The history of Royal weddings as seen through items in the Royal Collection

Public reception
Weddings have always captured the interest of the public. When Queen Victoria emerged from the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace she was met with loud applause from waiting crowds. Celebrations of royal weddings occured nationwide, long before radio and film allowed the public to follow the procession and ceremony.
Following the First World War, the wedding of George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1923 was made as public as possible to lift the nation's spirit. The wedding was not broadcast on radio and ocurred before the age of television. However, it was made accessible in other ways. Stands were erected on the street and details of the procession were published to ensure that as many people as possible could catch a glimpse of the royal couple in their open carriage. HM The Queen's wedding to Prince Philip in 1947 took this one step further; it was broadcast to 200 million radio listeners around the world.
Celebration is not exclusive to the wedding day. When Danish princess Alexandra and the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna landed on English soil, crowds gathered to greet them. Tennyson, as Poet Laureate, wrote each an ode of welcome, published in The Times on the days of their weddings.
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-92)
A Welcome to Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales
London : Daily Telegraph
The Royal Wedding, 1947
Sir Richard Rivington Holmes (1835-1911)
Torchlight procession for the marriage of Prince Leopold, 7 April 1882
Richard Henry Clements Ubsdell (active 1828-63)
Illuminations and fireworks at Spithead celebrating the marriage of TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales
Frank de Haenen (active 1905)