It came as a surprise to nearly everyone last Friday when news broke Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi had married in a small Windsor ceremony. When the couple cancelled their original wedding in April, they said they didn’t have plans for another. According to People, they only came up with the idea a few weeks ago. When lockdown restrictions in the U.K. began to lift on July 4, the couple saw their opening and got to work planning another ceremony with help from their mothers Sarah Ferguson and Nikki Williams-Ellis.
“They swung into action and brought it all together in two weeks, which is quite extraordinary,” a friend of the couple told the magazine. “Beatrice was so excited about it all, and I think they just jumped at the chance when the ban was removed. They were both desperate for it to happen. They wanted everything to be very classic and elegant; small but refined. It felt romantic and lovely.”
In February, the couple announced their plans for a May 29 ceremony at London’s 150-seat Chapel Royal, followed by a reception in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. The date had reportedly already been delayed twice due to concern over the scandal over Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Ultimately, they married in front of 20 guests at All Saints Chapel across the street from Royal Lodge, the house that Andrew and Sarah still share. Per People, Andrew walked her down the aisle and gave a speech at the reception. “I think because of everything going on with her dad, this [scaled-down wedding] was actually better in many ways,” a friend told the magazine. “Beatrice has always been more low-key. She is a little more serious and more traditional, and she would have been very conscious to do the right thing.”
The queen and Prince Philip were the only guests included in the official photographs, but they left early to go to a knighthood ceremony. According to the Daily Mail, the rest of the guests partied on at the lodge and even stayed on the grounds overnight in “glamping pods.” The outlet added that the wedding had a Secret Garden–theme and also featured a bouncy castle.
Another friend told the People that Beatrice actually had another dress picked out, but a last-minute change of heart meant that she decided to ask the queen for some assistance. They settled on a 1953 dress designed by Norman Hartnell, who also dressed the queen for her 1947 wedding. “It looked amazing!” the friend added. “It was touching for both of them.”
The palace announced that the gown was altered with help from the queen’s dresser, Angela Kelly, and Stuart Parvin, the designer who makes most of her dresses and skirt suits. They added trendy organza puff sleeves to the gown, according to the Telegraph, who added that the job was made easier by the fact that Beatrice and the queen are both 5’4”.
Now that they they are married, Beatrice is the stepmother to Edoardo’s four-year-old son, Christopher “Wolfie” Mapelli Mozzi. People adds that they’re planning to stay in London, where Beatrice works for a tech company. “They’re terribly happy,” a source close to the family told the magazine. “They’re besotted with each other.”
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