Royal Focus: Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York's wedding dress

When asked about her wedding dress in 1986, Sarah Ferguson said "there will never be a dress to match it." And to date she has been correct. 

Her dress was designed by Lindka Cierach and was made from heavy ivory duchess satin, which was manufactured at Britain's only silk farm, Lullingstone near Sherborne in Dorset.The fabric was chosen because, according to Sarah 'it is the creamiest material in the world. It never creases. It is as smooth as glass and hangs beautifully.'

The champagne color of the dress flattered the bride's hair and skin tone. The design had a renaissance silhouette and the fitted, boned bodice had a dropped waist coming into a point at the front and a lower 'V' at the back. The neckline was gently curved and edged with pearls. The sleeves were full, coming into a simple pearl-edged point just below the elbow. 

The skirt was flat in front, widening on the sides and full at the back. The 17 1/2 foot train flowed from beneath a fan shaped bow and the underskirt was bordered by a silk scalloped lace flounce billowing out the heavy sheen of the satin skirt. The designer's hallmark - heavy beading - was most strikingly evident on the train and was based on Sarah's Coat-of-Arms.  Worked in seed pearls and diamante, the train was embroidered with thistles, bees and hearts and in a nod to Prince Andrew's naval career, anchors, and waves. Rising in a scale at the bottom of the train, a heraldic 'A' led into a double 'S'.  The pure silk tulle veil had scalloped edging and was embroidered with true lover's knots and shimmered with sequins. The total number of bugle beads, sequins, crystals pearls and stones on the wedding dress amounted to 155,000.

The satin shoes were designed by Manolo Blahnik and beaded with bees and ribbons in pearls and diamonds. She wore a necklace of cultured pearls intertwined with 18 carat gold and a diamond pearl pendant. She wore a headdress off fresh flowers - roses, lily petals , gardenias (Andrew's favorite flower) and lilies-of-the-valley. At the end of the ceremony the headdress was removed to reveal a diamond tiara, symbolic of her metamorphosis from commoner to royal. As Sarah recalled 'I had stepped up as the country girl; I would walk back as a princess.'

In her hands Sarah carried an "S' shaped spray of cream lilies, palest yellow roses, gardenias, lilies of the valley and the traditional sprig of myrtle.  

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.

Resources

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke & Duchess of York by Christopher Warwick and Valerie Garner

Royal Style Wars : The Trend-Setting Fashion Feud Between the Princess of wales And the Duchess of York

Royalty in Vogue by Josephine Ross

My Story by Sarah, Duchess of York

Invitation To a Royal Wedding ( Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew by Trevor Hall

Official Celebration of the Royal Wedding by Gordon Honeycombe

The Royal Report for Sunday May 30, 2010 - Can Fergie bounce back?

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York was recently caught in a video sting by an undercover News of the World reporter offering access to Prince Andrew in exchange for money. With a history of mishaps, can she bounce back from this one?

Listen to the episode to find out

Publications mentioned

Hello! Canada Weekly No 174 Spring 2010

Hello! Canada Weekly No 149 9 November 2010

My Story by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

News of the World Video mentioned

Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson in cash for access scandal

Blogs and websites mentioned

World of Royalty Website

World of Royalty Blog

Royal News Blog

The Ceremonial Funeral of Lord Louis Mountbatten of Burma

From My Royal Collection

The Royal Way of Death (History & Politics) by Olivia Bland

Tune in LIVE to the next episode of The Royal Report on Sunday June 6, 2010 at 9:00PM EST (North America).

The topic to be determined

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Why Prince Andrew should forgive Fergie

Prince Andrew must, no doubt, be aware of the story of his ex-wife having been caught in a sting by a journalist from the News of the World. We can only imagine the 'apoleptic rage' he keeps hidden behind the royal reserve while attending engagements. To his credit he ignored questions by reporters, thereby not engaging in a public mud slinging match. One well chosen syllable of which would have been enough to destroy her reputation for good.

Fergie, who was in the US to accept an award will be returning to the UK soon. The Daily Mail predicts there will be a showdown, where she will be called to account to her ex-husband for her latest gaffe.  Fergie, in her 'fragile mental state,', according to the Express, is 'throwing herself at the mercy of friends.' "Desperate and in a bad place' she has taken to leaving 'anguished messages' on a friend's answering machine.  Oh the melodrama!

Prince Andrew of all people must be aware of the predicament Fergie is in. After all, didn't his family help place her there by shafting her in the divorce settlement? Leaving her with little more than £15,000 and the remnants of a royal title. Who can blame her for trading off on what she has? Isn't he doing the same? Were it not for his title, would he be in the same position he is now?

The Prince is also well aware of how the media has treated members of his family. This is not the first run in with News of the World, and it probably won't be the last. Hopefully the Duchess will be wiser the next time but given her track record I doubt it. Placing the blame solely on Fergie and permanently faulting her for being naive would make them both look bad.

Let's also not forget that she is the mother of his children. The princesses must be caught in the middle, their loyalties divided. Beatrice and Eugenie must know their mother and the position she's in better than most, yet at the same time realizing that a price shouldn't be put on their royal heritage. I've always gotten the impression that Andrew and Sarah, sharing living arrangements and holidays, as the 'happiest divorced couple in the world' who, in Andrew's words, are 'divorced to each other, but not from each other' must share a special bond that the rest of us find hard to comprehend. A bond which survives even through her previous gaffes, some which have been more humiliating to him than being offered up for £500,000.

My money is on them weathering this storm too. After all of these years and after all they have been through, they must be fairly familiar with the following quote: 'to err is human, to forgive is divine.'

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Can Fergie bounce back?

Fergie.

Fergie, Fergie, Fergie (insert dramatic sigh here).

What have you done this time? Just when we thought you were on the road to royal redemption, breaking scones with the royal family at tea time and cozily living with your ex-husband as, what you call yourselves: "the happiest divorced couple in the world." You get caught in a video sting by an undercover reporter for News of the World. I hate when that happens.

My first reaction to your video? Holy c**p!

Second reaction to your video? She's done it again!

How, I wondered, could you still be so naive after all of these years?

Yes, you were shafted by the royal family in the divorce settlement. Yes, you have had to make your own way in the world. Having a title didn't hurt you. But your royal connections seemed to be off limits. Watching this video they obviously are not. Yet you are not the first person connected to the royal family to be captured making unflattered revealtions - Sophie, Countess of Wessex and Princess Michael of Kent to name but two. If anything, you're in good company.

You have apologized for your "serious lapse in judgement."  As the royals supposedly react to these things, the Queen herself must be 'incandescent with rage', Charles must be 'knashing his teeth' and the scandal is said to have shaken the royals. Then there are the rest of us who may be bemused, shocked, or indifferent. It is incredibly unfortunate, especially for some of us who had held out hope that when the Queen goes to that great palace in the sky, that you two might once again be reunited on commmemorative china. Like waiting for William and Kate to get married, we all have unrealistic dreams.

Reports of your financial difficulties are nothing new. You have denied them in the past but there is no denying it now. It must be a desperate situation for you to offer up the Duke of York to the higest bidder. While the deal you were trying to broker is shocking, it is your naivety that is painful to watch. Your appearance in the video, smoking, looking stressed and hunched over was pathetic for a woman circa 1986 who joined the royal family with such 'breath of fresh air' potential.

It's hard to say how this will affect your future with your business and your credibilty. I feel sad that for all of the progress you have made with the royal family you might be back to square one. Not to mention how your daughters must feel being caught in the middle. But you have bounced back before and you have proven that you are a survivor when others have chosen to count you out. And in that respect I'm not worried about you - for now.

This too shall pass...until the next time...

© Marilyn Braun 2010

Royal Review: The Young Victoria

I'll admit. Were it not for Sarah Ferguson's, (Duchess of York) involvement in this film I would have more than likely dismissed it as just another straight to DVD royal movie. Nice to eventually loan from the library but not something I would rush out to see otherwise.

However, with Sarah Ferguson's involvement I was somewhat intrigued by the idea. When I think of Queen Victoria I think of her later in life: the mournful, unsmiling, imposing, matriarch of a large extended inter-married royal family. I don't think of her as young, passionate and inexperienced. I also don't think of her as beautiful when portraits of her were said to be far more flattering than what she actually looked like in person.

Covering the period of her early teens and touching on the death of Prince Albert (sorry if I've given away the ending) The Young Victoria shows a princess under the thumb of her mother and advisor Sir John Conroy who want Victoria to sign a regency on her sickbed to put her mother in charge and Conroy the power behind the throne. However, Victoria is no docile princess. She is spirited and defiant and once she becomes Queen, Conroy and her mother are immediately jettisoned from her court.

But they're not the only ones with an agenda as politicians dismiss Victoria as too young and inexperienced, and Lord Melborne portraying himself as her protector and confidant. Then there's the King of the Belgians desire to infiltrate the court via his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Yet while Prince Albert initially does what's required of him, no one predicted that the new Queen and Prince Albert would actually develop feelings for each other. This makes those with agendas jealous, especially when the couple's loyalty to one another excludes them.

Although they are passionate, they are not without their disagreements. As Prince Albert struggles to find a meaningful role, Victoria becomes threatened by any interference to her power. After this fight, the couple go for a carriage ride and an assassination attempt is made on Victoria. Albert shields her with his body and is shot, suffering grievous injuries. He survives and Victoria realizes how important Albert is to her and gives him a more important role, illustrated by moving his desk next to hers and jettisoning her longtime servant and confidant, Baroness Lehzen.

Emily Blunt, (The Devil Wears Prada) portrays Queen Victoria in the bloom of her youth, as human and passionate - two qualities you wouldn't normally associate with her. Prince Albert is portrayed by the handsome Rupert Friend. Like Victoria, his looks may not be historically accurate, but using such photogenic actors makes their passion much more convincing. Mark Strong plays the glowering Sir John Conroy, Jim Broadbent is wonderful, hamming it up as Victoria's uncle, King William IV, Paul Bettany plays the charming, paternal and influential Lord Melborne and Victoria's great-great-great-great granddaughter Princess Beatrice has a minor cameo during the coronation scene.

Ultimately this film offers no great revelations but it's enjoyable and a good movie to watch if you'd like to see a side of Queen Victoria that most of us may be unfamiliar with.

© Marilyn Braun 2009

Royal Profile: Susan Barrantes

Best known as the mother of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, she was part of a family that can trace their ancestry back to 1557.

Born on June 9, 1937 in Bramcote Hills Notthingham, Susan Mary Wright was the youngest of three daughters of FitzHerbert Wright, a former lieutenant in the 15th/19th Hussars and later a company director. Her mother Doreen Wingfield was the only daughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt. Her brother Bryan was for a time the secretary of the Dorchester Club; her elder sister Brigid married Julian Salmond, son of Marshal of the RAF Sir John Salmond; her younger sister Davina married Sir Richard Boughey, Bt.

The Wright family trace their ancestry back to John Wright, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, in 1557. Another ancestor, also John Wright, was imprisoned for eight years for raising a company in a regiment of horse in the Parliamentary cause in 1643. Later, the family moved to Nottingham, where they became principal proprietors of the Butterley Works. Susan's grandfather settled at Yeldersley Hall, Derbyshire.

Susan's childhood interests consisted of riding side-saddle and working hunter classes, where she won numerous prizes. After school, she went through secretarial college and undertook the debutante season at the age of 17 being presented to the Queen.

It was at a dance that she met her first husband, Ronald Ferguson, then serving in the Life Guards. He was at once impressed: she was lively and vivacious, and shared his equestrian interests. She had also, he said, "a touch of Irish wildness about her, and she was a country girl, having been brought up in Lincolnshire and at her grandfather's castle [Powerscourt] in County Wicklow". Moreover, he explained, "she enjoyed going to polo matches - an essential pre-requisite for a Ferguson girlfriend in those days!"

Her parents, feeling she was too young to marry, sent her to France for a year. But the attachment survived the separation, and Susan married Ronald Ferguson at St Margaret's Westminster, on January 17 1956, with a reception for 600 guests at Claridge's. In the same year she appeared on the cover of Tatler magazine.

They began their married life in London, where Ferguson was stationed at Knightsbridge Barracks, and a few years later moved to a house at Ascot, strategically close to the polo fields of Smith's Lawn and Windsor Castle. The couple would have two daughters: Jane in August 1957 and Sarah, the future Duchess of York, born in October 1959. She later miscarried a daughter, Sophia, after developing pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition chiefly characterised by high blood pressure.

In 1968, Ferguson's father died and the family moved to his childhood home, Dummer Down House, a Queen Anne-style farmhouse near Basingstoke. Her interests revolved around horses and she was a keen show jumper. Though the marriage was a happy one in the early years, Ronald Ferguson had an affairs, one of with her best friends. In 1972 she fell in love with a professional polo player from Argentina, Hector Barrantes, whose wife Luisita and unborn child were killed in a car crash near Buenos Aires in February 1972. Barrantes had been a star rugby player and Golden Gloves heavyweight. That summer, Susan decided to leave her family for him which created a society scandal. She was divorced from Ronald Ferguson in May 1974 and married in Barrantes in July 1975, at Chichester, Register Office, England.

She went to live in Argentina, where she and her husband maintained a large ranch at El Pucara, 350 miles south-west of Buenos Aires. There they bred 500 foals for polo, as well as cattle. And no doubt they would have remained there quietly pursuing these interests, had it not been for the marriage of Sarah to Prince Andrew, in July 1986. Thereafter, Sarah's parents and siblings were the focus of intense media attention.

Hector Barrantes fell ill with cancer of the lymph glands and died on August 10, 1990 at the age of 51. Susan experienced finanical difficulties afterwards, having to sell more than half the farm to the polo-playing Australian media magnate Kerry Packer. She gave her first reluctant interview to Hello! magazine in June 1988. She returned to that magazine with a full version of her reminiscences in 1992, and allowed further interviews in subsequent years. In 1997 she wrote the book POLO for which Prince Charles wrote the forward.

On September 19, 1998 she was killed in a car accident and was buried next to her late husband Hector in a vault below her house, next to a polo field on the Argentinian estate.

© Marilyn Braun 2009

The Royal Romance Report for Sunday July 5th, 2009

On the July edition of The Royal Romance Report, can Michael Jackson top Diana in the funeral stakes? Should Andrew and Fergie get back together?

You can listen to the episode here.

Publications mentioned

People Magazine – The Talent and Tragedy of Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009

My Story by Sarah, Duchess of York

Blogs mentioned

British Royal Wedding

The Royal Report will be on hiatus for the next 2 weeks. The show will return on Sunday July 26th, 2009 - topic to be determined. Please feel free to check out my show archives in the interim.

© Marilyn Braun 2009

Royal Wedding Bouquets

An occupational hazard of marrying into the royal family is receiving thousands of bouquets throughout your royal career. While these flowers may be easily forgotten, the most famous flowers, their wedding bouquets are freeze framed in the official pictures for other future brides, royal and non-royal, to take inspiration from.

Queen Victoria (1840) a small posy made up solely of snowdrops (Prince Albert's favorite flower).

Queen Mary (1893) The bridal bouquet was of rare white flowers, with the old Provence rose 'House of York' predominating. The bouquet also included white orchids, lilies of the valley, orange blossom and a new white carnation called 'The Bride'.

Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mother (1923) Some reports say the bouquet was created by Edward Goodyear and included roses and lilies-of-the-valley with a white rose on either side. Other reports say that the bouquet was comprised of white roses and heather and was made by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. None of the wedding photos show the flowers because upon entering Westminster Abbey she placed her bouquet on the tomb of the unknown solider.

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (1934) A bouquet of lilies

Queen Elizabeth II (1947) Supplied by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, and made by Longmans florists. It was was made up of three kinds of British-grown orchids: cattleya, odontoglossum and cypripedium - to which was added a sprig of myrtle from a bush at Osborne House, Queen Victoria's house on the Isle of Wight.

Princess Margaret (1960) bouquet comprised of white orchids and stephanotis

Princess Alexandra (1963) Victorian posy of freesias, narcissi, stephanoitis and lilies-of-the-valley

Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester (1972) bouquet made by her mother-in-law Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. Modeled on a traditional Danish wedding sheaf, it was comprised of white and cream summer flowers bound with satin ribbon.

Princess Anne, Princess Royal - (1973) Bridal bouquet of white roses, lilies of the valley and stephanotis was "something old" —a sprig of myrtle grown on the Isle of Wight from a sprig of Queen Victoria's wedding bouquet—and a bit of white heather for good luck. Second wedding (1992) she carried a posy of heather and wore white blossoms in her hair.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (1986) Wore a headdress of gardenias (Prince Andrew's favorite flower) during the ceremony. After signing the wedding register she wore a borrowed tiara. In her memoirs she writes: "It was my time to be Cinderella. I had stepped up as the country girl; I would walk back as a princess." The bouquet was an 'S'-shaped spray of cream lilies, palest yellow roses, gardenias, lilies-of-the-valley and the traditional sprig of myrtle.

Sophie, Countess of Wessex (1999) The shower bouquet was created around a new variety of tall lily named after Sophie. The rest was comprised of blown ivory garden roses, scented stephanotis, clustered lily of the valley and ivory freesia.

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (2005) Designed by Shane Connolly of Shane Connolly Flowers Ltd For the Service of Dedication she carried a small, simple elegant floral bouquet bound with silk from her dress. Complementing the grey blue of her dress, Auricular flowers in dusty shades of greys and creams with touches of gold, have been mixed with clusters of Lily of the Valley both for the scent and the sentiment. Again, these flowers are cut from English grown plants later to be grown in the gardens at Highgrove. A sprig of myrtle, representing happy marriage, was sent from a well wisher in Cornwall for the bouquet.

© Marilyn Braun 2009


Thank you for enjoying this article. If you use the information for research purposes, a link to credit the work I've put into writing it would be appreciated.


Related articles

Royal Weddings

Royal Wedding Dresses

Question: Princess Diana's wedding bouquet

Question: Queen Victoria's wedding dress and bouquet