Princess Beatrice‘s secret royal wedding broke with tradition, while still managing to honor her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth.
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Since the Queen Mother’s wedding in 1923, the royal family has used Welsh gold for their wedding bands, and Kate Middleton, Princess Eugenie and Meghan Markle fell in line. But then Beatrice’s husband-to-be, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, decided to design her ring, and he chose platinum over gold.
“We designed the ring in platinum because we wanted it to aesthetically match and entwine with the engagement ring,” British jeweler Shaun Leane tells People, adding, “The rings have been made for each other and there’s a romance in that.”
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Beatrice’s secret wedding on Friday in front of 20 guests at All Saint’s Chapel in Windsor Great Park also honored tradition. Beatrice wore a repurposed Norman Hartnell vintage gown from her grandmother’s closet and the same diamond tiara the Queen wore on her wedding day with Prince Philip. Both the Queen and Philip were among the small group of attendees.
According to jewelry experts, the tiara may have been a subtle signal of strength and unity. Fred Leighton‘s creative director Rebecca Selva told Town & Country: “Could there have been a more perfectly beautiful—and royal—family wedding! This wedding was about family: celebrating love, honoring family and respecting tradition, with a great sensitivity to and awareness of the times we are living!”
As observers know, the wedding was not only significantly downgraded because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but also due to—many believe—Beatrice’s father Prince Andrew‘s ongoing sex scandal. The royal is wanted for questioning by the FBI for his connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and has been accused of in sex trafficking himself.