The occasion also marked the first public appearance with the royal family for several months by the groom’s cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. The pair, who are the daughters of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, have avoided the spotlight in light of the allegations against their father. Beatrice, accompanied by husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, wore a green floral dress. Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank, who are expecting their third child, both wore navy.
With a bouquet of sweet peas, myrtle and lily of the valley in hand, bride Harriet Sperling was radiant as she walked down the aisle with her brother, Nicholas, in a tribute to their late father. She wore a white sheath gown with long sleeves and a high lace collar, custom-made by designer Emilia Wickstead. Constructed using three different elements, a square-neck column underdress, delicate lace over-jacket, and 10-foot train, the gown took hundreds of hours of work to complete. Atop her head was a pearl and diamond tiara on loan from Pragnell, the British jeweler that also made her engagement ring.
“Diamonds highlight a festoon of glittering laurel leaves and articulated floral motifs, bearing great resemblance to the tiara owned by The Princess Royal, in the official photograph celebrating her fiftieth birthday in 2000. Favoured as a bridal headpiece and owned by the Pragnell family, this delicate tiara has been worn by generations of Pragnell family members and was present at the Coronation of both King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II,” a statement from the jeweler reads.
Harriet’s daughter Georgina and Peter’s daughters, Savannah and Isla Phillips, served as bridesmaids, all in Emilia Wickstead gowns.
Following the service, the guests headed to a reception at Gatscombe Park, a site with its own wedding connection: Queen Elizabeth II purchased the estate in 1976 as a wedding present for Anne after she married her first husband, Mark Phillips, and raised Peter and and his sister Zara on its grounds.
