We were hoping Meghan might surprise us with her wedding day tiara choice, and that's just what she did when she arrived at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, on May 19, 2018, in a gem that hadn't been seen in decades. The new Duchess of Sussex said "I do" in a bandeau tiara that once belonged to that royal jewelry supremo, Queen Mary.
The tiara was made in 1932 for Mary, who was always eager to update her gem collection. She commissioned this piece specifically to show off the large, circular, diamond brooch that now sits at its center — she had received it as a present from the people of the County of Lincoln on her own wedding day in 1893. The brooch had been bought after the local lord lieutenant invited people to send in money for a marriage present for the royal bride.
Forty years on, Mary decided it would look much better in a tiara and had it set in a very 1930s piece made up of diamonds in a pavé setting on platinum with clusters of larger diamonds on either end of the tiara. The diadem was left to the queen on Mary's death in 1953 and wasn't seen again until Meghan's wedding on May 19. And just to show she really is part of the royal family now, her new grandmother-in-law wore another of Mary's wedding present brooches to the Sussex celebrations. That's what you call a happy ending.
