The embroidery also included sparkling crystals and pearls that outlined

Wedding Dress Tradition And Queen Elizabeth's Love

Wedding dresses are more often than naught, the center piece to most weddings. With that being the case, can you imagine if that wedding was a royal one? We often think of beautiful gowns made from the finest of materials. That hasn't always been the case. Sometimes it's the love affair that overshadows the dress. That was evident in the love hippie wedding dresses between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

Queen Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, were distant cousins that met each other when the Queen was just a 13-year old princess. It was known that Elizabeth was completely smitten with Philip and therefore, not only were they cousins, but also became good friends as evidenced from their letters to each other. Although they had a very long courtship, the couple finally decided to get engaged in 1946, but chose to keep it a secret.

Throughout their courtship, Queen Elizabeth and Philip had a number of things pulling at their relationship. Often royalty married other royalty, whether they were related or not. However, a couple of strikes against Philip was that he was not a wealthy man, as well as he was Greek Orthodox.

Regardless, the thing that brought the most hardship to the couple was that Elizabeth's mother did not want her to marry Philip. The reason she was so against their impending marriage, was that back in 1946 England had just come out of World War II and even though Philip was not German himself, he did spend some of his school years in Germany. In addition, the word was that Philip's three sisters had married German Noblemen, in which led others to believe he had some Nazi ties.

Despite her mother's disapproval, their engagement was announced publicly on July 9, 1947. The wedding took place just four months later on November 20, 1947. Although the war was over, it still caused some problems for the wedding. Elizabeth was eventually allowed to marry Philip; however his German relatives were not allowed to attend the ceremony.

During the war, England had a system of rationing in place. So even though she was royalty, Elizabeth still had to save up her rations for fabric so that she would be able to purchase her wedding dress. Fortunately she was able to get enough rations set aside; otherwise it would not have been a true royal wedding without a spectacular wedding dress.

Her dress was designed by Norman Hartnell, who started to work on the dress three months before the wedding so that it would be done in time. Hartnell started his design with a great understanding for what kind of a dress he had to make. After all, this was for the royal wedding and with that he knew everyone would be watching, so he wanted it to be perfect for Queen Elizabeth's special day.

After receiving the payment for the dress, Hartnell said he "searched the London art galleries for a classic inspiration and found a Botticelli figure in ivory silk with a trail of smilax, jasmine, syringa and some white rose like flowers." Finding the right materials for the dress was hard due to the aftermath of the war, so in the end the designer ended up having to order 20,000 pearls from the United States.

The gown's fabric for the train was satin from a mill at Lullington Castle in England, which he did not want to use at first, but Elizabeth's mother insisted that it be from there. The body of the wedding dress was a soft Chinese silk from a Scottish firm called Winterthur, which caused a little controversy because they were saying it was made by enemy silk worms from Japan. However, Hartnell was able to prove that the silk was from China. The dress was embroidered with orange blossoms, syringa, white rose and jasmine. Wheat was also included in the design, which represented fertility.

The embroidery also included sparkling crystals and pearls that outlined the neckline, hem, sleeves and the 15-foot train. The dress also included a silk tulle veil, with a small diamond tiara and a simple yet beautiful pearl necklace to wear around her neck. The beautiful bride walked down the aisle of the famous Westminster Abby with her father King George VI.

Elizabeth had a very sweet bouquet that was made of white orchids with some sprigs of myrtle, which had come from the bush that Queen Victoria had planted and grown from her own wedding bouquet. After the wedding the bride placed her sweet bouquet at the grave of the Unknown Soldier which is a tradition in England's royal weddings.

Walk down the Aisle in a Vintage Wedding junior bridesmaid dresses Dress

You will rarely find a girl who doesn grow up thinking about the big day when she would tie the knot with her prince charming! Every girl loves to imagine how stunning and ravishing she would look on her wedding day! And why not? It is you day and you have every right to outshine all others present in the wedding hall!

While every bride looks special in the night of wedding day, you can make it even more special with the touch of your unique sense of style. Let others swim through the stacks of wedding gowns in the designer stores and juggle between the budget and their choice - you take the easier route to the style statement; go for vintage wedding dress.

So what is a vintage wedding dress?

As with jewelry, in the world of dresses also you will find two terms intage?and ntique?used side by side creating a good deal of confusion.

There is a little difference between these two terms.

Antique dresses are those made in 1920 or earlier. "Vintage" is a term that is generally used to refer to the dresses that were made 25 or more years ago.

What is special about vintage wedding dresses? Why should you opt for one?

Just recall the scene from Sound of music where Julie Andrews set the screen on fire in her classical bridal get up! The satins, the laces, the flare, the feminine neckline-everything makes the bride look like a character from the pages of fairy tale!

This is precisely the essence of the vintage wedding dresses-they transport you back to a forgotten era!

The vintage wedding dress becomes a must, when your wedding ceremony is based on a historical theme. The bride and groom taking the vow dressed in vintage wedding gowns and suits add drama to the entire ceremony.

Then modern couples are silk wedding dresses increasingly choosing the castles or other historical palaces as their wedding venues and in that case, only a vintage wedding dress can do justice to the whole arrangement.

There is another case when, the bride and groom go for classic dressing style-when they are passionately in love with the Hollywood classics like "It Happened One Night." These are the likes of movies that inspire today couples to dress like the stars of the yester years.

But most important reason why you should consider buying a vintage wedding dress is: they exemplify the extra ordinary craftsmanship and exquisite details for half or less prices that you are expected to pay for an cheap alfred angelo wedding dresses off-the-rack dress with comparable detailing.

Things to keep in mind when you are buying your dream dress

Don get swayed away by the magical old world charm of these elegant dresses-being old means they invariably carry some imperfections like odors, slight strains, missing buttons, torn up laces and so on. But don get worked up-they are easy to repair. While bargaining, keep these hidden costs in mind. One thing you must be very careful of and that is the size. Always check the exact measurement; this will help you get the perfect size for your body type.