Queen Elizabeth’s wedding bouquet was heavily influenced by royal history. The queen’s bouquet was made of a sprig of myrtle and white orchids, a tradition started by Queen Victoria when she got married (via the Daily Mail). While the queen carried the huge bouquet down the aisle, somehow, not long after she said “I Do,” her wedding flowers went missing, never to be seen again. All the photos the bride took after the ceremony did not have her beautiful bouquet present. Also, unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth wasn’t able to follow the tradition begun by her mother, who famously placed her own wedding bouquet on the Grave of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey (via Westminster Abbey).
According to Express, during an interview with ITV, the son of the florist Martin Longman, who made Queen Elizabeth’s wedding bouquet, recalled the incident and shared that his father had to make the same bouquet again so that new wedding photos could be taken. “Halfway through their honeymoon, Princess and Prince Philip came back to the Palace. She put her wedding dress on again, and he put his naval uniform on, and then they had the photographs, just the two of them,” stated David Longman. Following the mishap, a new tradition sprung up; for all royal weddings, a backup arrangement is now on hand, so this doesn’t happen again.
