50 The Australian Women’s Weekly | JUNE 2018
AUSTRALSCOPE. LICHFIELD/GETTY IMAGES. GETTY IMAGES.How could it be otherwise? This was a wedding
to which everyone brought so much goodwill,
which glossed over old hurts, and set a golden
path for the Prince and Princess, whose life
together started with joyful harmony.
Lady Diana wore the Spencer family tiara and,
for something old, her mother’s earrings. She
stepped out and down the aisle unhesitatingly
with a irm tread that steadied her ailing father,
the Earl Spencer, not yet fully recovered from a
massive brain haemorrhage he suffered three years earlier.
Beneath the volume of stiff taffeta and ine tulle were her
delicate wedding slippers that could have been from a
Renaissance painting. They were embroidered all over,
and rosette and rufle trimmed, with tiny luted heels, for
a bride not a centimetre shorter than her groom.
How she could have coped with the 7.5-metre long train
without the self-possessed assistance of her niece Lady
Sarah Armstrong-Jones cannot be contemplated. It lowed
and moved with a will of its own when not irmly controlled
by the chief bridesmaid. The bridesmaids were pretty and
demure in their charming dresses. Because of the length of
the train they were out of sight of those near the altar, but
a feast to those who could see it all on television. The two
page-boys’ uniforms were, happily, from Victorian naval
days and not sailor suits, as had been whispered.It is traditional for royal brides to carry a sprig of myrtle
in their bouquet, and Lady Diana’s came from the bush
grown from the piece in Queen Victoria’s bouquet. She
also carried Mountbatten roses – a moving tribute to the
man Prince Charles called “Honorary Grandfather”, the
assassinated Lord Mountbatten – orchids and gardenias in
what was a waterfall of lowers.
Because of the length of the train I saw only Lady Sarah.
But those who saw the wedding on television would note
that India Hicks’ dress differed slightly from Lady Sarah’s,
but was the same as Sarah Jane Gaselee’s. Clementine
Hambro, the youngest, and Catherine Cameron were
identically dressed. All but Lady Sarah, who had a posy,
carried baskets of lowers and the younger bridesmaids wore
garlands of colourful lowers on their heads. All the dresses,
and that of the Princess, were designed by the Emanuels.A ROYAL special
Huge crowds lined the route to St Paul’s cathedral.
Right: Diana and her bridesmaids get ready, watched
by the Queen. Diana’s dress proved a sensation.