Queen Mary wasengaged to Prince Albert, the eldest grandson of Queen Victoria. However, hedied just weeks before their wedding. As a result, she instead married hisbrother, Prince George. Because of this, Mary of Teck had not one but two royalwedding dresses designed for her. Unfortunately, little remains of the plansfor her first wedding dress, but her second remains iconic.
Mary’s Early Life
Mary was born in 1867as a princess of Teck, in Germany, as the daughter ofa German Duke. Her full name was VictoriaMary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; but that’s quite a mouthful!When she married into the royal family, she decided to adopt Mary instead ofVictoria, due to her grandmother-in-law. However, to her family, she was knownas May, due to the month of her birth.
As a princess who wasn’t a relative of Queen Victoria, she was seen as a good match for one of the Queen’s grandchildren. She got on well with Victoria and was soon chosen as a wife for Prince Albert Victor. They became engaged in December 1891. However, an influenza pandemic killed him only six weeks later.
Nevertheless, Victoria wasn’t going to let that stop her from introducing Mary to her family. His younger brother, Prince George, proposed in May 1893, as the two had grown close. They soon fell in love and enjoyed a very happy engagement.
Mary is not the first queen to marry her betrothed’sbrother. Possibly the most famous example is Catherine of Aragon, who marriedArthur Tudor six months before his death. Famously, she became the first wifeof King Henry VII. Happily, Mary’s relationship with George was much betterthan that of Catherine and Henry.
Engagement
Their courtship is one that wouldmake a fantastic Hollywood rom-com. As George found himself second in line tothe throne, Victoria urged him to marry quickly. However, he did not think itproper to wed someone whom he didn’t care for. Two other princesses weresuggested and he eventually sent a marriage proposal to one of them. She rejectedhim.
When Queen Victoria suggestedMary, they both found it extremely awkward. They were very aware of thenewspapers expecting an immanent engagement and found it uncomfortable. Theymet a few times but they were both shy and awkward.
Then, one day, Mary went to havetea with the Princess Royal, Louise. When she arrived she discovered George,and Louise suggested the two go for a walk together, alone. While looking atfrogs in a pond, George finally proposed, and they announced their engagement thefollowing day.
Wedding
After theirtwo-month engagement, Princess Mary of Teck married the future King George V duringthe summer of 1893 in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace.
It turns out that, at least withcertain things, the royal family can be as superstitious as the rest of us!George glimpsed his soon-to-be wife in Buckingham Palace before the ceremony.He gave her a “low and courtly bow” to make up for it.
The wedding party then set out ina series of four carriage processions. Crowds of well-wishers came to watch asthere had not been a royal wedding for 32 years. Mary had ten bridesmaids andGeorge two “supporters” (best men), his father and uncle.
At the Chapel Royal, theArchbishop of Canterbury married the royal couple in front of many importantroyals and politicians. After the wedding, QueenVictoria encouraged the couple to step onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace towave at the watching crowds below. This tradition started at Princess Victoria’swedding to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858.
An oil painting by Laurits Tuxen shows the happy couple at their ceremony, and was apparently a good likeness. The painting depicts Queen Victoria wearing her own wedding veil, as she often did, as well as black mourning clothes.
Mary’s Wedding Dress
Mary turned to Arthur Silver (of Silver Studio) to design her wedding dress. Silver had originally designed the dress for her wedding to Albert, called “Lily of the Valley”. Therefore, it seemed fair to ask him again, and this time he created “The May Silks”.
The dress was white, a traditionstarted by Queen Victoria at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. Even in1893, most women wed in their best dress, no matter what the colour. This isbecause they would wear the dress again after the wedding.
Seamstresses at Linton and Curtiscreated the dress based on Silver’s designs. As istraditional in the Royal Family, everything was manufactured in Britain. EastLondon Silk Mills produced the white silk and the silver thread used forthe dress, as the bride requested.
As is customary for the weddingdresses of the British royal family, Silver’s design featured emblems of theBritish kingdoms. Rose, shamrock and thistle embroidery decorated the dress,along with orange blossom (the symbol of fertility) and true lover’s knots.
The dress’ design
The front of the dress wasunusual, and possibly inspired by Silver’s love for Japanese design. It hadthree small flounces of Honiton lace, tiered much like a wedding cake. Thematerial used for this came from her mother’s wedding gown. It was edged with silver thread and also trimmed withbright green orange blossom wreaths. There werelong trails on either side of the gathered satin and lace.
The majority of dresses at thetime had long sleeves; however, Mary bucked the trend with her wedding dress soit looked ahead of its time. Instead, she had delicate cap sleeves in the sameHoniton lace with a light blue ribbon on her left shoulder.
The bodice of her dress accentuated her hourglass figure with what we would now call a Bardot neckline. It had a tight, corset wait that dropped into the A-line skirt. This was also trimmed, at the top, with Honiton lace to soften the silhouette. A small wreath of orange blossom was carried all the way round the bust with a little bouquet on each shoulder, and a larger one in the centre, placed with a little white heather.
Meanwhile, the train of the dresswas relatively plain, so much so that journalists wrote she didn’t even haveone! It certainly wasn’t much compared to theextreme detailing featured on the front of her gown. Together, the dressreally was an ornate Victorian masterpiece.
Accessories
More orange blossoms werearranged in Princess Mary’s hair. Along with this, she wore her mother’s floating lace veil, which left her face infull view. She secured it with diamond pins, presented to her by Queen Victoria.Mary also wore a diamond tiara from Victoria, as well as a diamond necklace, whichwas a wedding gift from the Prince and Princess of Wales (Edward VII, George’sfather). She wore diamond earrings and an anchor brooch which were weddinggifts from Prince George.
Mary went on to mother Edward VIII (who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson) and Albert (who became King George VI, married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and fathered Queen Elizabeth II).You can read about all of these royal wedding dresses, as well as plenty of more modern ones, righthere.
