For the royal family, the pressure of one's wedding day is at an all time high, because just about all of Great Britain is watching (and America, too. See: Meghan Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry for proof). But as it turns out, Diana, Princess of Wales, wasn’t the only person at Buckingham Palace to run into a bit of trouble before walking down the aisle. In fact, Harper’s Bazaar reports that Queen Elizabeth II’s tiara actually had to be repaired the morning of her wedding. Now that’s something we didn’t see on Netflix’s The Crown.
Originally, the Fringe Tiara (which doubles as a necklace!) was made for Queen Mary (Queen Elizabeth II's grandmother) in 1919. Nearly 30 years later, Elizabeth II was set to wear the diamond-encrusted crown to marry Prince Philip. But as she was getting her hair done that morning wedding, it broke. “The Fringe Tiara was given to Queen Elizabeth on her wedding day, and the hairdresser broke it,” the royals’ jeweler, House of Garrard, (the oldest jeweler in the world) tells Marie Claire. “On that day, they had it police escorted to the House of Garrad workshops. We fixed the tiara that morning and had it sent back to Queen Elizabeth, and then she got married in it. You don’t expect the royals to have these sorts of mix ups but they do!” Three words: Can. You. Imagine?
The Fringe Tiara isn't the only royal accessory with historic origins, either. As it turns out, the stones in the three-carat diamond engagement ring Prince Philip proposed to Elizabeth with originally belonged to his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who — wait for it — was gifted it on her own wedding day by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia, the last rulers of the Russian Empire. Seriously. And given the fact that Cleave and Company, the jeweler responsible for Meghan Markle's engagement ring, has stated it won't be producing any replicas, we have a feeling hers will, in 100 years, become just as iconic as these other family heirlooms.
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