The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer: 29 July 1981

[Skippy]

Not less, but a designer more experienced with getting high profile to major events unwrinkled may have insisted on some changes. A more fitted bodice could have made it through the carriage ride in better shape. Embellishment with some weight to it on the skirt, like embroidery, helps pull out the wrinkles a bit when you stand up. And honestly, just thinking more strategically about how to arrange the dress for the carriage ride (it looked like they just shoved it all in there willy-nilly) could have helped a little.

That said, for a long time I thought the wrinkles were on purpose. As a girl, I thought Diana's gown looked soft and fluffy and lovely.

I see your point, I think those wrinkles were because of beginner's mistakes? They had not taken the small space of the Glass Coach into account.

That said, Lady Diana was my most beautiful bride for years. Not really anymore, although I don't have an exact "successor".

 

[loonytick]

To be fair, very few designers have experience with getting a client to the event wrinkle-free in a situation where half the world will be watching them in transit. From what I understand, it's not unusual for movie stars in wrinkle-prone gowns to ride to the Oscars laying down in their limos to avoid creasing around the crotch, but they can do that windows are heavily tinted and nobody's lined up on the route waiting for a glimpse of them. But back in the 40s and 50s, Norman Hartnell made quite a few full gowns for the Queen and Queen Mother to wear to events that required carriage rides that managed to survive the ride. I have to assume that someone still around who'd worked in Hartnell's studio could have helped Diana's designers learn from his strategies.

On the one hand, Diana's dress delighted millions of people at the time and set off a trend for giant, floofy wedding gowns that lasted for several years. On the other hand, what we all saw walking down the aisle was a heavily crushed version of what she and the Emmanuels intended, and from things they've said in interviews they were all somewhat disappointed with how it turned out.

 

[Pranter]

The top overwhelmed her I think...and she was a statuesque lady. But that was not well done (the top) and didn't really suit her IMO.


LaRae

 

[Moonmaiden23]

It didn't help that she'd lost a dramatic amount of weight prior to the wedding. The voluminous dress seemed to swallow her -noticeably so from the waist up to the shoulders- however, it was a magnificent creation -I still recall gasping when I saw it at the Althorp exhibition- and a perfect balance for the width and opulence of St Paul's, compared with the elegance of Westminster Abbey, which appears to lend itself towards a more stream-lined style of dress, Princess Margaret's being an exception.

ITA 100%. When I first saw it I gasped too...because I thought it was a big frothy mess and I was so disappointed. But with the passage of time I've come to appreciate and understand it much, much better. It is still not my favorite Royal bridal gown but it was perfectly suited to time, the place, and person it was for.

And yes, if Diana had not lost so much weight in the lead up to the wedding it would have been far more flattering and successful.

 

[fandesacs2003]

Today is exactly 37 years from the royal wedding, the prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. I saw a ten minutes tv show. It is heartbreaking to watch now when you know the truth behind and the end of the story. This image of innocent girl thinking she was doing a love match and this sad guy who was marrying against his will, I felt almost to cry for them.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

I saw a video of Lady Diana as a bride going up the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral. The narrator expressed: "She was demure behind her veil."

 

[Kitty1224]

Her wedding to this day is still magical to see even though it was sad behind the scenes.

 

[Lady Nimue]

I am always surprised at how badly her hair was managed. If I'm not mistaken the hair looked like it had a very badly done blunt-cut with the tiara sort of 'pushed down' on the hair. The tiara itself was glorious. And she did look happy.

 

[sarahedwards2]

Why did Diana have to undergo a medical examination before the wedding to ensure she was a virgin; and in those days why was the bride required to be a virgin?

 

[Pranter]

I don't believe that is an accurate story on any of the points you mention.

LaRae

 

[Osipi]

I don't think it ever confirmed that Diana was actually checked to ensure that she was virginal before she married Charles. If anything, she did have tests to check that she could produce children.

Its commonly believed that Diana was virginal when marrying Charles because its been stated often enough in different books that it was Diana's belief that she "had to keep herself tidy" and looking at details, she never really had any kind of a serious boyfriend before Charles so its not off the wall to believe that Charles was her first.

Why was a bride required to be virginal? Mostly to ensure that any children born after the wedding were in fact, rightly begotten on the right side of the blanket and hence, eligible to take their places in succession or be rightfully an heir (if a son) to the father.

 

[Queen Claude]

Brides were never required to be virgins. Most European monarchies had rules that you had to make an equal marriage, in other words a prince had to marry a princess and could not marry a commoner, even an aristocrat was considered unequal. The UK never had that as stated rule but tended to follow that convention. Everything got turned on it's head after World War I. A few British royals married commoners before WWI but Prince Albert, later George VI, was probably the first high ranking royal to marry a non-royal.

When Prince Charles was on the market, his great-uncle Louis Mountbatten took it upon himself to establish criteria for Charles' consort, since the method used in the 19th century, matchmaking via the Almanach de Gotha, had fallen by the wayside. Louis Mountbatten thought that Charles' wife should not have "a past" because it was felt that if she had previous lovers that it could be embarrassing if the lover went to the media and gave details about his relationship with the future Queen Consort.

 

[Gawin]

Her uncle Lord Fermoy stated Diana had never had a lover in an interview with a newspaper in ,November 1980. I still remember reading the interview and thinking "oh yuck, she has a creepy uncle."

 

[Osipi]

I grew up in the 50s and 60s and even then, it was the norm that "good girls don't" and "bad girls" weren't the kind you would take home to mother and marry. With the sexual revolution and the onset of Women's Lib in the late 60s and early 70s, things changed and it was no longer valid that a woman must be as pure as the driven snow on her wedding night.

A good example of this was the hue and outcry when David (King Edward VIII) wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American. Back then, the word "divorcee" was similar to painting a huge letter "A" on her chest a la Hester Prynne.

Thinking about it really shows just how much has changed just within my lifetime alone. If men can sow their "wild oats", its perfectly acceptable now for women to do likewise. It wasn't always that way though.

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

Her uncle Lord Fermoy stated Diana had never had a lover in an interview with a newspaper in ,November 1980. I still remember reading the interview and thinking "oh yuck, she has a creepy uncle."

LoL that's funny. It reminds me of that creepy comment Joe Simpson made about his daughter Jessica.

 

[Denville]

Why did Diana have to undergo a medical examination before the wedding to ensure she was a virgin; and in those days why was the bride required to be a virgin?

She didn't.

 

[sarahedwards2]

She didn't.

That’s strange; in books about her and Charles, I read that Uncle Dickie ordered that she be examined to prove that she was in fact a virgin.

 

[Osipi]

There's also been recollections by Charles', then valet, Stephen Barry in his book ""Royal Service: My Twelve Years as Valet to Prince Charles" that there were times during the courtship of Charles and Diana that he would be called on in the early morning to drive Diana back to London from Highgrove and she looked quite disheveled.

 

[XeniaCasaraghi]

That’s strange; in books about her and Charles, I read that Uncle Dickie ordered that she be examined to prove that she was in fact a virgin.

Um Uncle Dickie was dead, so unless he was haunting them, your bios are wrong.

 

[sarahedwards2]

Um Uncle Dickie was dead, so unless he was haunting them, your bios are wrong.

Ok it wasn’t Uncle Dickie, but someone demanded virginity testing.

 

[Curryong]

The 1980s wasn't the 18th century, or even the 19th. The Queen would be the only person powerful enough to order that proof of virginity be supplied for Charles's bride and I'm absolutely certain she didn't.

Books about Charles and Diana often state that any woman Charles married 'had' to be a virgin, in order to partly explain why Diana was chosen. There was no such condition. It had just been a suggestion of Lord Mountbatten's to prevent any ex lovers selling salacious stories to the tabloids.

 

[sarahedwards2]

The 1980s wasn't the 18th century, or even the 19th. The Queen would be the only person powerful enough to order that proof of virginity be supplied for Charles's bride and I'm absolutely certain she didn't.



Books about Charles and Diana often state that any woman Charles married 'had' to be a virgin, in order to partly explain why Diana was chosen. There was no such condition. It had just been a suggestion of Lord Mountbatten's to prevent any ex lovers selling salacious stories to the tabloids.

I looked it up; virginity doesn’t exist and is merely a social concept, though highly revered in some countries/cultures. And I was mistaken, Uncle Dickie only suggested Charles marry a virgin; I didn’t know it was to prevent any previous ex-lovers from spilling stories to the press.

The Queen was a virgin on her wedding day; was it required back then?

 

[Curryong]

I don't think the Queen was brought up with the idea that sex before marriage was normal. Girls weren't encouraged to indulge in that sort of behaviour. Plus, Elizabeth had loved Philip since she was 13, and no they weren't lovers before marriage.

Some people did have premarital sex in the 1940s (and previously) but there was always a risk of pregnancy in those pre-pill days. The contraception then simply wasn't very foolproof.

 

[Osipi]

Personally, I believe that the "requirement" of a bride for Charles has been misread and misinterpreted by many in various sources. We know that Camilla was deemed as not being "marriage material" for the reason being that she had a past. If one was to do a background check of the young Diana, it would have been pretty hard to find something that pointed to Diana "having a past" as she had not seriously dated anyone before getting involved with Charles.

Its very possible that the "having a past" has been misinterpreted by some as "not being a virgin". As Diana really had no past serious involvement in a relationship, it was then assumed she was a virgin.

A royal bride needing to be a virgin is a thing of the past and really has been for quite a while. Without the benefits of birth control back then, things were done to ensure that any issue from the marriage was rightfully begotten on the right side of the blanket in order to be in the line of succession.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

It is hard to believe that it will be 38 years ago that Prince Charles married Lady Diana. One nice thing about their wedding day was that there was no rain.

 

[Dalriada]

Just watched an interesting new documentary about the days leading up to the wedding with new items of information from Diana’s employer and Angela Rippon:
Angela Rippon opens up about her interview with Diana and Charles https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/...o=whatsapp_share_article-aboverelatedarticles

 

[Blog Real]

8 Secrets from Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Royal Wedding
https://people.com/royals/princess-....com&utm_content=20190729&utm_campaign=440014

 

[Mirabel]

Why did Diana have to undergo a medical examination before the wedding to ensure she was a virgin; and in those days why was the bride required to be a virgin?

I read that the exam wasn't to determine virginity, but to determine fertility.

It was to make certain Diana could produce an heir.

 

[Kitty1224]

8 Secrets from Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Royal Wedding
https://people.com/royals/princess-....com&utm_content=20190729&utm_campaign=440014

The dress] was the fulfillment of her princess fantasy,” wrote biographer Tina Brown, according to Vanity Fair. “She was insistent in her demand for its puffy sleeves and floating silk, its twenty-five-foot taffeta train, its nipped waist, and its antique lace embroidered with pearls and sequins.”

 

[CyrilVladisla]

The Glass Coach was not large enough to accomodate the 25 foot train. Bridesmaid India Hicks recalled that she tried as best as she could to dewrinkle the situation as Lady Diana stepped out of the carriage to enter the cathedral.