy White House -- offers authoritative, practical, and often amusing, advice on every aspect of planning a wedding today. And with skill and insight, she "borrows" unique touches from a century of memorable weddings and reinterprets them eloquently for a new generation of brides.
Lavishly illustrated contemporary features provide timeless ideas for gowns, flowers, cakes, music, invitations, table settings, and more. And a highly readable text with rarely seen photographs and illustrations recreates the atmosphere of each legendary wedding in fascinating detail, making this a delightful book to read and enjoy as well as an indispensable sourcebook for anyone planning a wedding.
As Letitia Baldrige says in her Introduction, now that we have entered a new century, "young and old alike are hungry for beauty, tradition, and old-fashioned values." Legendary Brides offers today's brides something old, something new -- and something borrowed, too.
About the Author
Letitia Baldrige has attended many of the most celebrated weddings of our time and known such famous women as Jacqueline Kennedy, Consuelo Vanderbilt, and Princess Grace. As social secretary for the Kennedy White House, she organized the glittering occasions of that storied era. Today, she is America's leading expert on etiquette, a sought-after lecturer and speaker, and the author of fourteen books -- including Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to the New Manners for the Nineties, In the Kennedy Style, and Tiffany Table Settings. Ms. Baldrige is also a syndicated weekly columnist on manners and is a contributing editor of Town &Country.