hi!! let me preface by saying i am most definitely *not* asking about The Drama, this is purely a tiara question. i’m fairly ignorant about the tiaras in the BRF vault, but since we found out meghan had 5 choices for wedding tiaras, ive been wondering what they could be? i assume Teck Crescent, Strathmore Rose, and obvs the Bandeau she wore, but what do you think the other 2 could’ve been? i think one had emeralds so maybe Greville Kokoshnik, but is there an aquamarine tiara not currently in use?
I've gotten a few asks about this but you were the only one from someone I know who you are so I believe that you're not trying to stir the pot. To other people, say whatever you want on your own blog but don't put hateful stuff towards anyone involved in this whole thing on my posts because I will block you. I will always be happy, if a little (ok a lot) slow, to answer genuine questions about tiaras.
Alright so, five tiaras...
Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau Tiara (formerly called the Filigree Tiara which I still prefer because it differentiates it from her other diamond bandeau tiaras) would be the only sure thing because it's the one the Duchess of Sussex choose for her wedding day. I think it was the perfect choice for her and I loved seeing it pulled from the vault after decades of not knowing if it even still existed.
The emerald tiara would have to be Margaret Greville's Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara because it's the only emerald one QEII owned except the version of the Vladimir with the Cambridge Emeralds and she wasn't going to loan out that because she still regularly wore it. It makes sense because Princess Eugenie wore it later that year so it was probably in the pool of tiaras available to be loaned out to brides.
One of them being aquamarine is throwing me. There are a few aquamarine tiaras in the family but they either didn't belong to QEII or were already on long term loan to someone else. The only one I can think of being offered is the Five Aquamarine Tiara (also called the Aquamarine Ribbon Tiara, the Canadian Aquamarine Tiara, or the Small Aquamarine Tiara) which is presumably still on loan to the Countess of Wessex. She's only worn it a handful of times and she already has a different aquamarine tiara that she seems to prefer so I can see her returning this one to the vault. The last time I can find her wearing it was in 2014 so that's plenty of time for things to change behind the scenes. Of course with the BRF it's very possible that there's another aquamarine tiara in the vaults that we know nothing about.
The Strathmore Rose Tiara was probably in the mix. It's rumored that the metal has deteriorated and that's why it hasn't been worn in so long but it was featured in The Queen's Diamonds in 2012 and even if it was in bad shape that could be fixed. I know everyone loves this tiara and it's always brought up as a possibility for British royal brides but it's not a favorite of mine. I don't know, it's a little too button-y or the flowers are little too simplistic. I think I would need to see it worn with modern day hairstyles to decide if I like it because most of the pictures of it being worn are across the forehead 1920s style.
For the fifth tiara I would actually go with Queen Mary's Lozenge Tiara without the pearls like Princess Margaret wore it over the Teck Crescent Tiara. In The Queen's Diamonds, Hugh Roberts writes that the Teck Crescent was loaned to the then Duchess of Cornwall but she never wore it. I suppose that it could have been put back in the vault between 2012 when the book was published and the wedding in 2018 because Camilla realized she was never going to wear it. The Lozenge Tiara wasn't loaned out to anyone and is much more wearable due to the large circumference of the Teck Crescent. The Lozenge hasn't been seen in forever and a day but neither had the one she ended up choosing. I had it on my list of tiara predictions before the wedding because it has a geometric design which I think suits her style and I really want to see someone wear it.
As I'm looking at these I'm hit by how deep the BRF vaults are. Before 2018 when they were debuted at weddings, Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau Tiara hadn't been worn for nearly seven decades and the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik hadn't been worn since Margaret Greville passed away seven and a half decades before. The Strathmore Rose still hasn't been worn in nearly nine decades and the Lozenge hasn't been worn in six decades. Also I'm not convinced that the aquamarine tiara offered was the Five Aquamarine Tiara so there could be another in the vault that's never been worn publicly. They've got a great collection of tiaras, I just wish they would actually use them.
