Today, Lady Gabriella Windsor married fiancee Tom Kingston at St George’s Chapel in Windsor. The 38-year-old looked simply wonderful in a custom gown from Luisa Beccaria.
The Queen was in attendance, with The Duke of Edinburgh and a number of other members of the Royal Family.
Her wedding dress was by Luisa Beccaria, a gorgeous lace covered piece with a bateau neckline, long sleeves and an a-line skirt with square, cathedral train; layers of silk and tulle underskirt to give the skirt of the wedding gown fullness and shape. The neckline is edged with leaf lace, sheer from the top of the sweetheart-shaped bodice. The lace showcases very small and intricate patterns of embroidered floral bouquets over the dress.
A closer look at that lace fabric and the neckline.
The waistline features delicate flowers – maybe stylised roses – in the lace, instead of a traditional seam or a belt; these flowers are also seen at the cuffs and the hem of the skirt.
From the waistband, and seen towards the bottom of the skirt, are cornucopia-like details, from which come sprays of stems and leaves. These sprays slowly and gradually move throughout the skirt, connecting the bouquets of flowers and scrolled patterns to the bottom. They appear to move and merge into the pattern as they flow down the skirt. They also highlight the contours of the body, showing off Ella’s wonderful figure in a really feminine way.
We think the lace is a nod to her background – the roses are a symbol of England and closely associated with the Monarchy. The swirls of these flowers, however, are similar to a Greek wave design (often seen in mosaics and art), and honour her grandmother, Princess Marina, who was a Danish-Greek Royal.
These flowers and the leaves at the neckline are mimicked in the bridesmaids dresses.
The rear of the dress features traditional bridal satin rooleau looped buttons, which holds the bodice in place from the mid-back to the waist. The top of the back of the dress is lace, with a slit from the neck to the top of the bodice.
We did take a look at who might design the bride’s dress, Luisa Beccaria was not one of our choices.
The bride has actually spoken about her dress designer: “I’ve been in love with her dresses for a long time and I’m so lucky to have my dream dress designed by her.”
“She and her team are exceptional and I’m thrilled with the stunning result of the artistry.”
Luisa Beccaria also talked of the design and fitting: “My tailor is good at taking measurements and it fitted very well from the beginning, but she lost weight, like most brides, so we had to take it in.”
All bridal gowns made by the label are custom, so there is nothing specifically that Ella’s dress was based upon. Below we show a few images from the Luisa Beccaria site, to show the variety of styles the label produces.
Ella wore a tulle veil embroidered at the edge with small flowers, held in place by her the Kent fringe tiara. Diamond batons are intermixed with smaller stacks, all of which peak at the centre front, kokoshnik-style. This close up also shows us the bride had a small plait in the front of her hairdo, possibly to help hold the tiara in place.
Her mother wore this fringe tiara at her wedding in 1978, and Princess Alexandra also wore this piece. The tiara was a gift from the City of London to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (Gabriella’s grandmother) for her wedding in 1934.
Searching for pictures of Princess Alexandra wearing it on her wedding day, I was struck by the similarities between her dress and Lady Gabriella’s – mainly the lace design and the neckline detailing. What do you think?
Lady Gabriella wore a pair of art-deco style earrings, with a hexagonal halo-set stud and cushion cut halo-set stone drop.
We didn’t get a look at the bride’s shoes, other than to see a rounded/almond toe and white fabric, likely satin.
Luisa Beccaria did post a sketch of the dress to Instagram.
The designer also revealed the evening dress sketch, showing a v-neck lace gown with full skirt, and a cape from the shoulders. We would love to see photos of the bride wearing this!
What did you think of Ella’s dress? Which has been your favourite royal wedding dress of the last three we have seen?
