The royal bride who wore artificial flowers in her hair on her wedding day

In August 1968, all eyes were on Oslo for one of the biggest and most talked about royal weddings of recent times. The heir to the throne of Norway, Crown Prince Harald, finally married Sonja Haraldsen, after seeing off opposition from those who felt a future king shouldn’t marry a non-royal.

The bride chose a very Sixties style wedding dress, with minimal embellishment, and a very Sixties hair ornament. There was definitely no place for a tiara here as Sonja’s tulle veil was held in place with an arrangement of artificial flowers. It doesn’t get more Sixties than that.

It’s no wonder that this royal bride was on the style zeitgeist with her wedding outfit. Queen Sonja of Norway studied design and loved making her own clothes. Just like thousands of brides that summer, Sonja went with the trend for artificial flowers in her hair.

Besides, she’d spent nine years in the middle of that royal row about whether Harald should be allowed to marry a so called commoner. There was no other heir to the throne of Norway and Harald held firm despite opposition. In the end, he told his father, King Olav, that he either married Sonja or no one. His lack of a wife and of legitimate heirs might have spent the end of the throne. Harald won the day and Sonja became a royal bride. But she said no to a tiara. There’s something rather classy about turning up to Oslo Cathedral to marry the heir to the throne and secure the Norwegian monarchy and doing it all without a diamond in sight.

The couple emerged into August sunshine as the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway and Sonja, the bride who had been rejected by the powers that be because of her non royal status, was now the most important woman in the country. Her new father in law, who had shown his support for the union by walking into the church with Sonja, was a widower and had no consort. Sonja immediately stepped into the role of ”first lady” of Norway.

In 1991, King Olav died and Harald took the throne of Norway. Now queen, Sonja made full use of the spectacular set of jewels available to her as consort. But her path to a throne began with a simple crown of fake flowers that were a real style statement all of their own.