Fit for Royalty

In honor of Queen Elizabeth II's 60th wedding anniversary, BBC News has released 60 facts about the royal couple's wedding, from the number of attendees down to the arrangement of the flowers on their wedding day.

Our ten favorite facts:

1. While most women are lucky to get Grandma's hand-me-down diamond, Elizabeth's platinum engagement ring was crafted using diamonds from a tiara belonging to Prince Philip's mother.
   
2. Two-thousand guests were invited to their wedding on November 20, 1947. That's a lot of thank you notes!
   
3. Some of the better-known guests included the King and Queen of Denmark, the King and Queen of Yugoslavia, the Kings of Norway and Romania, and the Shah of Iran.
   
4. The bridesmaids' bouquets were composed of white orchids, lilies of the valley, gardenias, white bouvardia, white roses, and white nerine.
   
5. There were 91 singers at the wedding, made up from the Abbey Choir, the Choir of HM Chapels Royal and additional tenors and basses. They sat in the organ loft as the choir stalls were occupied by various dignitaries.
   
6. Elizabeth's wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold from the Clogau St. David's mine, near Dolgellau.
   
7. The Royal couple received over 2,500 wedding presents, including a piece of crocheted, cotton lace made from yarn personally spun by Mahatma Gandhi. The central motif reads "Jai Hind" (Victory for India).
   
8. The official wedding cake measured nine feet high in four tiers, with painted panels featuring both families's coats of arms, and included the monograms of bride and groom, sugar-iced figures to depict their favourite activities, and regimental and naval badges. The cake was cut using the Duke's Mountbatten sword, which was a wedding present from the King.
   
9. Although he was the Queen's husband, the Duke of Edinburgh was not crowned or anointed at the Coronation ceremony in 1953. He was the first subject to pay Homage to Her Majesty, and kiss the newly crowned Queen by stating "I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, do become your liege man of life and limb, and of earthly worship; and faith and truth I will bear unto you, to live and die, against all manner of folks. So help me God."
   
10. With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, the Queen became the first reigning Sovereign to give birth to a child since Queen Victoria, whose youngest child, Princess Beatrice, was born in 1857.