From tomorrow, visitors to London will be able to see Kate Middleton’s wedding dress on display in Buckingham Palace, which will begin its annual Summer Opening. Tourist chiefs are forecasting that it will attract more than half a million visitors, and forecast that it will soon become one of the top attractions in the British capital.
Designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, the wedding dress will go on display alongside the Cartier ‘Halo’ tiara, lent by Queen Elizabeth to Kate Middleton (now the Duchess of Cambridge) on her wedding day; the Duchess’s wedding shoes, hand-made by the team at Alexander McQueen; the diamond earrings commissioned by the Middleton family as a personal gift to the bride from her parents; and a replica of the bridal bouquet. The display also includes a special exhibition film in which Sarah Burton discusses, for the first time, the creation of the dress.
To complement the wedding dress display, the wedding cake created by Leicestershire-based cake designer Fiona Cairns will be shown in the State Dining Room. Three large-scale reproductions of the official wedding photographs showing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the pages and young bridesmaids, and the royal wedding party, will go on display in the Throne Room, where they were taken by photographer Hugo Burnand.
The display is part of the Summer Opening of Buckingham Palace, which includes the 19 State Rooms (with complimentary audio tour), the special exhibition Royal Fabergé, and ends with a walk along the south side of the Palace garden.
