Mary was born in 1867\nas a princess of Teck, in Germany, as the daughter of\na German Duke. Her full name was Victoria\nMary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; but that\u2019s quite a mouthful!\nWhen she married into the royal family, she decided to adopt Mary instead of\nVictoria, due to her grandmother-in-law. However, to her family, she was known\nas May, due to the month of her birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a princess who wasn\u2019t a relative of Queen Victoria<\/a>, she was seen as a good match for one of the Queen\u2019s grandchildren. She got on well with Victoria and was soon chosen as a wife for Prince Albert Victor<\/a>. They became engaged in December 1891. However, an influenza pandemic killed him only six weeks later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, Victoria wasn\u2019t going to let that stop her from introducing Mary to her family. His younger brother, Prince George<\/a>, proposed in May 1893, as the two had grown close. They soon fell in love and enjoyed a very happy engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary is not the first queen to marry her betrothed\u2019s\nbrother. Possibly the most famous example is Catherine of Aragon, who married\nArthur Tudor six months before his death. Famously, she became the first wife\nof King Henry VII. Happily, Mary\u2019s relationship with George was much better\nthan that of Catherine and Henry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their courtship is one that would\nmake a fantastic Hollywood rom-com. As George found himself second in line to\nthe throne, Victoria urged him to marry quickly. However, he did not think it\nproper to wed someone whom he didn\u2019t care for. Two other princesses were\nsuggested and he eventually sent a marriage proposal to one of them. She rejected\nhim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Queen Victoria suggested\nMary, they both found it extremely awkward. They were very aware of the\nnewspapers expecting an immanent engagement and found it uncomfortable. They\nmet a few times but they were both shy and awkward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, one day, Mary went to have\ntea with the Princess Royal, Louise. When she arrived she discovered George,\nand Louise suggested the two go for a walk together, alone. While looking at\nfrogs in a pond, George finally proposed, and they announced their engagement the\nfollowing day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After their\ntwo-month engagement, Princess Mary of Teck married the future King George V during\nthe summer of 1893 in the Chapel Royal at St James\u2019s Palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out that, at least with\ncertain things, the royal family can be as superstitious as the rest of us!\nGeorge glimpsed his soon-to-be wife in Buckingham Palace before the ceremony.\nHe gave her a \u201clow and courtly bow\u201d to make up for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wedding party then set out in\na series of four carriage processions. Crowds of well-wishers came to watch as\nthere had not been a royal wedding for 32 years. Mary had ten bridesmaids and\nGeorge two \u201csupporters\u201d (best men), his father and uncle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the Chapel Royal, the\nArchbishop of Canterbury married the royal couple in front of many important\nroyals and politicians. After the wedding, Queen\nVictoria encouraged the couple to step onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace to\nwave at the watching crowds below. This tradition started at Princess Victoria\u2019s\nwedding to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An oil painting by Laurits Tuxen<\/a> shows the happy couple at their ceremony, and was apparently a good likeness. The painting depicts Queen Victoria wearing her own wedding veil, as she often did, as well as black mourning clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary turned to Arthur Silver (of Silver Studio<\/a>) to design her wedding dress. Silver had originally designed the dress for her wedding to Albert, called \u201cLily of the Valley\u201d. Therefore, it seemed fair to ask him again, and this time he created \u201cThe May Silks\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dress was white, a tradition\nstarted by Queen Victoria at her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. Even in\n1893, most women wed in their best dress, no matter what the colour. This is\nbecause they would wear the dress again after the wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seamstresses at Linton and Curtis\ncreated the dress based on Silver\u2019s designs. As is\ntraditional in the Royal Family, everything was manufactured in Britain. East\nLondon Silk Mills produced the white silk and the silver thread used for\nthe dress, as the bride requested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As is customary for the wedding\ndresses of the British royal family, Silver\u2019s design featured emblems of the\nBritish kingdoms. Rose, shamrock and thistle embroidery decorated the dress,\nalong with orange blossom (the symbol of fertility) and true lover\u2019s knots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The front of the dress was\nunusual, and possibly inspired by Silver\u2019s love for Japanese design. It had\nthree small flounces of Honiton lace, tiered much like a wedding cake. The\nmaterial used for this came from her mother\u2019s wedding gown. It was edged with silver thread and also trimmed with\nbright green orange blossom wreaths. There were\nlong trails on either side of the gathered satin and lace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The majority of dresses at the\ntime had long sleeves; however, Mary bucked the trend with her wedding dress so\nit looked ahead of its time. Instead, she had delicate cap sleeves in the same\nHoniton lace with a light blue ribbon on her left shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bodice of her dress accentuated her hourglass figure with what we would now call a Bardot neckline. It had a tight, corset wait that dropped into the A-line skirt<\/a>. This was also trimmed, at the top, with Honiton lace to soften the silhouette. A small wreath of orange blossom was carried all the way round the bust with a little bouquet on each shoulder, and a larger one in the centre, placed with a little white heather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the train of the dress\nwas relatively plain, so much so that journalists wrote she didn\u2019t even have\none! It certainly wasn\u2019t much compared to the\nextreme detailing featured on the front of her gown. Together, the dress\nreally was an ornate Victorian masterpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More orange blossoms were\narranged in Princess Mary\u2019s hair. Along with this, she wore her mother\u2019s floating lace veil, which left her face in\nfull view. She secured it with diamond pins, presented to her by Queen Victoria.\nMary also wore a diamond tiara from Victoria, as well as a diamond necklace, which\nwas a wedding gift from the Prince and Princess of Wales (Edward VII, George\u2019s\nfather). She wore diamond earrings and an anchor brooch which were wedding\ngifts from Prince George.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary went on to mother Edward VIII<\/a> (who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson) and Albert<\/a> (who became King George VI, married Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and fathered Queen Elizabeth II<\/a>).You can read about all of these royal wedding dresses, as well as plenty of more modern ones, right here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Queen Mary was engaged to Prince Albert, the eldest grandson of Queen Victoria. However, he died just weeks before their wedding. As a result, she instead married his brother, Prince George. Because of this, Mary of Teck had not one but two royal wedding dresses designed for her. Unfortunately, little remains of the plans for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":30327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[200,124,1],"tags":[1564,1612,1584,485,1529,1413],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Iconic](\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/images.theweddingsecret.co.uk\/magazine\/dress\/Queen-Mary\/Albert.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEngagement<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iconic](\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/images.theweddingsecret.co.uk\/magazine\/dress\/Queen-Mary\/George.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMary\u2019s Wedding Dress<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iconic](\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/images.theweddingsecret.co.uk\/magazine\/dress\/Queen-Mary\/Mary2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe dress’ design<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iconic](\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/images.theweddingsecret.co.uk\/magazine\/dress\/Queen-Mary\/wedding.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAccessories<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iconic](\"http:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/images.theweddingsecret.co.uk\/magazine\/dress\/Queen-Mary\/Mary3.jpg\")
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