Since I’ve been doing wedding-anniversary throwback posts for the royals, I thought I would do my first-ever throwback to the Earl and Countess of Wessex’s 1999 wedding. Edward and Sophie will celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary on June 19th. They married on Juneteenth! Eh, they’re British so it doesn’t have the same connection. Anyway, I can’t really say that I’ve ever paid much attention to the Wessexes’ wedding before now. I’ve never even looked closely at Sophie’s gown. Maybe that’s because… there wasn’t much to discuss, honestly?
The most striking thing about these 1999 wedding photos is how Sophie styled herself to look so much like Princess Diana. The same choppy, short haircut, the same shade of blonde that Diana was doing in the years before her 1997 death. I remember vaguely that Sophie was sort of built up (a little bit) as a Diana replacement, because Sophie is blonde and around the same age and all of that. But I didn’t realize that Sophie was actively looking for the comparison with the way she styled herself. Plus, they just had similar faces back then, right?
Sophie’s wedding gown was designed by Samantha Shaw. It was silk organza and it basically looks like a fuller-skirted slip dress with a slightly too-big silk organza “coat”. I wonder what this would have looked like if it had actually fit. But this was 1999 – bodycon wasn’t really a thing, and people were still wearing oversized or ill-fitting clothing. This was also before everything had to be a princess/mermaid wedding gown. So… small mercies.
The Queen not only allowed Sophie to borrow some jewelry from the Queen’s private collection, the Queen basically made Sophie a whole new tiara. The Queen has some extra diamonds lying around and she sent them to Asprey and Garrard. The official story is that the Queen had “four open scrollwork motifs” which were redesigned into the tiara for Sophie’s wedding day. It’s pretty, honestly. Not so pretty? That necklace. It’s too… something.
Sophie and Edward were married in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and they got a carriage ride to the castle and all that. People actually came out to wave at the carriage, but… yeah, the whole thing looked *very* subdued. There was no ceremonial state or military aspect to the wedding either, which makes sense. Also: Edward refused to kiss Sophie outside the chapel, even after the crowd begged him to kiss her. LOL.
Photos courtesy of WENN and Avalon Red.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmb25nboR0e8eeqZ6rj5asp7jArJ%2BbmZOgrLW7vq2fnpeVlr%2Btq8KorKeslajAoLvFmK6eq6OaxbSrkHJwcpenmrGltc2gZg%3D%3D




