Royal Wedding Records: A Historic Event?

Royal weddings have been making records since the 16th century, when Mary I, Queen of England, married Philip, Prince of Asturias, in 1554. In the 20th and 21st centuries, royal weddings have broken records for media coverage and live streaming. The wedding of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960 was the first to be televised, and the wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 1973 was the first to be broadcast in colour. The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011 broke records for live streaming, with some websites faltering under the strain of hundreds of millions of viewers.

Royal weddings have been televised since 1960, with Princess Margaret's being the first

Royal weddings have been televised since 1960, with Princess Margaret's wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones being the first. The marriage took place on the 6th of May, 1960, at Westminster Abbey. It was the first royal wedding since Queen Elizabeth II's marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947.

The wedding was a grand affair, with over 2,000 people in attendance. Westminster Abbey was filled with broadcasting equipment, including 36 cameras trained on the royal couple and three miles of electric cable. The BBC used all but one of their outside broadcast units to cover the event. The comprehensive coverage of Princess Margaret's wedding set a precedent for later royal weddings.

The wedding was watched by over 20 million people in the UK, with viewers in Australia, Canada, and the USA bringing the total viewing figures to 300 million. It was the biggest royal event since the Coronation and caught considerable attention, later being recreated in the Netflix show 'The Crown'.

The first televised royal wedding set the stage for future royal weddings to be broadcast around the world. The wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 1973, for example, was the first to be broadcast in colour and attracted over 500 million viewers worldwide. Similarly, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 attracted 28 million viewers in the UK and an estimated 750 million people globally.

The wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 1973 set a record for the most-watched programme on a single channel in the UK of all time

The wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 1973 was a record-breaking event in several ways. Firstly, it set a record for the most-watched programme on a single channel in the UK of all time, with 27.6 million viewers tuning in to watch the ceremony on the BBC. This contributed to the growing global popularity of royal weddings, with an estimated 500 million people around the world tuning in to watch the broadcast. This was made possible by the fact that it was the first royal wedding to be televised in colour, giving viewers worldwide a more realistic viewing experience.

The wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips was also significant because it was the first royal wedding for one of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip's children. Princess Anne is the Queen's only daughter, and her wedding day was declared a special bank holiday. The ceremony took place at Westminster Abbey, with large crowds gathering in the streets to celebrate the occasion. The couple's wedding cake also paid tribute to Princess Anne's career as an equestrian, featuring a statue of a female jockey leaping a fence.

The wedding ceremony included many traditional aspects, such as the use of state carriages and the presence of the Household Cavalry, Irish Guards, and Coldstream Guards. Princess Anne wore a high-necked, Tudor-style wedding dress with medieval-influenced sleeves, designed by Maureen Baker. Her wedding ring, in keeping with tradition, was crafted from Welsh gold. Mark Phillips, a retired British Army cavalry officer and skilled horseman, wore the full dress uniform of his regiment, the Queen's Dragoon Guards.

The couple's wedding was a grand affair, with 1,500 guests in attendance, including members of the British royal family and royalty from other countries. The day culminated in a traditional balcony appearance at Buckingham Palace, where Princess Anne and Mark Phillips addressed the public.

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011 broke records for live streaming

The royal wedding attracted a huge amount of media attention, with the build-up and the occasion itself being compared to the wedding of William's parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, in 1981. The event was made a public holiday in the United Kingdom, and it featured ceremonial aspects such as the use of state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry. Events were held across the Commonwealth to mark the occasion, including over 5,000 street parties in the United Kingdom and about a million people lining the route between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.

The wedding was widely broadcast on television, internet, and radio, in more than 180 countries. In the United Kingdom, television audiences peaked at 26.3 million viewers, with 36.7 million watching at least part of the coverage. The global audience is estimated to have been 122 million to 176 million viewers, with the "two billion" figure reported by some media outlets being criticised as inaccurate and unfounded. In addition to the television audiences, the ceremony attracted 72 million live streams and a reach of 101 million streams on YouTube across 188 countries. With its 72 million streams, the wedding was listed in the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records for the "Most Live Streams for a Single Event", beating the previous record held by the Michael Jackson memorial service in 2009.

The wedding dress of Queen Victoria in 1840 set a trend for royal wedding dresses that survives to this day

The wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840 was a highly publicised affair, marking the first time a royal wedding was so publicly celebrated. The event was a national celebration, with the bride paraded through the streets.

Queen Victoria's choice of wedding dress set a trend for royal brides that continues to this day. Her dress was made from ivory, silk and satin, with a long silk train and sprays of orange blossom. The silk was from Spitalfields in London, and the lace was Honiton lace from Devon. This choice of material was a deliberate attempt to support British industries, particularly the cottage industry for lace, which was in decline.

The dress was also notable for being white, which was unusual for a royal bride. White had been a popular choice for wedding dresses for centuries, but it was not the norm. Royals typically wore silver or gold to signify their status. Victoria's choice of a white wedding dress was a deliberate one, as she wanted to be seen as a wife, not just a queen. This decision had a huge impact on bridal fashion, and white wedding dresses became increasingly popular.

The tradition of wearing orange blossom at weddings also took hold after Queen Victoria's wedding. The custom had been growing in Britain since the early 1800s, and Victoria's decision to wear a wreath of orange blossom, rather than a tiara, cemented its popularity.

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 featured a dress designed by British designer Clare Waight Keller

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 was a record-breaking event, attracting a television audience of 1.9 billion people across 180 countries. The royal wedding also featured a dress designed by British designer Clare Waight Keller, the artistic director of the French fashion house Givenchy.

Waight Keller described creating the royal wedding dress as "capturing dreams" and a "unique point of view" as she had been through the process herself. The designer emphasised the "sensitivity" of the process, understanding the feelings of the bride. Meghan Markle and Clare Waight Keller worked closely together for six months to create the elegant, timeless, and modern boat neck, long-sleeved dress, complete with a 16-foot-long veil. The dress was constructed with precision, featuring only six seams that sculpted the waist and formed a soft train. The veil was just as intricate, featuring distinctive flora from each of the 53 Commonwealth countries, symbolising the important work Markle would carry out as a member of the royal family across the Commonwealth. Additionally, the veil included wintersweet, found at Kensington Palace, and the California poppy, Meghan Markle's home state flower.

The process of designing the dress began with face-to-face meetings and exchanges of emails and sketches. Waight Keller brought her ideas and sketches to their initial meeting at Kensington Palace, and Markle immediately connected with the designer's vision. The dress design evolved through several iterations, with Markle and Waight Keller establishing a fast friendship as they discussed ideas and shared aspects of their lives. The final design was a collaborative effort, reflecting both the bride and groom's heritage and their inclusive, genuine, and generous nature.

The creation of the dress was a highly secretive process, with all team members signing non-disclosure agreements. The dress was crafted at the Givenchy Haute Couture Atelier in Paris and an undisclosed workshop in London. The fabric, an exclusive double-bonded silk cady in pure white, was sourced by Waight Keller from fabric mills throughout Europe. The veil, featuring intricate floral embroidery, took longer to complete than the dress itself, requiring nearly 500 hours of meticulous work. The final fittings took place just days before the wedding, with Waight Keller making last-minute adjustments to ensure the dress was absolutely perfect for the occasion.

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