Princess Kate’s wedding tiara of choice
When Princess Kate married Prince William she was seen wearing Queen Elizabeth II’s Cartier Halo Tiara which is made up of 739 brilliant-cut diamonds and 149 baguette diamonds.
Tatler reported that the tiara was considered a good ‘beginner’ tiara as its smaller-than-average size wouldn’t induce headaches. Her wedding day was the first time Kate was seen wearing a tiara.
The piece is highly sentimental as it was gifted to the late Queen on her 18th birthday in 1944, though she never wore it publicly.
Meghan Markle’s bridal diadem
The Duchess of Sussex wore an altogether different tiara on her wedding day in 2018. Meghan married Prince Harry in Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau Tiara.
The art-deco style tiara dates back to 1932 and features a detachable floral brooch at its centre that was given to the late Queen’s grandmother, Queen Mary, as a wedding present in 1893.
The diamond sparkler came into the late Queen’s collection when her grandmother died in 1953.
Prince Harry recalled the time Meghan went to Buckingham Palace by invitation from Her Majesty to try on tiaras ahead of the wedding in his autobiography, Spare. He revealed his grandmother had chosen five tiaras from the vault – “One was all emeralds. One was aquamarines. Each was more dazzlingly stunning than the last”.
