The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Catherine, will be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary on 29 April.  We feel truly honoured to have worked on Her Royal Highness’ exquisite wedding dress and bring the design of Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen to life.  There has always been a lot of press about the dress embroidered by the Royal School of Needlework, so we thought we would bring a different angle to you in this eNews.

The Royal Wedding was watched by two billion people in more than 180 countries.  Our Chief Executive Dr Susan Kay-Williams, was lucky enough to attend the wedding at Westminster Abbey.  Here is Susan’s story from that very special day.

“We received our invitation about the week before, but I had been so busy that I didn’t get a chance to go shopping for my outfit until the afternoon before!  I went to a variety of different stores in London, looking for that perfect outfit and combination of dress, shoes, hat and bag!  I never told any of the shop assistants what I was buying the outfit for, and in one store, even though she did not know where or what I would be wearing it to, she said something along the lines of ‘you look good enough for a Royal wedding in that.’  I just smiled.  

It was very exciting getting ready on the day, but I was also reminded about the previous time I had been at a Royal event in Westminster Abbey – it was Diana’s funeral. I worked for the British Lung Foundation at the time and I had been the person working with Harkness Rose growers on the Diana rose. As with all her charities, there were people in the Abbey and walking outside. I was in the Abbey then but this was going to be a much happier occasion.

Mandy Ewing was Head of our Embroidery Studio at the time and was also attending the wedding.  We had agreed to meet at Vauxhall station as I arrived by tube and Mandy by train. Usually there are cabs around there, but of course that morning there were none, so we had to start walking and eventually flagged one down. When we told him where we were going and gave him the official sign to put in his window, he was thrilled. We let him keep the sign and he did not charge us – he would tell his story all day I am sure.

We arrived early and once inside, we had designated areas to sit but in each area they were just filling up the seats as people arrived. Unless you were in the seats nearest the altar, there were no reserved spots, which is probably why Mandy and I ended up on the second row and Victoria and David Beckham were almost opposite us on the back row – this was the one time that despite being a VIP, being late was not fashionable!  We saw all the famous and titled guests walk past and a couple of people we had not expected, including two gentlemen from city Livery companies that we knew, who were ushers.

Guests had their mobile phones, but on silent.  I texted my sister while inside the Abbey so she could ring my parents to get them watching out (they were of course watching anyway, but I did not want them to be surprised to see me and have a heart attack!). I wrote something very brief as I did not want to be caught using my phone!

When the ceremony began, I was so busy looking at the dress that I had to ask Mandy what flowers HRH was carrying. I was so proud of the RSN team – the dress was exquisite and Catherine looked stunning. Most of the RSN Studio Embroiderers only saw the work on individual panels, which were of many different shapes and sizes. Only three or four embroiderers, including Mandy, saw the whole dress before the wedding day. They had gone to the McQueen Studio in London to help finish off the stitching of the lace motifs.

A member of my family managed to spot me during one of the TV panning shots of the attendees.  It was my cousin who was getting married two weeks later and he insisted that I wear the same outfit! My parents both missed seeing me live. They had invited a neighbour in to watch too. She saw me, but my parents had momentarily disappeared, so then they watched it all again on catch up!

In the end, it all seemed to fly by so quickly. After Their Royal Highnesses left the Abbey, the principal guests came down the aisle and there were lots of smiling faces. Mandy and I felt very elated, so we felt we should go for a drink and some lunch, but we could not find anywhere open! We ended up walking over Westminster Bridge, down past County Hall and round the back near the London Eye to eventually find somewhere.

The day after, there was a media event and we brought in as many of our Studio Embroiderers as possible.  TV and press attended, but we were very limited in what we could say and unable to give away too many details on the work we did.  There was widespread coverage around the world, including a feature in Hello magazine of our Embroiderers at Hampton Court Palace.
Following that, we could really celebrate and had a special event of our own when Mandy’s and my gift boxes of Royal Wedding cake arrived. There was a good portion in each box, but we divided it up so all those at the RSN party had a tiny piece.  My wedding invitation and the cake box are now safely stored in the RSN Archive.

Congratulations to Their Royal Highnesses and thank you for letting us be part of such a momentous occasion.”

Images: Gift Box of Royal Wedding Cake; Dr Susan Kay-Williams and Mandy Ewing at Westminster Abbey; Expert RSN Embroidery Studio team of 2011; Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – official wedding photography by Hugo Burnand.