Are you interested in talking about royal jewelry? I’m always up for that, honestly. Princess Beatrice got married last Friday in what will go down as a historical curiosity, the quarantine/socially distanced royal wedding. I still believe that Beatrice would have wanted a huge, showy wedding, but she got what she got. It was all designed to flatter the Queen and to show that Prince Andrew’s daughters were still being protected by the Queen. But Beatrice’s wedding did have one big difference: the ring. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi gave Beatrice a simply designed engagement ring with maybe a 3-carat circular stone with two small side-stones. Her ring looked like it was a platinum setting. But… most princesses get a piece of Welsh (yellow) gold for their wedding bands. So the metals would have clashed. Good thing Edo got a simple diamond-and-platinum band then:
Despite its unusual circumstances, Princess Beatrice’s intimate royal wedding was actually quite traditional. Surrounded by close family, she walked down the aisle in her grandmother’s vintage white dress, wearing a stunning diamond tiara with a rich royal pedigree. Like many royal brides before her, Beatrice’s bouquet contained a sprig of myrtle, a symbol hope and love, and while current government guidelines related to the pandemic did not allow for singing during the ceremony, the service was fairly conventional featuring both religious prayers and classic poetry from William Shakespeare and e.e. cummings. But when it came to her wedding ring, Princess Beatrice decidedly broke away from precedent.
Traditionally, royal wedding rings are crafted from Welsh gold and in recent years, Princess Eugenie, Meghan Markle, and Kate Middleton have all received a Welsh gold band as they said “I do.” But Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi presented his bride Princess Beatrice with a stunning platinum and diamond design, which perfectly complements her engagement ring. (For his part, Mozzi’s ring is a vintage gold band designed by Josh Collins.)
British jeweler Shaun Leane, who designed Beatrice’s band, described the ring as a “fusion of Victorian and Art Deco designs.”
A press release from Leane also explains that the piece “is filled with personal and sentimental signifiers for the couple and unique to them.”
“I am thrilled for the happy couple, it warms my heart to see two wonderful people unite in love as much as Edoardo and Beatrice do,” he said in a statement. “I feel very honoured to have been a part of their journey and to have been involved in the very special moments of designing and creating the engagement ring and wedding ring. I wish them a lifetime of love and happiness together.”
Leane previously collaborated with Mozzi on Beatrice’s engagement ring. “Yes, it was Edoardo and I collaborating in the design,” Leane told T&C in September of last year. “I believe bespoke should be a fusion of the designer and the emotions, memories and details of the collector.”
It always amuses me when grooms/fiances get credit for “co-designing” a ring which, at the end of the day, looks pretty basic and like something you could find in any nice jewelry store. That’s what I think about Beatrice’s band and engagement ring – they’re perfectly nice, perfectly pretty, but they look like pieces you could easily buy online at Blue Nile. As for Beatrice not wearing Welsh gold… I think it’s fine! Not everyone has to wear Welsh gold, and I think it’s traditional (right?) for the man to organize the wedding bands. That means it’s more likely that a prince (not the princess) would get the Welsh gold for the wedding bands.
Engagement and wedding ring of Princess Beatrice @yorkiebea @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/yLui9nnKnW
— Princess Beatrice ♔ (@HRHBeaOfYork) July 21, 2020
Photos courtesy of social media, Backgrid, Princess Eugenie’s IG.
Off the rack for sure. My sister’s rings are an exact match, except she has TWO bands surrounding her engagement ring: top and bottom.
Really? I thought it was a beautiful ring, so your sister is a very lucky lady!
EDIT: Beatrice has lovely hands..
I love my sister’s set. I’m just saying it’s not a “specially designed for” ring, as this Jeweller is trying to grab credit for.
Beatrice does have VERY pretty hands.
I came to say the same thing! Her hands are truly lovely.
It may be bespoke, but it looks like hundreds of other off-the-rack ring sets.
Beatrice’s engagement ring was absolutely beautiful and I’m glad she has a wedding band to compliment it. It’s interesting to see proof that having to wear the Welsh gold is not set in stone as some would allege and something tells me no-one is going to be raking her over the coals for “bReAkiNg tRaDiTiOn!” and “tAmPeRiNg wiTh hiStOrY!”
Shaun Leane is a wonderful jeweler. His own work balances edgy with pretty and the work he did for Alexander McQueen’s couture shows was just all kinds of weird, Gothic and amazing!
It’s not so much that is has to be Welsh gold, it’s just that the royal family owned this big nugget of Welsh gold from which the wedding bands have been made all these years. I think it started with QEII, but I’m not certain. I recall reading that Kate’s band was made from that nugget, but I didn’t realize there’d still be enough for Meghan & Eugenie.
Although it’s hard to say if it’s all from the same original nugget these days, Queenie apparently got another gift of a Welsh gold nugget from the same mine on her 60th birthday.
I think it goes back to the Victoria era. Several,of not all, of Victoria’s children married with welsh gold as did George V and his children. I think they’re on the second nugget now. The spring of Myrtle goes back there too.
Furthermore, I love that we live in a world in which e.e. cummings is considered traditional for a church wedding. Lol. The press will literally let anyone besides Meghan get away with any little thing and call it “traditional.”
Meghan’s wedding band was made of Welsh gold, maybe not from the same original nugget.
Prince william didn’t even have one made for him when he married kate.
And is Edo also wearing a ring? I always find it suspect when only the hubby declines to wear a wedding band.
Yes, he looks to be wearing a thin gold band.
I don’t know about Edo but a lot of the BRF males don’t wear a wedding ring. Including Philip, Charles, William, Andrew and Edward. Mike Tindall (Zara’s husband) wears one – or at least wore one at his wedding. Harry wears one too as does Peter. What most of the others wear are signet rings (rings that go on the pinky finger). Charles is the most frequent wearer but if you google, you can find Philip, Andrew and Edward wearing them.
The ones who don’t wear anything are William and Tim (Anne’s current husband). Don’t know about Tim but William doesn’t wear anything because he doesn’t like jewellery – said by the palace.
How funny! The ones who don’t wear them other ones who cheat 🤭🤭
Charles does wear a wedding ring, but not on his ring finger. I think its next to his signet ring.
@Talie: Like I said Mike wears a ring yet he still cheated but I get what you were saying
Becks1 is right. Aristocracy sometimes wear a wedding band on their little finger underneath their signet ring – no idea why but this is what Prince Charles does.
Picture here (second photo down) of Charles’ signet and wedding rings:
https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/gallery/2020043089003/reason-why-prince-william-doesnt-wear-wedding-ring/2/
“Tim (Anne’s current husband).”
Not to change the subject but does anyone but me find Commander Tim very attractive for an older gentleman?
I have weird taste in men so I will not be offended if I am told to put the crack pipe down.
I really like Beatrice’s ring. Edo appears to have excellent taste.
BayTampaBay, I think Tim Lawrence is very attractive, too.
@ aytampabay I find him attractive as well. And deserves his uniform and medals as well.
And neither Mike nor Harry wear a welsh gold one so it’s not really traditional except for the women. The last royal male I can think of who wore a welsh gold ring on his ring finger was probably George V. Maybe George VI.
He wears a gold band.
William is the only one who does not have a wedding band, Didn’t even have one made for the ceremony. All the rest do. Excuse was he couldn’t have one because of his helicopter job. Sure, Jan, that part-time temp jobs means you cannot wear a wedding band for the rest of your life.
Philip, Charles, Andrew, Edward’s are made of Welsh gold, but perhaps not from the same original nugget. As Becks1 wrote, traditionally it is on their pinky finger.
I’d wear that set in a heartbeat. It’s beautiful. No need for Welsh gold bands.
I agree, it’s a stunning ring!
Me too. Beautiful
The rings are beautiful and elegant
So what if she ever wants to just wear her wedding and not the engagement ring? It’s going to have that weird curved shape.
My wedding band is very similar and I typically don’t wear my engagement ring. I thought it would weird too but it really looks fine – I actually prefer it worn alone.
Ideally, she could get a separate wedding band if she doesn’t always want to wear the set. I’ve know of some people who have done that, not that expensive but perfect for certain occasions.
I can’t tell if the stones on the wedding band go all the way around, but if they do she can just twist it around so the curve is on the underside of her finger. That’s what I do with my wedding and anniversary bands, which both have the curve so that they sit flush with my engagement ring.
I’m like Meghan – I prefer yellow gold and both my wedding band and engagement setting are yellow gold. I think it looks distracting to wear mixed metals as the Queen does. Go all in with one metal or the other, I say. Beatrice’s rings work very well together and look lovely!
I’m not superstitious but given the history of most of the recent royal marriages, I wouldn’t want a ring from that quarry either.
My ex husband was an artist. I don’t want to put the word artist in quotes because I respect artists and makers, but my ex… he was an “artist”.
Anyways, he designed the engagement ring. My taste in jewelry is simple, small pieces and I prefer yellow and rose gold to white or platinum; we had discussed the idea of an engagement ring so he was definitely aware of my preferences.
All this to say; when he proposed and I saw the ring, it was a solid 5 second beat before I even knew what I was looking at. He designed a god awful monstrosity of a ring, it was a clunky and awkward design that made zero sense, it was over-designed to the point where it didn’t look like an engagement ring but rather something my grandma might have purchased for her costume jewelry drawer. It would not have been out of place in a line of cruise wear jewelry for senior citizens of a certain era. My friends couldn’t keep the look of “oh f*ck what is THAT?” off their faces whenever they saw it. It was so ugly and tacky that it impacted my ability to wear other jewelry with it because literally nothing matched this thing. And the band was so thick it annoyed me constantly. This ring was UGLY.
This story has no point, but I wanted to share. Ladies, if your partner knows what you like and STILL goes out of his way to design you an ugly ring that is the opposite of what you like and mostly just an exercise for him to express himself artistically, RUN. He isn’t listening to you, he is putting himself first even though you’re the one who has to wear the result of his artistic vision, and anyone deserves better than to spend their life wearing a physical representation of someone else’s narcissism on their ring finger. I wish I could post a picture, because ugly doesn’t do this thing justice.
Edo appears to have “designed” a boring ring, and all I can think is “good for him! Lucky her!” LOL!
Too funny. Since he’s your ex, did you sell that monstrosity ASAP? Have it melted down & designed into something else?
Oh man, that’s the worst part! He convinced my Dad to let him use the diamonds from my mom’s engagement and anniversary rings, so I couldn’t just sell it. Also, I don’t think anyone would buy this; when I say I couldn’t find a response for 5 seconds while I figured out what I was looking at, I am not exaggerating at all.
So, I have it currently put away in my jewelry box. I’d like to get it made into something else or even just put back into my mom’s rings, but for now it’s just not something I can justify spending a bunch of money on. I have a few designs in mind though; thinking of having them made into a small pendant rather than a ring, something dainty and made to match a few other pieces I still have from her. (My mom passed away when I was 24, many years ago now, so this stuff has a lot of sentimental value to me and made it even more upsetting that my ex used her things in such ugly ways, LOL)
I love big gaudy over-designed rings. It takes all types!
@BTB, it’s because you use a crack pipe:)
I wish I could see a picture of the monstrosity ring! The only “hint” I ever put out there to my then-boyfriend was that I preferred the square princess cut of a diamond over round. And that I liked white gold. So when he proposed, it was indeed a princess cut diamond (with small square cut diamonds on the band) set in white gold. I was very happy because he obviously wanted to give me what I liked rather than just pick something out that he thought I should have.
To this day, I struggle to describe it to people?
So, picture a round diamond. Now, surround that by a small circle of diamond chips. So far so good, yes?
THEN, put that diamond surrounded by small diamonds into a round little “dish”, like a tiny cat dish with straight sides that come up as high as the center diamond.
THEN, add two rectangular blue sapphires, one one either side. THEN, create an incredibly thick white gold band that for some reason includes some kind of “design element” where it looks like the diamond “dish” and sapphires are being held up by scaffolding. And THEN imagine that the band is so thick it has to be FLATTENED on the bottom so your hand can rest “comfortably” on a flat surface. So, rounded on the sides and then bonk… flat on the bottom curve.
And THEN, imagine you had always talked about how the little circlet of pearls in Anne of Green Gables sounded like your perfect engagement ring. Or how you thought that a simple ring with one small stone of anything other than a diamond would be nice too.
I’m so happy your husband chose a ring for YOU, and not for him. Obviously we can’t see the future, but it seems like a good sign in a partner that they care about and respect your preferences when it comes to what you are wearing on your own body.
Oh wow, that ring sounds like a DOOZY and all over the place. The dish part…yikes! I’m sorry you didn’t get the ring you deserved.
For a good laugh though, check out Princess Marie of Denmark’s ring. It is HIDEOUS. Prince Joachim’s first wife Alexandra’s ring wasn’t a masterpiece either, but it was at least better than Marie’s.
And now I am having way too much fun googling “hideous engagement rings”. Megan2, for a second I thought I saw yours (it involved sapphires and a crazy shape)!
Meghan, did he at least pay your dad for the diamonds? Just taking them seems like an easy/sleazy way of not having to put out the cash. Pretend to be sentimental and save yourself a few thou in the process?
So crazy, but I had a similar situation in my family. My sister’s (now ex) husband is an architect who went out of his way to design an absolutely bizarre, ugly ring that didn’t look like an engagement ring & was also massively too large for her very small hand. He’s a nice guy, but that was just one sign that the marriage wasn’t going to work out.
My husband took a fragile antique family ring & had it remade in platinum using the original stones. It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen & I always get compliments on it. It’s funny what jewelry can reveal about people in some cases.
A friend had designed a weird engagement ring for his then fiancée from some jeweler in Denmark ( they live in Australia). As an engagement ring, it didn’t make sense to me. I think she liked it, but didn’t love it. They are no longer married and he went the more traditional route for his second wife’s ring. My husband picked my stone ( princess cut), but had me work with the jeweler on the setting. He showed me the hunk of platinum the ring would be made from, and we came up with a variation of a Celtic knot, btw had no idea platinum was heavier than gold. Anyway, we’re still married so maybe that was a good compromise,lol .
My husband really listened to me when he’d ask what I would want. I have an emerald center stone set in a gold bezel, with two small bezel diamonds on the sides while the rest of my ring is white gold. I have two bands like Beatrice’s for my set as well. (the diamonds are from my Mom’s wedding ring) I didn’t want a diamond that sticks up since we have winter here 6-8 months a year and those rings get caught on gloves! I’ve had people insult it because my husband didn’t get me a diamond, but I always wanted something coloured, multi -stoned and low profile and he really took that to heart. (He went with emerald for my green eyes)
EEK, a good friend has one of “those” engagement rings. It sounded REALLY good in theory, but in execution… just no. Way too clunky, the metalwork overwhelms the stone to the point where it’s almost invisible. When she wears it, she wears it on her right hand, because it doesn’t even fit next to her simple wedding band.
Do NOT like the brownish-sepia tone of these wedding shots. Whoever the photographer was didn’t know how to do outside photography and adjust for sunlight and did no post-Photoshop to improve the color or shadows. God-awful.
is it weird to anyone else that she does’t look at her groom in any of the photos? and the ONE that she is looking at him, she seems to be looking at his mouth, not into his eyes?
I like the rings. Very pretty, nice stones. The band fits around the engagement ring.Its not a particularly unique design but it’s sunning enough. I kinda hate how so many people were using Bea’s wedding to drag Meghan (again), like the big wedding was something “ she” demanded. Why the revisionism and why not let Bea have her day to herself. Yeah, her dad is a POS, but why bring up another wedding from 2 years ago, especially when her own sister had a big celebrity filled wedding?
The same press that trashes Meghan daily gives the white Royals a pass every single time.
Beatrice could have had a white Welsh gold band to match the platinum in her engagement ring if she’d wanted one. She didn’t want one.
The colour of the gold is determined by the the secondary metals. White gold has more nickel and zinc. Yellow gold contains more copper. Pure gold is too soft to wear day-to-day, so secondary metal is always added.
Meghan would have been dragged for refusing Welsh gold. Beatrice is celebrated.
My pet peeve re: wedding rings — I really dislike when they “curve” the wedding band to accommodate the engagement ring. It should be the wedding ring that is the most important thing, and if anything, the engagement ring should “give way” to the wedding ring (or be worn on a different finger).
BuTtHePrOtOcOl!
Since I had never gotten an engagement ring (we were broke & I’m practical), when we could afford it, I asked my ex to redo my grandmother’s engagement ring into a nice ring for me for Christmas. I opened it in front of my family & it was awful. Mismatched stones stuck together with no thought at all. I was embarrassed & never wore it! It’s been tucked away forever,I guess I should try to find a jeweler who can do something with it.
@Megan2, I was practically on the floor in fits of laughter while reading your description of your engagement ring. I can just imagine your face when first seeing it.
You are a better person than me. I couldn’t have worn it for more than a day.
I think it’s a very pretty engagement ring.
Compare to hideous tacky Big Blue…