On Sunday, King Charles III and Queen Camilla celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary. Today, we’re looking back at the jewels that Camilla wore for their engagement and their wedding ceremonies.
Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles on February 10, 2005. The couple celebrated with a party that evening at Windsor Castle.
Camilla arrived for the party wearing a red evening gown, accessorized with her favorite pearl drop earrings and a three-stranded pearl necklace with a diamond and amethyst clasp. She also wore her new engagement ring on her left hand.
ITN called it “a ring worth waiting for.” Camilla revealed to reporters that Charles got down on one knee to present her with the eight-carat emerald-cut diamond, which is flanked by six diamond baguettes and set in platinum. Reportedly dating to the 1920s, the ring was from the jewelry collection of Charles’s beloved grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
The ring isn’t, however, the Queen Mum’s own engagement ring. She received a sapphire ring from the future King George VI when he proposed. Later in life, the sapphire ring was replaced with a pearl. Camilla’s ring is another diamond ring from the Queen Mother’s extensive jewel collection. She wears it in the photograph above (taken in the 1980s) with the Greville Peardrop Earrings and Queen Alexandra’s Wedding Necklace.
Here’s another view of the ring from the engagement party. The emerald-cut diamond isn’t one that exactly sparkles. It sort of glows in the right light instead.
On April 9, 2005, Charles and Camilla were married in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor. The wedding was witnessed by Prince William (now Prince of Wales) and Tom Parker Bowles. Camilla wore a cream-colored ensemble by Robinson Valentine for the wedding with a coordinating hat by Philip Treacy. The couple exchanged wedding bands made of Welsh gold by Wartski.
Camilla’s jewelry for the civil ceremony was set with diamonds and pearls.
She wore her favorite pair of earrings, which feature a diamond floral button stud and a pearl drop.
She pinned a small brooch to the lapel of her jacket. It features Prince of Wales Feathers set in diamonds and gathered by a gray pearl and diamond cluster. She has had the brooch in her collection since the 1990s.
She also wore a diamond tennis bracelet on her left wrist.
Later that afternoon, the couple’s marriage was blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a service held at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
The service of prayer and dedication was attended by 800 guests, including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, as well as all of the other senior members of the royal family. Several foreign royal guests were also in attendance, including members of the royal families of Norway, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Greece, Romania, and Yugoslavia (Serbia).
For the church blessing, the Duchess of Cornwall wore a lovely blue and gold ensemble, also made by Robinson Valentine.
The coat, in shades of gold and soft blue, was worn over a lightweight chiffon dress. Her coordinating gold feather headpiece was another Philip Treacy design.
She carried a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers picked from the gardens at the Prince of Wales’s Highgrove estate. The bouquet included roses, daffodils, jasmine, lily of the valley, camellias, and hydrangeas.
Camilla’s jewelry for the blessing was set with diamonds. She chose a pair of antique diamond floral earrings for the service. The same earrings were worn by her daughter, Laura, for her wedding in 2006.
She also wore a diamond bracelet on her right wrist.
And here’s a glimpse of her engagement ring and her new gold wedding band.
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