The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Gorgeous Royal Wedding Earrings

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We talk a whole lot about royal wedding tiaras here at The Court Jeweller, but today we’re devoting some time to one of the unsung heroes of the royal wedding ensemble: the wedding earrings!

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When Maxima Zorreguieta Cerruti married the Prince of Orange in Amsterdam in February 2002, she wore classic earrings with a diamond drop and pendant. The earrings were a quieter counterpart to the star-spangled sparkler, the Dutch Star Tiara, that she chose to secure her bridal veil!

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Princess Martha Louise of Norway coordinated her wedding earrings and her tiara carefully for her nuptials in Trondheim in May 2002. With the small setting of (the replica of) Queen Maud’s Pearl Tiara, she wore a pair of delicate diamond earrings with round pearl drops.

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For her wedding to Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in Copenhagen in May 2004, Mary Donaldson let her earrings take center stage. As her diamond wedding tiara faded into the background of the heirloom Connaught veil, the diamond and pearl drop statement earrings she chose became one of the most eye-catching parts of her entire bridal ensemble.

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Even before she became Queen of Spain, Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano preferred streamlined, modern jewels. For her wedding to the Prince of Asturias in May 2004, Letizia wore a gorgeous pair of classic diamond earrings with the Prussian Tiara. The earrings have remained a staple of her jewelry wardrobe to this day.

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The Middleton family’s coat of arms features oak leaves and acorns, and their daughter, Catherine, echoed those motifs in the earrings she wore when she married the Duke of Cambridge in London in April 2011. The stud portion of the earrings features an oak leaf design that also neatly echoes the scrolls of her wedding diadem, the Cartier Halo Tiara. The earrings also include a teeny acorn drop.

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Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg has lent one of her own wedding presents — the diamond earrings she received from her parents — to two of her daughters-in-law for their royal weddings. Countess Stephanie de Lannoy wore the earrings with the Lannoy Tiara in October 2012 to marry Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume in Luxembourg, while Claire Lademacher donned them with the Diamond Vine Leaves Tiara in September 2013 for her wedding to Prince Felix in France. (Maria Teresa also wore them with the Congo Diamond Necklace Tiara when she married Grand Duke Henri in Luxembourg in February 1981!)

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One of the most spectacular royal wedding earring moments came in June 2013, when Princess Madeleine of Sweden delved into the depths of the family’s historic jewelry vaults and brought out the Vasa Earrings for her wedding. The eighteenth-century earrings originally belonged to Queen Louise Ulrika of Sweden, wife of King Adolf Frederik. They paired beautifully with the Modern Fringe Tiara, which was festooned with orange blossoms for the occasion.

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A more modern pair of earrings accompanied Elisabetta Rosboch von Wolkenstein down the aisle when she married Prince Amedeo of Belgium in Rome in July 2014. The geometric diamond and pearl drop earrings were the perfect accessory to go with Queen Elisabeth’s Art Deco Bandeau, which was loaned to the bride by the groom’s grandmother, Queen Paola.

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Most recently, we all marveled at the Cartier diamond earrings worn by Meghan Markle as she married the Duke of Sussex in Windor in May 2018. Minimalist enough to fit with the bride’s personal jewelry aesthetic, but blingy enough to please a royal jewelry lover, the earrings were a lovely addition to Meghan’s bridal ensemble. They were also a lovely counterpart to her heirloom wedding tiara, Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau!

These are only a few examples of the numerous glamorous earrings worn for royal weddings. Which royal wedding earrings are your favorites?

Royal Emerald Brides

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Royal brides often wear tiaras set with diamonds and pearls for their wedding day, but some of the more adventurous royal ladies have chosen tiaras set with colorful stones. Today, we’ve got a look at royal brides who wore emeralds in their wedding tiaras.

Princess Victoria Melita’s Diamond and Emerald Tiara

When Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha married her first cousin, Grand Duke Ernst of Hesse and by Rhine, in 1894, she wore a tiara set with large emeralds for the festivities. The sparkler was a gift from her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and was part of a suite that also included a pearl and emerald necklace and an emerald bracelet. The marriage was not a success, ending in divorce in 1901, but Victoria Melita kept her wedding emeralds even as she embarked on a second set of nuptials with another of her first cousins, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia. (Read more about the tiara here!)

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Queen Soraya’s Emerald Sunburst Tiara

For her 1951 wedding to the Shah of Iran, Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary wore an enormous Christian Dior gown and a Juliet cap encrusted with gems. For the reception that followed, she swapped out the cap for a modern parure of diamond and emerald jewels, including a tiara with a sunburst design. When she failed to provide the Shah with children, however, the marriage ended. Soraya left the country, but her emeralds stayed behind, where they were worn by other family members — including the Shah’s next wife, Farah. (More on the tiara over here!)

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Princess Sofia’s Palmette Tiara

To provide her new daughter-in-law, Sofia Hellqvist, with a suitable wedding tiara, Queen Silvia of Sweden had one of her diamond and emerald necklaces reworked in Thailand. The result was a diamond palmette tiara with emerald toppers. Sofia wore the tiara with emeralds to marry Prince Carl Philip in 2015, but in later appearances, she revealed that the tiara could also be worn with pearls, or with no topper stones at all. Thrillingly, it was also doubly convertible, able to be worn in a more open halo setting. (More on the tiara here!)

Photograph © Stefan from Royal Travel and Events. Do not reproduce.
The Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg Emerald Tiara

This grand diamond and emerald sparkler has been with the Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg for generations, and in June 2017, it came out of the vaults for a family wedding. Sophie of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg chose the tiara, which features distinctive emerald cabochon drops, for her wedding to Constantine Fugger von Babenhausen, in Wertheim. (More on the tiara here!)

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The Greville Emerald Kokoshnik

The most famous emerald wedding tiara in recent royal memory is undoubtedly the grand Greville Emerald Kokoshnik, worn by Princess Eugenie of York for her 2018 wedding to Jack Brooksbank. The tiara hadn’t seen the light of day for decades; it was bequeathed to the Queen Mum by Mrs. Greville in the 1940s, but it hadn’t been worn in public by a royal until Eugenie emerged in the tiara in October. (Learn more about it over here!)

Colorful wedding jewelry — yea or nay?