With any royal wedding, there are a series of traditions to follow,
whether this is laying the wedding bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier in Westminster Abbey, or the Queen entering the church after her
relatives.
Each wedding dress is unique to the bride who wears it, however, there
could be one tradition Princess Beatrice borrows from her
ancestors.First established by Queen Victoria in the 19th century,
Honiton lace was once a key feature of royal wedding dresses.
Honiton lace is a type of bobbin lace made in Honiton, Devon, featuring
designs focused objects such as flowers and leaves as well as
scrollwork.The lace is used for the royal christening gown, first made
in 1841 for Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Victoria’s baptism.
Despite a replica being used for royal babies today, the dress is made
from Honiton lace like its predecessor.Honiton lace was used for Queen
Victoria’s wedding to Prince Albert on April 10, 1840, at the Chapel
Royal, St James’s Palace.
Queen Victoria’s dress featured white satin with a deep flounce of
Honiton lace. She also wore a lace veil.Like her mother before her,
Princess Victoria also used Honiton lace, with three flounces of the
Devonshire made fabric used in her dress.
The lace was decorated with roses, shamrocks and thistles – the emblems
of England, Ireland and Scotland for Princess Victoria’s wedding to
Prince Frederick of Prussia on January 25, 1858.Queen Victoria’s second
daughter Princess Alice married Prince Louis of Hesse in a rather
understated affair as Prince Albert had died just seven months earlier
and the Royal Family were still in mourning.
Alice’s dress was described as “half-high dress with a deep flounce of
Honiton lace, a veil of the same and a wreath of orange blossom and
myrtle. It was a simple style and not embellished with a court train”.
