The wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip took place on November 20, 1947, and it marked the beginning of what would become the longest royal marriage in the history of the world. The couple’s marriage was one that was founded on love and acceptance, and it was one that lasted for the whole of the late monarch’s 70-year reign and then some.
In a speech given in honor of the pair on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, Prince Philip, who passed away in April 2021, remarked, “I believe the primary lesson we have learned is that tolerance is the one important element in every good marriage.” “You may take it from me that the Queen has an abundant supply of the quality of tolerance,” the speaker said.
Elizabeth was just eight years old when she and Philip first met for the first time during the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark to Prince George in 1934. Philip was only thirteen at the time. However, it wasn’t until many years later when the princess went to Dartmouth Naval College with her parents as a teenager and spent time with the young cadet that she started to develop affection for her potential future husband. According to the biographer Sally Bedell Smith’s interview with PEOPLE in 2021, “She fell in love, and she never looked at anybody else.”
The Queen, who passed away on September 8, 2022, sent many letters to Royal Wedding novelist Betty Shew, which have since been put up for sale “I was 13 years old, and he was 18 years old and about to graduate from cadet training. At the beginning of the war, he enlisted in the Navy, and after that, the only time I saw him again was when he was home on leave, which was probably about twice every three years.”
Despite this, they remained in contact, and by June 1947, the pair had declared that they were going to be engaged. Philip popped the question with a platinum ring that he had designed at Philip Antrobus Ltd. (now Pragnell) using diamonds from a tiara that the prince’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenburg, had given him.
The answer to that question was, without a doubt, yes. Lord Charteris, who served as the Queen’s former private secretary, was quoted as saying that Prince Philip is the only man in the world who treated the monarch as if she were just another human being. “He is the only one who is able to do it. Despite the fact that it could seem strange, I feel it is something she appreciates.”
After a period of five months, the couple tied the knot in Westminster Abbey. The marriage took place just after World War II, which resulted in some limitations being imposed (for instance, the princess’s wedding gown had to be bought using rationing coupons). Nevertheless, it turned out to be a legendary occurrence that was celebrated by thousands of people all over the globe.
You can read about every aspect of the couple’s wedding ceremony down below, from the 900-pound cake that was cut with a sword to the 10,000 messages of congratulations the couple got in the days after the event.
On November 20, 1947, at 11:30 a.m., British Standard Time (GST), Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip tied the knot.
The Pre-Wedding Celebration
The young couple was honored with a ball at Buckingham Palace two days before the wedding. The event was allegedly hailed as a “sensational evening,” during which “everyone looked bright and cheerful.” The guests of honor, in particular, were said to have looked “radiant.”
The young royal became the 10th member of the British monarchy to be married at Westminster Abbey. This was the same location where her father, King George VI, was crowned just 11 years earlier, and it would be the same location where Queen Elizabeth would be crowned five years after the young royal’s wedding. (On September 19, the funeral for the king will take place inside of the church.)
The architectural masterpiece, which was substantially reconstructed in the Gothic style during the 13th century by King Henry III, served as the location for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in the year 2011.
The Benedictine monks established the Abbey in 960 A.D., and it was used for the first time as a coronation church in 1066 when William the Conqueror was crowned king. There are 17 kings who have been laid to rest at this location.
The Name of It
Prince Philip was elevated to the position of Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich just before the wedding of the happy couple. These new titles were bestowed upon him by the queen.
The Attendees
Despite the fact that Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, was allegedly cautioned to make the princess’s wedding ceremony “simple” in the aftermath of the war, the guest list was far from tiny, with an estimated number of 2,000 individuals on the list.
There were a total of five kings, five queens, and eight princes and princesses present. Included in this number were King Michael of Romania, King Haakon VII of Norway, King Faisal of Iraq, King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark, Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, Prince Philip’s uncle Earl Louis Mountbatten, and the Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Princess Elisabeth of Luxembourg. Also present was King George VI of
That Involving Transportation
Elizabeth chose a wedding gown design that was submitted by British designer Norman Hartnell just three months before the wedding. It took him and his team of roughly 350 seamstresses just seven weeks to create the piece, which was paid for in part by rationing coupons. According to the groom’s cousin, Lady Pamela Hicks, women were even sending their own clothing coupons to Buckingham Palace to help, though they were ultimately returned. “It showed how people wanted to be involved,” she told in 2020.
The gown, which was made of Duchesse satin from Scotland and silk, turned out to be exquisite, with a 15-foot silk tulle train that attached at the shoulders and a bodice encrusted with 10,000 seed pearl and diamanté crystals which formed flowers, roses, jasmine blossoms and ears of wheat. Hartnell was reportedly inspired by the Botticelli painting “Primavera” — a symbol of the coming of spring — and later referred to the gown as the “most beautiful dress” he’d ever made.
Seamstress Betty Foster told The Telegraph in 2007 that Elizabeth didn’t try it on before her wedding day as she was “respecting the tradition that it would be unlucky.”
The most eye-catching piece of jewelry that Queen Elizabeth wore on her wedding day was the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara, which belonged to her grandmother, Mary of Teck. This tiara was Queen Elizabeth’s “something borrowed” from her grandmother. Mary had it remade as a tiara in 1893 after it had previously been a fringe necklace. However, on the day of Elizabeth’s wedding, it seemed to break. The Queen would later explain, “The catch, which I didn’t know existed, it suddenly disappeared.” “The catch, which I didn’t know existed, it suddenly went.” “And I was completely unaware that it was a necklace the whole time… I was afraid that I had ruined everything… We were able to put everything back together, although I was very concerned about it.”
However, a jeweler at Garrard was able to fix it in a record amount of time, and it was delivered to the princess under police escort just in time for her wedding. Lady Pamela Hicks said in an interview with PEOPLE that while the bride was wearing her wedding gown and tiara, she “was a knockout.” “And of course, Philip was the Viking prince that every young lady imagined she would marry.”
She added: “Because of the diamond tiara that she wore, [Elizabeth] really radiated beauty. And she felt an intense passion for her partner.”
The princess completed her look with a pair of ivory Duchesse satin heels by Edward Rayne, which was the perfect match for her stunning outfit. The silver buckle had silver seed pearl accents set into it, which allowed it to go perfectly with her outfit.
The Queen Anne necklace and the Queen Caroline necklace, named after King George II’s wife, were the two pearl necklaces that Elizabeth wore on her special day in addition to the tiara that had been lent to her by a friend. Both of these beautiful jewels were given to the princess by her father, King George VI, as a wedding gift. King George VI had inherited them as part of the royal collection.
According to the book Queen and Consort: Elizabeth and Philip: 60 Years of Marriage, the princess narrowly avoided another mishap when the necklaces accidentally got left behind at St. James Palace, which is where the couple’s other wedding gifts were displayed. Fortunately, the princess was able to retrieve the necklaces in time. Jock Colville, Elizabeth’s newly recruited private secretary, had to struggle through the throng at both St. James Palace and Buckingham Palace in order to bring the documents to Elizabeth in time for her wedding vows. The documents needed to be recovered by Elizabeth.
The princess was seen carrying an arrangement that had been put together by the florist Martin Longman of Fenchurch Street. The arrangement was made using flowers that were provided by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. The design, which included white orchids and a branch of myrtle, was kept a secret by Longman until the day of the wedding. This is in keeping with a custom that began with Queen Victoria, who got it from Prince Albert’s grandmother.
According to Queen Consort: Elizabeth and Philip: 60 Years of Marriage, even though the wedding party thought it was lost for a while (a mistake which caused the royals to reshoot their wedding portraits), it was ultimately found in an icebox, where a footman had placed them in order to preserve them. This led to the royal couple having to reshoot their wedding portraits.
David Longman subsequently disclosed this information in the ITV documentary titled Invitation to the Royal Wedding. He said that “in the midst of their honeymoon they had to get dressed up again in their wedding attire and my father had to produce another bouquet for those images.”
The individual bouquets of myrtle and white Balmoral heather that served as the couple’s wedding favors were composed of the same elements.
The practice of laying the bridal bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior began with Elizabeth’s mother, Elizabeth I, who did so on the day of her own wedding in 1923. The morning following the ceremony, Elizabeth’s bouquet was dispatched to rest on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. This act was performed in remembrance of her brother, Fergus Bowes-Lyon, who had been killed in action during World War I eight years earlier.
Princess Elizabeth was accompanied by a total of eight bridesmaids on her wedding day. These included her sister, Princess Margaret, her first cousins Princess Alexandra of Kent and Margaret Elpinstone, her second cousins Lady Mary Cambridge and Lady Caroline Montagu-Douglas-Scott, her niece, Diana Bowes-Lyon, and Philip’s cousin, Pamela Mountbatten, as well as her second cousin, Lady Mary Cambridge. Each woman wore a gown designed by Hartnell that was made of tulle and included a few satin flowers on the bodice — the exact opposite of the dress that Elizabeth had designed for herself by Hartnell. “Tulle could be simply bought, while duchess satin was so difficult to get in those days,” Mountbatten, who would eventually become known as Lady Pamela Hicks, told PEOPLE in the year 2020. “Tulle could easily be acquired.”
According to the book Queen and Consort: Elizabeth and Philip: 60 Years of Marriage, which was written by Lynne Bell and published in 2007, Prince Philip commissioned gold compacts for the celebration that were inscribed in jewels with his and Elizabeth’s initials. The groom, on the other hand, had his very own first cousin, David Mountbatten, serving as his best man by his side. Prince William of Gloucester and Prince Michael of Kent were called upon to perform the duties of page boys.
The Band for the Wedding
During the event, Princess Elizabeth was presented with a wedding band that was crafted from the same Welsh gold as the ring that belonged to her mother. In her book, Prince Philip: Revealed, published in 2020, author Ingrid Seward makes the assertion that the ring was engraved with a hidden message that was only known by the bride, the groom, and the person who did the engraving.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, and the Archbishop of York, Cyril Garbett, officiated the wedding of the royal couple. During the ceremony, the archbishops “urged upon the young couple patience, a ready compassion, and tolerance.”
The music was given by William Neil McKie, who conducted a group of 91 singers comprised of members of the Abbey choir, the Chapel Royal choir, and the St. George’s Chapel choir. In all, there were three choirs that participated.
In concert, they sang a number of hymns, such as “Praise, my soul, the king of heaven” and “The Lord’s my shepherd,” as well as a “vocal musical composition” that McKie had written just for the event. The official website of the British royal family states that “Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ” by Samuel Sebastian Wesley was played during Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding. They departed the Abbey to Felix Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.”
The Breakfast
Following the conclusion of the ceremony, the newlyweds boarded the glass carriage and drove back to Buckingham Palace. Once they arrived, they are said to have memorably waved to the audience of around 100,000 people gathered outside from the balcony before proceeding inside to the Ball Supper Room, where they celebrated a more modest wedding breakfast with just 146 guests in attendance.
According to the Royal Collection Trust, among them were members of the royal families of Greece, Denmark, Iraq, Norway, Roumania, Spain, and Yugoslavia. Also included in this group were members of the Swedish royal family.
The Nutrients
On the occasion of the couple’s platinum wedding anniversary in 2017, former royal chef Darren McGrady posted the wedding breakfast meal that he prepared for them on Twitter. As an appetizer, we will have Filet de Sole Mountbatten, which is a reference to the surname of Prince Philip. For the main course, we will have “Perdreau en Casserole,” which will be served with green beans, noisette potatoes, and royal salad. McGrady claims that the partridges were selected because, unlike other meals available at that time period, they were not subject to restriction.
Dessert consisted of Bombe Glacee Princesse Elizabeth, which was an ice cream dish created with fresh strawberries. Guests were presented with this dish as a special treat. According to McGrady, the fruit that was cultivated at Windsor Castle out of season was intended to be a luxury item and was grown in greenhouses there.
Even though their main cake was already rather large, the newlyweds decided to offer an astounding eleven other cakes for their wedding breakfast: According to the Royal Collection Trust, the masterpiece was 9 feet in height, had four layers, and weighed 900 pounds. McVitie & Price was the company that designed and created the item. The cake was so enormous that it was actually cut using the groom’s own naval sword, which King George VI had given to him as a wedding gift. It was given the nickname “10,000-mile cake” due to the fact that its components came from all over the world.
In addition to its size, the fruity confection was extraordinarily detailed. It was adorned with the family crests of both Elizabeth and Philip, as well as the monograms of the bride and groom, naval emblems, and sugar icing figurines depicting the couple in their favorite hobbies. Read the following from a news release that Hello! Magazine obtained in 1947: “Each individual component of the sugar work on the cake was crafted in a separate step before being assembled on the cake.”
On the bottom layer of the cake was a silver coin, a thimble, a bell, a button, a boot, and a horseshoe; each of these items was intended to bring the newlyweds luck.
The couple’s leftovers were put to good use and donated around the kingdom to various philanthropic institutions, including hospitals, schools, and other organizations.
The Queen Mother sprinkled the newlywed pair with rose petals while they were riding in an open-drawn carriage on their way to spend their honeymoon at Birkhall, which is located on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. The princess, who had just changed into a coat dress in a misty blue by Norman Hartnell, was also sitting with her corgi, Susan, who was peering out from behind a rug while sitting on her lap.
The Presents
Not only did Elizabeth get the two pearl necklaces that she wore around her neck from her parents, but she also got a sapphire-and-diamond necklace and earring set and a pair of diamond Cartier earrings, as stated in Bell’s Queen Consort: Bell’s Queen Consort: Elizabeth and Philip have been married for 60 years now.
The princess was given even more diamonds by her grandmother, Queen Mary. These included an ancient diamond stomacher, diamond Indian bangle brooches, and a set of ruby earrings that Queen Mary had received from Elizabeth’s father for her 59th birthday present. In addition to that, she presented the pair with a bookshelf.
Ruby, emerald, and diamond jewelry, along with a racehorse, a Kenyan hunting lodge, a television, a mink coat, a Singer sewing machine, a refrigerator, and maple furniture for the couple’s new home, were some of the gifts that royal dignitaries presented to the newlywed bride and groom. The uncut pink diamond weighed 54.5 carats and came from Canada’s John T. Williamson. It is said that President Truman sent a bowl made of Steuben crystal that was engraved with a merry-go-round, and it is said that Mahatma Gandhi sent a piece of cotton lace that he himself had reportedly spun with the words “Jai Hind,” which translates to “Victory for India.” Both of these gifts were presented to Queen Elizabeth II.
Additionally, it was said that the young couple was showered with more than 2,500 gifts and 10,000 messages of congratulations from their subjects. The presents included 386 pairs of stockings, which were in limited supply at the time.
However, it’s possible that the groom was the one who gave the bride the most valuable present of all. Not only did he give her a diamond bracelet that he had designed himself and a brooch in the shape of a Royal Navy badge that had more diamonds from his mother’s tiara added to it, but he also kept a promise that he made to his new wife that he would quit smoking, which was reportedly a habit that she abhorred and he said he would do.
Even though their main cake was already rather large, the newlyweds decided to offer an astounding eleven other cakes for their wedding breakfast: According to the Royal Collection Trust, the masterpiece was 9 feet in height, had four layers, and weighed 900 pounds. McVitie & Price was the company that designed and created the item. The cake was so enormous that it was actually cut using the groom’s own naval sword, which King George VI had given to him as a wedding gift. It was given the nickname “10,000-mile cake” due to the fact that its components came from all over the world.
In addition to its size, the fruity confection was extraordinarily detailed. It was adorned with the family crests of both Elizabeth and Philip, as well as the monograms of the bride and groom, naval emblems, and sugar icing figurines depicting the couple in their favorite hobbies. Read the following from a news release that Hello! Magazine obtained in 1947: “Each individual component of the sugar work on the cake was crafted in a separate step before being assembled on the cake.”
On the bottom layer of the cake was a silver coin, a thimble, a bell, a button, a boot, and a horseshoe; each of these items was intended to bring the newlyweds luck.
The couple’s leftovers were put to good use and donated around the kingdom to various philanthropic institutions, including hospitals, schools, and other organizations.
The Queen Mother sprinkled the newlywed pair with rose petals while they were riding in an open-drawn carriage on their way to spend their honeymoon at Birkhall, which is located on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. The princess, who had just changed into a coat dress in a misty blue by Norman Hartnell, was also sitting with her corgi, Susan, who was peering out from behind a rug while sitting on her lap.
The Presents
Not only did Elizabeth get the two pearl necklaces that she wore around her neck from her parents, but she also got a sapphire-and-diamond necklace and earring set and a pair of diamond Cartier earrings, as stated in Bell’s Queen Consort: Bell’s Queen Consort: Elizabeth and Philip have been married for 60 years now.
The princess was given even more diamonds by her grandmother, Queen Mary. These included an ancient diamond stomacher, diamond Indian bangle brooches, and a set of ruby earrings that Queen Mary had received from Elizabeth’s father for her 59th birthday present. In addition to that, she presented the pair with a bookshelf.
Ruby, emerald, and diamond jewelry, along with a racehorse, a Kenyan hunting lodge, a television, a mink coat, a Singer sewing machine, a refrigerator, and maple furniture for the couple’s new home, were some of the gifts that royal dignitaries presented to the newlywed bride and groom. The uncut pink diamond weighed 54.5 carats and came from Canada’s John T. Williamson. It is said that President Truman sent a bowl made of Steuben crystal that was engraved with a merry-go-round, and it is said that Mahatma Gandhi sent a piece of cotton lace that he himself had reportedly spun with the words “Jai Hind,” which translates to “Victory for India.” Both of these gifts were presented to Queen Elizabeth II.
Additionally, it was said that the young couple was showered with more than 2,500 gifts and 10,000 messages of congratulations from their subjects. The presents included 386 pairs of stockings, which were in limited supply at the time.
However, it’s possible that the groom was the one who gave the bride the most valuable present of all. Not only did he give her a diamond bracelet that he had designed himself and a brooch in the shape of a Royal Navy badge that had more diamonds from his mother’s tiara added to it, but he also kept a promise that he made to his new wife that he would quit smoking, which was reportedly a habit that she abhorred and he said he would do.
The wedding ceremony of the royal couple was broadcast on BBC Radio, which was heard by about 200 million people all over the globe. A film depicting their wedding was shown in theaters all around the nation, even though it was not broadcast on television.
After the occasion, it is believed that more than 200,000 people made their way to St. James’s Palace, where Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding presents were displayed for public viewing. Meanwhile, the Norman Harnell dress worn by the princess was put on display in several cities around the nation.
