As a keen artist, Queen Victoria often recorded key personal events from her life. One such is depicted here, as this watercolour shows Victoria, Princess Royal on her wedding day. The Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and she married Prince Frederick William, the heir to the throne of Prussia (later the unified Germany). The ceremony was held in the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace on 25 January 1858. Queen Victoria records the occasion in her journal entry of that day, describing how it was 'The 2nd most eventful day in my life, as regarded feelings, for I felt almost as if it were I that was being married over again, only much more nervous' but that:

My last fear of being overcome, vanished, when I saw Vicky's calm & composed manner. It looked beautiful seeing her kneeling beside Fritz, their hands joined, her long train born by the 8 young ladies, who looked like a cloud of young girls hovering round her, as they knelt near her

Queen Victoria, Journal

The wedding dress of white moire antique trimmed with three flounces of Honiton lace is shown, as well as the wreaths of orange and myrtle blossoms which match the wreath attached to her veil.