the history of the royal wedding bouquet

The royal wedding is soon upon us! Are you overloaded yet by it? What will I be watching for? Not Kate Middleton's dress (gasp!) which I am sure will be flawless, but the stems that she will be clutching, how they have been designed and who was the lucky floral designer.

So to get prepared, lets have a short review of a few past royal wedding bouquets:

First up is Queen Victoria. For her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840, she clutched a small posey of snowdrops (said to be Prince Albert's favorite flower). Another interesting fact is that she reportedly planted myrtle (a green shrub) which is sometimes called the "herb of love", in her garden at the Osborne House on the Isle of Wight after her wedding. Since then, it has become a royal bride tradition to pluck a sprig from the same bush planted 171 years ago and carry it in their bouquets.

Queen Elizabeth the II, then Princess Elizabeth's marriage to Prince Phillip in 1947. She carried a cascading bouquet of three types of British-grown orchids, cattleya, odontoglossum, and cypripedium (and of course, a sprig of Queen Victoria's myrtle). The bouquet was misplaced after the ceremony leaving her bouquet-less for post wedding photos, although they had a replica made and posed again after the wedding for portraits.

In Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles in 1981, she chose a very dramatic cascading bouquet that was said to be 3 1/2 feet long and over a foot wide to match the grand length of her train and venue. The royal bouquet included a mix of soft yellow ‘Mountbatten’ roses (named for Prince Philip’s uncle), white orchids, gardenias, freesia, lily of the valley, ivy, veronica, stephanotis, and of course Queen Victoria's myrtle sprigs. Lady Diana had 3 identical bouquets created as a precaution from Queen Elizabeth's mishap of her lost bouquet.

Kate Middleton, bouquet yet to be announced. Just like her dress, tight wraps have been kept on who will be designing it and what blooms and colors (if any) it will contain. I hope she finds a way to honor her new but deceased mother-in-law Diana with the same flower choices or colors but in her own style.

It is reported that she will not be tossing her bouquet but instead following tradition of placing it on Westminster Abbey's Grave of the Unknown Warrior, according to the U.K.'s Telegraph. This is nothing new for royal brides, Queen Elizabeth (the queen Mum) started the custom in 1923 when she married the future King George VI (yes, the one played recently by Colin Firth!!).

So what will Princess Kate's Royal bouquet contain? We'll have to wait and see.

{each image is linked to its source}