The Meaning Behind Princess Beatrice’s Bee Brooch Worn To The Royal Wedding
Princess Beatrice wore a brooch with a bee on it to the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. Sure, her name is Beatrice, so the “bee” brooch makes sense, but palace sources say that it’s just a happy accident that Bea was sporting a “bee” pin.
Town & Country says that the bee is featured on the coat of arms of the family of Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. On the Ferguson coat of arms, a bee is perched atop of a bouquet of thistle as symbols of the family and of Scotland. Fergie’s wedding dress had embroidered and beaded bees also, bringing an aspect of her family and Scotland into their royal wedding back in 1986.
It’s not a secret that Sarah Ferguson has had a complicated relationship with the royal family even before her divorce from Prince Andrew, so maybe Princess Beatrice wore the pin in quiet solidarity with her mother.
But Travel & Leisure claims that the bee on Princess Beatrice’s plum dress wasn’t the only Scottish symbol to appear in the bridal party. Princess Eugenie asked to have certain symbols embroidered onto her wedding dress as she wouldn’t be wearing a veil.
The meaning behind Princess Eugenie having thistles embroidered on her wedding dress and also worn by the groom and Princess Beatrice wearing a bee brooch is because they are both on Sarah Ferguson's family coat of arms #RoyalWedding #PrincessEugenie #PrincessBeatrice pic.twitter.com/ijT0OYLaD6
— Tracey K (@traceytracey_k) October 13, 2018
Princess Eugenie’s Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos dress with the cinched waist (which resembled Princess Aurora’s dress shape from Sleeping Beauty) and shawl collar had some very traditional embroidery on the train that paid homage to the Scottish and Irish ancestry, as well as their new home, Ivy Cottage.
“On the dress itself, Eugenie asked the designers to embroider a few important symbols including the Thistle for Scotland, The Shamrock for Ireland, The York Rose for England and The Ivy, which represents the couple’s current home.”
The princess was given a great deal of credit as she chose a dress which would highlight a surgical scar rather than hiding it.
“I had an operation when I was 12 on my back, and you’ll see on Friday [at the wedding], but it’s a lovely way to honor the people who looked after me and a way of standing up for young people who also go through this. I think you can change the way beauty is, and you can show people your scars and I think it’s really special to stand up for that.”
As previously reported by the Inquistr, Princess Eugenie opted out of wearing a veil as she chose instead to highlight the emerald tiara, the Greville Emerald Tiara, that she borrowed from her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
