Princess Eugenie stepped out in a wedding gown that featured a number of meaningful symbols as she walked down the aisle Friday morning to marry Jack Brooksbank.
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Eugenie, a cousin of Prince Harry, is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, the Duke and Duchess of York. Her father escorted her down the aisle.
The princess’ gown, complete with a fitted bodice and full pleated skirt, was designed by Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos, founders of the British-based womenswear label Peter Pilotto. The design began with research into dresses worn by previous members of the royal family, according to Buckingham Palace.
While Eugenie’s dress may differ visibly from Duchess Meghan and Princess Kate’s gowns, all share a similarity that’s meaningful to each royal bride.
The special details behind Princess Eugenie’s gown
The fabric designed for the dress included a number of symbols that are meaningful to Eugenie, including a thistle for Scotland, which represents the couple’s fondness for Balmoral, the royal family’s Scotland estate.
A shamrock for Ireland is a nod to Eugenie’s mother’s family, while york rose and ivy represent the couple’s home, Buckingham Palace wrote in a statement.
The neckline on the dress folds around the shoulders to a low back that drapes into a full-length train. The low back detail was at the request of Eugenie, who had surgery to correct scoliosis when she was 12 years old, according to Buckingham Palace.
Eugenie, 28, and Brooksbank, 32, wed less than six months after Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s’s high-profile wedding, and in the same chapel, St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex wed.
The meaningful details behind Duchess Meghan’s gown
Princess Eugenie’s gown bore similarities Duchess Meghan’s, who wore a silk crepe, floor-length gown with a high collar, according to Kensington Palace.
Meghan’s gown was designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy, who focused on an open, bateau neckline that framed the Duchess’ shoulders — similar to that of Eugenie’s neckline, which folded around the shoulders.
Like the symbols on Eugenie’s dress, Meghan’s veil also displayed meaningful emblems of locations by having all 53 countries of the British Commonwealth hand-embroidered into the silk tulle.
Prince Harry was named the Commonwealth Youth Ambassador by Queen Elizabeth. He and Meghan will embark on a Commonwealth tour, which will include visits to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.
Meghan wanted to express her gratitude for the opportunity to support the work of the Commonwealth by incorporating references to its members into the design of her wedding dress, according to Kensington Palace.
Meghan’s veil also included the poppy, the state flower of her home state of California, in a nod to her American roots, she revealed in an HBO documentary, “Queen of the World.”
“It was important for me … now being a part of the Royal Family, to have all 53 of the Commonwealth countries incorporated,” Meghan says in the documentary. “I knew that it would be a fun surprise as well for my now-husband, who didn’t know, and he was really over the moon to find out that I would make this choice for our day together.”
Princess Kate’s dress bore meaningful symbols as well
In 2011, Princess Kate married Prince William in a long-sleeved lace and ivory satin design by Sarah Burton, the creative director for the late Alexander McQueen, according to a Kensington Palace press release.
Kate’s gown differed greatly from Princess Eugenie’s, but one similarity was the incorporation of the shamrock, which Kate had hand-engineered by the Royal School of Needlework onto her lace design — along with the rose, thistle and daffodil — representing Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.
The symbols of the thistle, shamrock, york rose and ivy were designed in a garland of rope-like motifs onto Eugenie’s dress.
Unlike Princess Kate and Duchess Meghan, Princess Eugenie chose not to wear a veil. All three royals did wear tiaras, which were lent to them by Queen Elizabeth II.
The tiaras: All something borrowed
Princess Eugenie wore the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara, borrowed from the Queen. The accessory was made by Parisian jewelry house Boucheron for British socialite Margaret Greville in 1919.
The tiara, which was bequeathed by Greville to Queen Elizabeth in 1942, is made of brilliant and rose cut diamonds pavé and set in platinum. There are six emeralds on either side, according to Buckingham Palace.
Eugenie matched the tiara with diamond and emerald drop earrings–a wedding gift from the groom, Buckingham Palace wrote in a statement.
Duchess Meghan’s detailed veil was held in place by Queen Mary’s diamond and platinum bandeau tiara, also on loan from the Queen. The diamond bandeau is English and was made in 1932, with the center brooch dating from 1893, Kensington Palace wrote in a statement.
The diamond bandeau was made for Queen Mary and designed to accommodate the detachable, center brooch. The brooch was given as a gift to the then Princess Mary in 1893 by the County of Lincoln on her marriage to Prince George, Duke of York, the palace said. The bandeau tiara and the brooch were bequeathed by Queen Mary to Queen Elizabeth in 1953.
Princess Kate wore the Cartier “Halo” tiara, which was loaned to her by Queen Elizabeth II. It was purchased by The Duke of York (later King George VI) for his Duchess (later Queen Elizabeth) three weeks before he succeeded his brother as King, according to a Kensington Palace press release.
The tiara passed down through the Windsor family and was a gift to then-Princess Elizabeth (now the Queen) on her 18th birthday.
It features 739 brilliant and 149 baton diamonds.
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