Tuesday 12 July 2016

Royal Weddings: Queen Silvia as mother of the bride


Queen Silvia of Sweden as mother of the bride on June 8th 2013
(photo kingahuset.se)

There are some outfits at weddings that everyone remembers and some everyone wants to see before things even get started. One of those is the choice made by the mother of the bride. While her daughter will be the centre of attention for the big day, there's plenty of interest in what mum wears. After the bridesmaids, in fact before the bridesmaids for some people, what's worn by the mother of the bride is of most interest of all.  And when it comes to rising to the occasion and ruling royally in this category, Queen Silvia of Sweden takes some beating. Here's a look back at the two looks she chose as mother of the bride.






Silvia was perfect in pink for her first appearance as mother of the bride. This was perhaps the most important of the outfits she would wear for one of her children's weddings - not only was it the first time she had seen a daughter (or son) get married, the whole world and most of the royalty in it bowled up to Stockholm for the event on June 19th 2010, her own 34th wedding anniversary. This was royal power dressing and then some.

 


The dress itself was a posy of pale pink. There is a fitted bodice with scoop neck and structured skirt fanning out into a small train (it's a royal wedding, everyone needs trains) in one rosy shade with a layer of lace and tulle over it and another shade of pink appeared on one side of the skirt with a pretty insert of plain fabric to break up the lace. The embellishments in darker pink make this gown stand out.

When you are a queen, you always have jewels to match and Silvia added her pink topaz necklace which put plenty of sparkle into the proceedings. But she also chose a very symbolic headpiece for the wedding of the heiress to the throne.

 
 
The Braganza tiara is for queens only so Silvia was wearing a diadem with real meaning here.  It's also an in your face, can't miss it wall of diamonds just in case anyone was wondering who was mother of the bride round here. Silvia dressed to impress for Victoria's wedding and won on every count.
For Madeleine's wedding, almost exactly three years later, it was green for this queen as Silvia chose a shade that matched the summer flowers theme of her youngest child.
The dress worn as mother of the bride on June 8th 2013 in Stockholm was more evening gown than wedding and it worked a treat.  It's very structured again with a squarer neckline and a lot of sparkle going on.
The shade is a kind of silver forest green and looked rather lovely in the warm summer sunshine. The skirt fans out into another train (you can never have too many of them) and its straighter and simpler than the one on the pink worn for Victoria's wedding.

There was also a pale green jacket added to the outfit when the breeze picked up - as they spent a lot of time on the water after the celebrations got started, we saw it quite a lot. 
tiara is one of Silvia's favourites. It's the Queen Sofia Tiara also called the Nine Prong Tiara as it contains, well, nine prongs filled with diamonds. It's a very pretty and rather regal piece though it doesn't have the same only queens allowed label stitched into its band. And it suited the pale green to perfection.

Two weddings, two lessons in mother of the bride dressing from Queen Silvia. There will be more in this series over the summer and if you want to know what the Queen of Sweden wore for her son's wedding you'll have to keep reading - mother of the groom starts in August.

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