Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's Wedding: All the Details

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis

On Nov. 20, 1947,Queen ElizabethandPrince Philiptied the knot, marking the beginning of what would become the longest royal marriage in history. Spanning the entirety of the late monarch’s70-year reignand then some, the couple’s union was one built on love and acceptance.

“I think the main lesson we have learned is that tolerance is the one essential ingredient in any happy marriage,“Prince Philip, whodied in April 2021, said in a tribute for thecouple’s 50th anniversary. “You can take it from me, the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.”

The pairfirst metat the 1934 wedding of Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark toPrince George, when Elizabeth was just 8 years old and Philip was 13. It wasn’t until years later, however, when the princess visited Dartmouth Naval Collegewith her parents as a teenagerand spent time with the young cadet that she developed feelings for her would-be suitor. “She fell in love, and she never looked at anyone else,” biographer Sally Bedell Smith told PEOPLE in 2021.

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As the Queen, whopassed away on Sept. 8, 2022, wrote in since-auctioned letters toRoyal Weddingauthor Betty Shew, “I was 13 years of ageand he was 18 and a cadet just due to leave. He joined the Navy at the outbreak of war, and I only saw him very occasionally when he was on leave — I suppose about twice in three years.”

Naturally, the future Queen said yes. “Prince Philipis the only man in the world who treats the Queen simply as another human being,” her former private secretary, Lord Charteris, once said. “He’s the only man who can. Strange as it may seem, I believe she values that.”

Below, read every detail of the couple’s nuptials, from their 900-pound cake that was cut with a sword to the 10,000 notes of congratulations they received in its aftermath.

The Date

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Princess Elizabeth andPrince Philipwed on Nov. 20, 1947, at 11:30 a.m. GST.

The Pre-Wedding Celebration

Two days before the ceremony, the young couplewas celebrated with a ballat Buckingham Palace that would later reportedly be described as a “sensational evening,” for which “everyone looked shiny and happy” — particularly the guests of honor, who appeared “radiant.”

The Venue

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The young royal became the 10th member of the British monarchy to be married at Westminster Abbey — the same place where her father, King George VI, was crowned just 11 years earlier and whereQueen Elizabethherself would be coronated five years after her nuptials. (Themonarch’s funeral will be heldat the church on September 19.)

The Title

Just ahead of the pair’s nuptials,Prince Philipreceived new titles, becoming the Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich.

The Guests

Though Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, was reportedly warned to keep the princess’s wedding ceremony “simple” in the wake of the war, the guest list was far from small, with a reported 2,000 people on the list.

Among them werefive kings, five queens and eight princes and princesses, including King Michael of Romania, King Haakon VII of Norway, King Faisal of Iraq, King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid of Denmark, Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands,Prince Philip’s uncle, Earl Louis Mountbatten and theHereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Princess Elisabeth of Luxembourg.

The Transportation

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The princess rode with her father in the Irish State Coach to her wedding venue with the British Life Guards regiment as their escorts. According to the Royal Collection Trust, it was the first time the regiment had worn its"full-dress” uniformssince 1939.

On the way back, the bride rode with her new husband in the Glass Coach that waspurchased for King George VI’s coronation in 1911.

The Dress

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Seamstress Betty Foster toldThe Telegraphin 2007 thatElizabeth didn’t try it on before her wedding dayas she was “respecting the tradition that it would be unlucky.”

The Tiara

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Queen Elizabeth’s most notable piece of jewelry on her special day was the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara she wore atop her head — her “something borrowed” from her grandmother, Mary of Teck. Once a fringe necklace, Mary had it recreated as a tiara in 1893, and on Elizabeth’s wedding day, it seemingly snapped. “The catch, which I didn’t know existed, it suddenly went,” the Queenlater explained. “And I didn’t know it was a necklace, you see … I thought I’d broken it … We stuck it all together again, but I was rather alarmed.”

She added: “[Elizabeth] really was radiant, with her diamond tiara on top. And she was very much in love.”

The Shoes

The Jewelry

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In addition to her borrowed tiara, Elizabeth wore two pearl necklaces for her big day — the Queen Anne necklace and the Queen Caroline necklace, after King George II’s wife. The princess received both baubles as a wedding present from her father, King George VI, who inherited them as part of the royal collection.

The Flowers

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Though the bridal party thought it lost for a time (a mishap that caused the royals to do a reshoot of their wedding portraits), it was ultimately located in an icebox, where a footman had placed them to preserve them, according toQueen Consort:Elizabeth and Philip:60 Years of Marriage.

The couple’s wedding favors, meanwhile, were made up of individual posies of myrtle and white Balmoral heather.

The morning after the ceremony, Elizabeth’s bouquet was sent to lie on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior,a tradition that started with Elizabeth’s mother, Elizabeth I, who did so on her own wedding day in 1923. The gesture was in honor of her brother Fergus Bowes-Lyon, who had lost his life eight years prior during World War I.

The Wedding Party

The Wedding Ring

During the ceremony, Princess Elizabeth received a wedding ring made from the same Welsh gold as her mother’s ring. In the 2020 book,Prince Philip: Revealed, author Ingrid Seward claimed thatit was engravedwith a secret message that only the bride, the groom and the engraver knew.

The Service

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The Breakfast

Among them, according to theRoyal Collection Trust, were members of the royal families from Greece, Denmark, Iraq, Norway, Roumania, Spain, Yugoslavia and Sweden.

The Food

For dessert, guests were treated to Bombe Glacee Princesse Elizabeth — an ice cream dish made with fresh strawberries. According to McGrady, the out-of-season fruit was meant to be a luxury and was grown in hot houses at Windsor Castle.

The Cake

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The bottom tier, meanwhile, featured a silver coin, a thimble, a bell, a button, a boot and a horseshoe, all of which were meant to give the newlyweds good luck.

The couple’s leftovers were put to good use and distributed throughout the kingdom to hospitals, schools and charitable institutions.

The Exit

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The Gifts

From her parents, Elizabeth not only received the two pearl necklaces she wore around her neck, but also a sapphire-and-diamond necklace and earring set and a pair of diamond Cartier earrings, according to Bell’sQueen Consort:Elizabeth and Philip:60 Years of Marriage.

The young couplewas also showered with a reported10,000 notes of congratulations and more than 2,500 presents, including 386 pairs of stockings (then in short supply), from their subjects.

The bride’s biggest gift of all, however, just may have come from the groom. Not only did he present her with a brooch in the shape of a Royal Navy badge with more diamonds from his mother’s tiara and a diamond bracelet he himself had designed, but he also promised his new wife that he would quit smoking — a habit she reportedly detested — and kept his word.

The Impact

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source: people.com