Year in Review: 2018's Royal Wedding Gowns

2018 loaded us up on royal wedding gowns, with two big headliners from Britain and others beyond. It's all leading to the inevitable year-end question: which one was your favorite?

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Alessandra de Osma wore an embellished gown from Jorge Vázquez to marry Prince Christian of Hanover in Peru in March. I think it's fair to say she claimed the title of Biggest Wedding Tiara of the Year by topping her look with the Hanover Floral Tiara.

Alexi Lubomirski/Royal Family

Meghan Markle turned to Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy for her May wedding to Prince Harry. She took home the Longest Wedding Veil of the (Royal) Year prize with her Commonwealth floral-embroidered veil anchored with Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau Tiara.

Alex Bramall/Royal Family

Princess Eugenie made a touching statement at her October wedding to Jack Brooksbank by asking Peter Pilotto to make her a veil-free gown that showcased the scoliosis surgery scar on her back. She grabbed the Most Colorful Wedding Tiara of the Year award by becoming the first (known) member of the royal family to wear the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara.

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Princess Ayako claimed the Most Colorful Wedding Ensemble title with her array of traditional looks for her October wedding to Kei Moriya. Pictured is just one of her looks - and she even managed to squeeze in one final tiara appearance.

This isn't all of 2018's wedding treasures, mind you; we covered a couple more in Tidbits mentions and there were a bunch of noble weddings we didn't cover. We've got enough here to pose the question, though:

Which royal wedding gown of 2018 was your favorite?

Vote in the poll below!

Monday Tidbits for August 27: Traditional Visits and More

Things are picking up. But first:

--You want traditional dress? Here's your traditional dress: Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary, and their children visited the Faroe Islands last week on the royal yacht. The visit was a mix of events in traditional Faroese dress, including a bit of traditional dancing, with some casual stuff thrown in. The Danish royal family explained that the national costumes and accompanying silver were gifts from the government and various municipalities, making them an extra appropriate choice. [ParisMatch, YouTube, Instagram]

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Hosting a reception on the royal yacht
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--Over in Sweden, another young one was on duty: Prince Alexander made his first official visit to his duchy, Södermanland, where he opened his christening gift of an accessibility-oriented lookout point in a nature reserve. He was joined by his entourage, a.k.a. his parents, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia. Sofia's choice of white pants for this woodsy occasion reminds me, as ever, that it must be nice to probably not have to do your own laundry. [Svenskdam]

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--And finally, over at the Jewel Vault, the Cambridges joined the annual Balmoral fun.

Coming up this week: A golden anniversary, the Danes host the first state visit of the season, plus a Sussex event...

Tidbits is your spot for royal topics we haven't covered separately on the blog, all week long. Please mind the comment policy, and enjoy!

Royal Outfits of the Day: Crown Princess Victoria's 41st Birthday

You know the equation: birthday + one of the Scandinavian monarchies = new birthday portrait!

Linda Broström/Kungahuset.se

Crown Princess Victoria's portrait for her 41st birthday is a bit of a blank canvas all around. Using a blank canvas to showcase the delicate diamond floral brooch she received from Princess Lilian's not a bad idea, though.

When you're Crown Princess Victoria, your birthday equation also means a full day of public festivities, first greeting well wishers outside Solliden Palace, the royal family's summer home on the island of Öland, and then a public concert.

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You can add in a dress fresh from the prairie to your birthday celebrations, if you must. It's your birthday, be as trendy as you want.

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Princess Estelle's first dress would be the lone non-floral pattern of the day, as it turned out.

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At the evening concert, Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria wore the folk dress of the region, as they always do (and as we just saw them do earlier this month), while everyone else went floral and flowy. (Except the men. They wore suits.)

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Princess Madeleine came prepared to prevent dangerous upper arm overheating, with what I like to imagine is an itsy bitsy picnic basket at the side. Toss in some minibar-sized drinks, and your summer concert experience just improved exponentially.

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If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Princess Sofia was paying direct homage to her sister-in-law on her birthday. Victoria wore this same print (by the brand & Other Stories) on a different style of dress back in April. Sofia's version leaves a little more room to breathe, so I think she got the upper hand of this floral double act.

Royal Outfits of the Day: National Day in Sweden

Programming Note: Tomorrow we will have an open post for Princess Adrienne's christening. The christening starts at 12 noon (6 am Eastern). Then stay tuned later in the day for the full fashion rundown. Today, in lieu of our usual Thursday business, we're getting in the Swedish mood...

Linda Broström/Kungahuset.se

Sweden's National Day was yesterday and the royal family sent everyone their greetings with a new pic of Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar, as has become their tradition.

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Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel started the day with a trip to the Hallstahammar Municipality for them and - appropriately enough - a trip down christening memory lane for us. Victoria repeated the By Malina dress she wore for Prince Oscar's christening in 2016.

Anna-Lena Ahlström, Kungahuset.se

Given this frock's sporty feel, the removal of the hat feels just right. It might be better the second time around.

The day was capped with some family photos and the National Day concert, which means it's time for...

Henrik Garlöv/Kungahuset.se

...more of Prince Oscar's classic scowl of skepticism! (I love that he always looks like he's just Not Sure About This Whole Thing. Keep questioning, kid.) No, really, it's time to bust out the rest of those national costumes.

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Yellow and blue for the whole family! Except for the men, as always. They don't play that.

Monday Tidbits for May 21: So, the Rest of the World...

I regret to inform those of you that are salty about the amount of royal wedding posts that we still have a tiara to cover and this week will also bring the first post-wedding appearance of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. But the big events move out of Britain by the end of the week, with the promise of some tiara action to pull you through. Check out the "Coming up this week" section at the end of Tidbits for more.

In the meantime, bits and bobs from elsewhere:

--The Norwegian royal family joined in the annual May 17 celebrations, and you know what that means: bunad time! And shades! And top hats! And dogs! [ParisMatch]

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--Isn't this a cute dress for Queen Margrethe? Super breezy even with the addition of her order brooches (she's receiving credentials from ambassadors).

A post shared by DET DANSKE KONGEHUS (@detdanskekongehus) on May 18, 2018 at 7:37am PDT

--Spring greetings to you from Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar at Haga Palace! [Photos: Linda Broström / Kungahuset.se]

--And finally, the festivities for Crown Prince Frederik's 50th birthday are kicking off. He and Crown Princess Mary hosted a dinner Friday celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Crown Prince Frederik Fund. Mary repeated a Temperley gown. Speaking of Fred's bday...

Keld Navntoft/Kongehuset

Coming up this week: A lot! Coverage of the Netherlands/Luxembourg state visit (state banquet, yay!), British royal garden fun including the newlyweds, and hopefully another busy weekend ahead with Frederik's birthday on Saturday (a balcony appearance and a gala dinner with foreign royal friends are on the books).

Tidbits is your spot for royal topics we haven't covered separately on the blog, all week long. Please mind the comment policy, and enjoy! 

Royal Fashion Awards: Prince Gabriel’s Christening

Prince Gabriel and Princess Sofia
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Lemme just repeat what I said last year: It just wouldn’t be a royal year without a Swedish christening! It’s HRH Prince Gabriel Carl Walther, Duke of Dalarna’s turn this year; he’s the second son of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia. Baby sashes, kids all over the place, and…folk dress? Oh yeah. (If you missed the christening, check out our open post. You can rewatch at the link.)

Best Surprise

Princess Sofia

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So here I was, prepared for another lacy Ida Sjöstedt number, and Sofia bursts in with the jaw dropper! This is the traditional folk dress of Älvdalen, where Sofia grew up, and I understand that it was handmade by relatives. Älvdalen is in Dalarna; Prince Gabriel is Duke of Dalarna. This brings that special nod to Sofia’s heritage full circle in a beautiful way, I think.

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Not that you ever have to convince me to love these traditional costumes anyway, as longtime readers will know. We usually see the Swedish royal ladies wearing the national version on National Day, so it’s a special treat to see them wear versions belonging to different regions. Excellent.

Best in Heirlooms

Prince Gabriel and Prince Alexander

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The tiny man of the hour wore the family christening gown, first worn by Prince Gustaf Adolf in 1906. The gown is made of cotton batiste and Valenciennes lace (bobbin lace) with a petticoat of satin woven silk. He also bundled up against the December weather in the accompanying cap and cape, which has the names of all the children that have worn it embroidered in the lining. Plus, King Grandpa presented him with his baby sash of the Order of the Seraphim. (He may not have been entirely pleased about that or the whole bit where he had to leave his mother's arms. I am pleased enough about the baby sash for us both, kid, don't worry.)

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Squirmy big brother Prince Alexander was dressed in an outfit his dad wore in 1981, because the only thing this family loves more than baby sashes is breaking the heirloom clothes out of storage. Bless.

Best in Christening Color Schemes

Queen Silvia

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Grandma Silvia’s definitely of the "soft colors = baby events" school of thought, judging from her christening choices to date, and her repeated blue ensemble is another chapter in that book. Hard to argue with that.

Best in Seasonal Spirit

Crown Princess Victoria and Family

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This Christmas red’s got me swooning. Perfect belt to balance the voluminous skirt (and it looks like the belt matches the shoes, nice), perfect updo. She had a little bow in the side of her hair, which you can't see here. Victoria, well done.

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Well-coordinated with her mini me, as always! Estelle got to pour in the christening water and help bless it, and she took her job seriously.

…Coziest? I mean, I guess.

Princess Madeleine

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I don’t know, guys. This is definitely a war between the busy dress and the textured coat, and it’s all a bit haphazard.

Valentino dress, h/t to Heaven

Princess Leonore and Prince Nicolas weren’t at the christening because the kids have jet lag from a recent U.S. trip and so they stayed at home in London while their parents made a quick trip to Sweden, according to the royal court’s spokesperson, so I’m feeling like a generous pass on this whole thing goes to pregnant godmother Madeleine too. I give it one shrug in her general direction.

Best in Bonus Guests

Princesses Margaretha and Christina

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Lovely blue for two of Carl Philip’s aunts! Even uncle Tord (Magnuson, Princess Christina’s husband, in the center) got in on the action.

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Speaking of coats fighting with busy outfits underneath, here’s one more guest for the road: Princess Ursula of Bavaria. Knock it back a touch on the accessories, methinks. She was there with her husband, Prince Leopold, who is one of Carl Philip’s godparents.

Who gets your royal fashion awards for the day?

A Royal Birthday for the Weekend: Crown Princess Victoria Turns 40

Crown Princess Victoria’s birthday is a proper celebration each and every year. It’s Victoriadagen! So a big birthday calls for even more: a Te Deum and carriage ride around Stockholm on Friday, plus the annual events held on the island of Öland, where the family has their summer residence, Solliden Palace.

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L to R: Princess Madeleine, Chris O’Neill, Queen Silvia, Prince Daniel, Princess Estelle, Prince Oscar, Crown Princess Victoria, King Carl Gustaf, Princess Sofia, Prince Alexander, Prince Carl Philip.

Victoria celebrated her 40th surrounded by the entire Swedish royal family, and I have never been more convinced that a family coordination memo went out in advance. Dress code: Please resemble a summer garden of pastels. DONE.

In an embellished dress with a small matching hair ornament from Pär Engsheden, Victoria was the garden-iest of them all. Butterflies everywhere, with enough left over for Princess Estelle to get a few butterflies for her hair. Awwww.

If you can't get a frilly couture dress from your wedding gown designer for your birthday, when can you? (A question we all debate on a daily basis, I'm sure.) This is doing your birthday up right.

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Erdem has fast become Princess Madeleine’s go-to label for daytime royal events, and Philip Treacy’s a hat favorite. (This is also a royal twin moment: Princess Marie has also worn this dress.) Props to Madeleine for picking a layered choice that still managed not to look disheveled while corralling energetic toddlers.

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Princess Sofia amped up the floral print with her custom Ida Lanto dress. Did I mention how DELIGHTFUL it is to see some actual hats on the Swedish royal ladies? Dress code #2: Leave the not-a-hat hat stuff to me, ladies. XO, Vic. I feel like I’ve waited sooooo long to see Princess Sofia bust out a proper hat and bless her heart, she went entirely Eliza Doolittle with it.

After the Stockholm celebrations, the family hopped over to Öland to commence the annual celebrations for Victoria’s birthday, starting with a Friday evening concert. Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria always wear the traditional dress of Öland for this event.

It’s only Silvia and Victoria that go traditional, so that frees up Madeleine and Sofia continue interpreting the morning’s summer garden memo in a more casual mode. And, wisely, to go the wedge route on the grass. There's a certain sort of genius to what Madeleine's doing here. This is admittedly not that great standing up. But seated? It's way better. And seated is the entire game here.

Saturday finished up the annual events as Victoria and her family, with the King and Queen, greeted well-wishers at Solliden Palace.

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Dress code #3: On Saturdays, we wear light blue. Going out on the most coordinated note of all. Even the gents this time! Between these two blazers and Carl Philip's suit from the concert, this is as close as we get to summer dressing from the Blue Suit Club. I'll take what I can get.

Photos: SVT screencaps and Getty Images as indicated

Royal Flashback of the Day: Princess Madeleine's Wedding Dress (Plus, National Day in Sweden)

I think it's time for a little flashback to a perfectly summery royal wedding gown, complete with new views courtesy of some lovely readers that visited Sweden's recent royal wedding exhibition! But first, we have business to attend to, and that business is national dress.

Photos: Erika Gerdemark, The Royal Court, Sweden

Sweden celebrated National Day on June 6, so the royal family did what they do and got fully into the Sweden spirit. First up: Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel released new photos of Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar, a little tradition of theirs that's full of awwws.

A post shared by Svensk Damtidning (@svenskdamtidning) on Jun 6, 2017 at 11:39am PDT

Second: The adults get in on the fun, with the ladies donning their national costumes to attend an outdoor concert. This is our designated annual time to wonder whyyyyy don't the men play along (not even wee Oscar, did you notice that?) and whyyyyy don't all the ladies wear the same old-timey shoes Silvia and Victoria wear? I think the best answer to both is probably something like this: *shrug*.

Feeling properly yellow and blue now? Good. Let us turn to one of the things that the Swedish royal family does best: fabulous summer royal weddings. (They also put on a great wedding exhibition, and we have today some photos of Madeleine's wedding gown courtesy of Mrs. Diamond and Janet, with many thanks!)

By Bengt Nyman - Flickr: IMG_2748, CC BY 2.0

Princess Madeleine married Chris O'Neill in the Royal Chapel at the Royal Palace in Stockholm on June 8, 2013. At the time, I wrote that her gown was a perfect choice for a summer wedding, if not necessarily a memorable choice. I was wrong; it has stuck in the memory, but not really because of the gown itself.

Video: The walk down the aisle

It's that entrance. Accompanied by a choir of children singing a wedding march while her train and veil sweep effortlessly over the chapel floor? Please. In the past four years, it has zoomed up my list of best royal wedding entrances.

Courtesy of Janet

My love of that entrance casts the gown in a new light; a new light where the gown fits the fresh, floral summer theme of the wedding to a T. The wedding press release described her Valentino haute couture gown like so: “The wedding dress is made from pleated silk organza with appliquéd ivory-coloured Chantilly lace. The upper section of the bodice is lace with a deep-cut back. Narrow vertical pleats open up from the accentuated waist, above the wide skirt, which ends with a four-metre-long train. The veil is also silk organza, and is edged with tulle scatted with point d'esprit dots and small Chantilly lace orange blossom.”

Courtesy of Janet

It feels even more light and summer-appropriate in these glimpses of the dress on display, don't you think?

Courtesy of Mrs Diamond

Madeleine's dress was quickly lumped into the Just Another Valentino Dust Ruffle category for many of you at the time of the wedding. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't done the same, to a certain extent. The close ups prove that there's actually a lot more going on here.

Courtesy of Mrs Diamond

 You can see how the lace ended up floating along, and how delicious that lace really is.

Courtesy of Mrs Diamond

And the pleats! These really didn't stand out in the pictures or video from the big day.

Courtesy of Janet

Oh, we mustn't forget the shoes. The Oscar de la Renta shoes are ivory white organdy with woven point d'esprit dots, which is an unexpected bit of whimsy on a serious shoe. Goes with the whole thing, no?

Yes, I think I'm coming around on this one. Are you? Or were you already there?

Tiara Watch of the Day: September 7

Bless those Norwegian royals, they got a jump on the start of fall state visit season by heading out this week to visit Finland. And you know what that means...

President Sauli Niinistö, King Harald V, Queen Sonja, First Lady Jenni Haukio
Office of the President of the Republic of Finland

THE TIARAS ARE BACK! Okay, just one tiara so far, but we'll get there. Of course this as typical a Queen Sonja state banquet look as one can get, with an old dress in her favorite shape and one of her trusty tiara options, Queen Maud's Pearl and Diamond Tiara in the largest of its two settings. But it's a gorgeous look anyway, and really highlights the simple dark blue sash of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.

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The traditional state visit sash swap is on full display here, with Harald sporting the same Finnish order and Norwegian orders for the Finnish couple (the Order of St. Olav for the President and the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for the First Lady, who is coming right for me with that gorgeous shade of purple).

As though the promise of a tiara wasn't enough, before leaving Norway, the royal family hit another of my weak spots.

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It's a bunad festival! (Technically, a garden party at the palace which the royal ladies kindly turned into a bunad festival.) Oh, how I love their traditional dress. This is my favorite Mette-Marit outfit of late, by the way; she did have a good turn in a pretty floral, but another repeat in Venice proved the necessity of a floral crown. We shall not linger on that, for we do not need that kind of stress in our lives. Remember the tiara.

Royal Birthday of the Day: July 15

I have only cuteness to offer today. Perhaps that's what we need.

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Crown Princess Victoria turned 39 yesterday! The Swedish royal family celebrated Victoriadagen at their summer residence of Solliden Palace on the island of Öland. They do this every year, greeting the crowds outside the palace first, with a concert later in the evening.

Victoria's dress - possibly the epitome of a simple summer dress, not exactly casual but not dressy either - was worn previously for those cute photos with Estelle and Oscar for National Day last month (and is by Ralph Lauren, per The Royals and I). Estelle, of course, is sporting one of her mother's old dresses.

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And then there was wee Prince Oscar, blissfully unaware that he was supposed to be impressed.

For the concert, Queen Silvia and Crown Princess Victoria switched into their traditional costumes from Öland, as they always do. The rest of the family joined in (but sans costume, because it's just Victoria and Silvia for this event).

New this year: Estelle! She attended the concert for the first time, rocking some serious ear protection. If you have to wear ear defenders, you might as well make 'em hot pink.

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For Princess Sofia and Princess Madeleine, it all came down to the shoes. I had no idea espadrille wedges could get so clunky so quickly, just due to a black heel. I ought to thank Sofia for this key lesson. And finally, just in case you needed it, Madeleine's offering up a lesson of her own: there doesn't have to be anything boring about a nude shoe. A+ work.

Click here to view the concert.

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated, and SVT screencaps

Royal National Day of the Week: June 7

The Swedish royal family made their celebrations of yesterday's National Day into a family affair, as they are wont to do. With all of them on hand, they had no problem checking off all of the critical National Day requirements.

New photos of Princess Estelle (now with bonus Prince Oscar): Check!

Photos: Kate Gabor, The Royal Court, Sweden

Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel continued their tradition of issuing National Day greetings from Haga Palace with some cute new pics of Victoria, Estelle, and Oscar. Wee national costume for Estelle and a dubious expression for Oscar, what more could you ask for?

A National Day debut: Check!

Photos: Kungahuset.se

Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia opened the Royal Palace and brought Prince Alexander along for his royal debut - not unlike Princess Madeleine bringing Princess Leonore along a couple years ago, but minus the extra teensy national dress.

A fresh, pretty dress: Check!

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Victoria and Daniel attended a citizenship ceremony, where Victoria also kindly checked off the Oscar de la Renta dress requirement from my general sartorial splendor checklist. This repeat is bright and pretty and all that good stuff - in other words, everything an Oscar de la Renta dress should be.

National dress: Check, check, check, and check!

SVT screencaps. See video of the concert here.

While Sweden also has more regionally specific folk costumes, the type worn by the royal ladies for the evening concert was created around 1903 for the whole country. It didn't really stick, though, until it was officially adopted in 1983 and Queen Silvia gave it a boost in popularity when she wore it for National Day that year. It may not be my favorite version of a national costume, but I do love that the royal family plays their part in it.

(By the way, we usually get the same two things popping up in the comments for this event, so let's not dwell on them this time around: No, the men never wear national dress to this event. Yes, Princess Madeleine and Princess Sofia choose a more modern style of shoe. Some reasons are beyond explanation.)

Royal National Day of the Week: May 18

Yesterday was National Day in Norway, an occasion I love because it gives us a chance to see the Norwegian royal family all decked out in their glorious national costume (bunad). I adore a good bunad, I think I've mentioned that six or seven hundred times; they're specific to regions, and they have the loveliest details. I'm no expert (and I know we have some out there), but I love reading about them. Fall down this rabbit hole with me, will you?

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The day started with the crown princely family greeting the children's parade outside their home, Skaugum. Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, and Prince Sverre Magnus were present. Even family pet Milly Kakao gets decked out in her own ribbon.

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Mette-Marit wore her Rogaland bunad, which she received for her confirmation and which was embroidered by her grandmother. Ingrid Alexandra wore a new bunad from Vest-Agder. It's the second of a series that will outfit her for life, a gift to her as a baby from her mother's home, Kristiansand. Sverre Magnus' outfit is also from Vest-Agder, and Haakon is in the bunad of Asker, where their home is located.

Then it was on to another parade, viewed from the palace balcony with King Harald and Queen Sonja. The ladies usually leave the traditional dress behind for this portion and go for the regular royal coat + hat thing, but not always and not this year. The gents changed into their top hat finery, as usual.
Lucky M-M has several styles to select from - make that very lucky M-M, since these can be pretty expensive - so why stick with just one for the day? She made a quick change into a Hardanger bunad given to her as a wedding gift. Queen Sonja's incredibly intricate East Telemark bunad is a favorite; though not lacking in options herself, she often reflects her family's Telemark roots.

Last but not least, they even united with #TeamShades, for one brief, shining (literally) moment.

Have I convinced you to spend some time in this rabbit hole with me? Good. Here's more:

• A gallery from this year.
• The Kristiansand municipality posted photos of Ingrid Alexandra's new outfit here.
• Aww, here's teenage Mette-Marit in the outfit she wore yesterday. 
• Here's a quick, fun video showing 70 years of the royal family on the balcony. You could also title this Hats: A History.

Photos: via Getty Images as indicated and NRK screencaps