A rainbow of royal wedding bouquets

We’re used to seeing royal brides with white flowers. Many a regal wedding has featured a posy of pretty cream flowers, dotted with hints of green and matching the dress to perfection. Bright bouquets are a rarity but they make their mark. Here’s a rainbow of royal wedding bouquets.

Red: Princess Beatrice

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OK, it’s not pure red but pink is close enough for the purposes of this rainbow. When Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor in July 2020, they went big on flowers, as the rest of the ceremony had to be scaled right back because of the coronavirus pandemic. The couple emerged into the sunshine beneath a huge floral arch that matched the pink hues of the bride’s bouquet to perfection. Beatrice chose pink roses and pink astilbe to give some colour to her wedding flowers as well as that summer staple, sweet peas. Like all royal wedding bouquets, the flowers were later placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey.

Orange: Princess Sofia of Sweden

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There are bright wedding bouquets and then there are the flowers carried by Princess Sofia when she married Prince Carl Philip in the Royal Chapel of the Royal Castle in Stockholm in June 2015. This royal bride went all out for candy colour and gave us one of the most memorable of all royal wedding bouquets. The dominant shade was coral with huge roses in different shades of subtle orange mixed among pale pinks and creams. Hydrangeas, peonies, hydrangeas and carnations also featured while the bridesmaids pretty posies took a deeper coral as their main shade.

Yellow: Queen Camilla

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Queen Camilla chose a bouquet of spring flowers for the blessing of her marriage to King Charles in April 2005 at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor and the star shade was a deep yellow. Her Majesty’s posy included golden primroses as well as paler versions and mauve versions of the flower. They were mixed with lily of the valley and myrtle to create a fragrant bouquet. The Queen later chose to use some of the same flowers to decorate Westminster Abbey when she and King Charles were crowned there on May 6th 2023.

Green: Queen Mathilde of the Belgians

All wedding bouquets contain some leaves but Queen Mathilde wins the prize for the greenest ever royal wedding flowers. Behind the scenes disputes over who could do the flowers led to last minute changes and a bride carrying what looked more like a hedge than a posy. Amidst the green are some white roses, amaryllis and lilies. The bouquet weighed 3.5 kilos (Mathilde’s first child, Elisabeth, tipped the scales at 2.9 kilos for comparison) and certainly made its mark on this royal wedding.

Blue: Zara Tindall

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When Zara Tindall married Mike at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh in July 2011, she made a special nod to the country she had chosen for her nuptials by including the Scottish thistle in her wedding bouquet. Zara’s flowers were a mix of cream, green and lightest blue. The bouquet also included calla lillies, hydrangeas and a type of Senecio foliage but it’s the thistle that is most remembered and which turned this into one of the most striking royal wedding bouquets of recent times.

Indigo: Princess Eugenie

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The deeper blue of indigo found a home in the wedding bouquet of Zara’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, when she married Jack Brooksbank at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in October 2018. The princess chose a smaller, darker version of thistles for her posy which also included white spray roses, stephanotis pips as well as lily of the valley. Blue green foliage in the form of trailing ivy was added along with the traditional myrtle to complete the arrangement. The 21st century brides of the House of Windsor have hit on a novel way of adding something blue to their special days.

Violet: Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway

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Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway took everyone by surprise with her wedding bouquet which defied all expectations. As well as the unusual shape and size, the colour scheme was far removed from the traditional royal bridal flowers. For her wedding to the heir to Norway’s throne, in August 2001, Mette-Marit chose flowers in the shades of the country’s flag. But it was the deep violet that dominated the arrangement. Hydrangeas, orchids and roses as well as greenery like rosary vine and bear grass were fixed to a structure of willow and moss, held together with wire, to help keep their shape through the long royal wedding day. It remains a stand out celebration of all things floral for a royal bride.

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