Many remember it as the fairytale wedding of their time. A young and beautiful Princess Elizabeth, just on the cusp of inheriting her father’s throne, marrying a tall and dashing foreign Prince, who had been courting her for years.
The event itself was just as magical as planned; the Princess married the Prince in the towering Westminster Abbey, in front of no less than 103 guests of royal birth, adorned in jewels and carrying a bouquet of orchids and a sprig of myrtle that was grown from Queen Victoria’s bridal bouquet.
But the wedding wasn’t totally without incident. Marrying in post-war Britain meant that even a Princess had to buy the fabric for her dress with food rations, saved up for months in advance.
On the morning of her wedding, with the ceremony due to take place at 11.30, Princess Elizabeth famously snapped her tiara, the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara, whilst getting ready. Soothing a Princess in a panic, her mother, Queen Elizabeth, had the tiara rushed to the royal jeweller who was able to fix it in time.
From there, Princess Elizabeth travelled by carriage to Westminster, where she was married to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten by Archbishop of Canterbury Geoffrey Fisher, and the Archbishop of York Cyril Garbett.
68 years after that day, rare footage has been uncovered from the archives which show Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on their special day.
The reel, which includes 18 minutes of footage, shows the ceremony, a close-up of their wedding certificate, the newlyweds walking down the aisle and the guests exiting the church.
Watch the enchanting footage above.
