These newly found images just make me feel really, really old.
I had to explain to Domino that the box thing on that red cloth was a TV, with a large knob that clunked between three grainy channels. But these behind-the-scenes moments bring that day back, Charles marrying Diana as the world watched.
Here I am, the awkward 11-year-old bridesmaid with a bad haircut.
I remember clearly the sight of Diana getting ready, jeans below, tiara up top, sitting having her hair done as beside her we were squashed into our frilly silk dresses, the smell of her tea rose fragrance, our handmade silk shoes pinching, the King of Tonga passing sweeties down the aisle to me as I perched uncomfortably on a red velvet stool inside that great Cathedral. The crowds roaring outside in excitement, as the biggest gathering of crowned European heads, British royalty, and the aristocracy kept a stiff upper lip inside.
The bells of St. Paul’s rang out as the newly married Prince and Princess departed in a golden horse drawn state coach, for the private family lunch inside the palace, where these photos were taken and the photographer, Patrick Lichfield, kept us all in order by using a whistle!
These images remind me that our monarchy stands for continuity. Political parties come in and out of power but our great monarchy is immovable. It is our great stabilizing influence.
(Images: RR Auction/Lord Lichfield)
This was the single most iconic wedding for our generation and it is truly heartwarming to see these candid photographs.
Being the same age as Diana, I was a student nurse in July of 1981, living in shared nurses quarters in Sydney. Thirty four years later, the girls who all gathered together in their shared lounge room to watch the live broadcast of the wedding are now scattered across the globe, but we remain as close as sisters. As the ‘Pommie’ in the group, I was the one who took it upon herself to organise the hire of a colour TV for the event ( the little portables most of us had in our rooms were black and white). How it has made me smile, all these years later, to see in these photos that the Queen watched the crowds outside Buckingham Palace on precisely the same size/model TV that we were gathered around in Sydney!
Thank you so much for sharing your intimate memories of that memorable day x
I am looking at that little tv that I guess was the Queen’s and remembering what a friend said when we were guests at a grand plantation in SC and tried to watch a show on a similar one; she said,”why do rich people have such shitty TV’s?”
Of course, I am only assuming that’s Her Majesty’s tv!
スーパーコピー ルイヴィトン 激安 6畳 http://www.gginza.com/%E6%99%82%E8%A8%88/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AB%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A8/index.html
If I may be so bold as to remind you that you were 13 at the time – I remember because I was the same age. I pored over photographs of this event for months and would have loved to try on your dress! What wonderful memories and yes, it does make you feel a little old.
I realised that some unpublished photographs of that day had hit the internet so was Googling for them and this brought me to your page. Thank you for sharing.