Say "I Do" to This Quiz on British Royal Weddings

Bakers like to have months to decorate a royal wedding cake, and the rum and brandy in fruitcake create a natural preservative. That’s why fruitcake’s freshness can be measured in years rather than days. Traditionally, fruitcake was also seen as a symbol of wealth because its ingredients — dried fruit, alcohol, and spices — were hard to come by in times past.

Myrtle represents innocence, fertility, and love. The first royal bride to use a sprig of myrtle in a wedding bouquet was Queen Victoria, and her daughter, also named Victoria, continued the tradition. The plant grew around the queen’s summer home on the Isle of Wight and was originally a gift from the grandmother of Prince Albert. Descendants of the original plant still grow around the home today.

Most British royal weddings over the last few centuries have taken place at one of these four famous sites: St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Westminster Abbey, St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, or the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace. Though Balmoral Castle has been the site of marriage proposals and wedding anniversary celebrations, it is not a traditional royal wedding venue.

Removing the word “obey” from Princess Diana’s wedding vows was the idea of both Diana and her husband, Prince Charles. While this change was intentional, the couple made some other departures from tradition by mistake. Diana accidentally called her new husband by the wrong name, saying “Philip Charles Arthur George” (instead of “Charles Philip”). Charles tripped up his vows as well, saying “thy goods” instead of “my worldly goods.”

Westminster Abbey played host to Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten's wedding on November 20, 1947. While it was certainly one of the most high-profile British royal weddings of the past century, it was far from the abbey’s first. The first king to be married within its walls was Henry I in 1100, and it was the site of 15 other royal weddings over the next 900 years.

Look at photos of a royal wedding today, and you’ll see the groom slickly dressed in military regalia. The tradition started in 1840, when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, who wore a field marshal’s scarlet and white uniform. At least one onlooker, Florence Nightingale, wasn’t impressed, saying Albert’s clothes were “no doubt borrowed to be married in,” as Albert never served in active duty.

Elizabeth Windsor and Philip Mountbatten married on November 20, 1947. Though you wouldn’t know by looking at it, Elizabeth had to purchase her dress using war ration coupons, a process that was still ongoing two years after World War II. Many of Britain’s brides-to-be sent their rations to the princess to help out, but Elizabeth returned them — it was illegal to trade coupons, even for the future queen.

On May 6, 1960, Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones began a now-common (and lucrative) royal wedding tradition: They televised the entire event. The nuptials were the biggest royal TV event since Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation (also the first to be televised) eight years earlier. But none have eclipsed the televised wedding of Charles and Diana, which drew 28 million viewers in the U.K. alone.

Parties and horse-drawn carriages aren't uncommon at wedding celebrations, but a wedding band of Welsh gold is a rarity reserved for royals. Worth up to 30 times more than traditional gold, Welsh gold is so valuable because there’s no gold mining in Wales anymore. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (the Queen Mother) was the first to use Welsh gold in a wedding band when she married future King George VI in 1923.

When 20-year-old Queen Victoria wed Prince Albert in February 1840, she changed the future of bridal fashion. At the time, most wedding gowns were colorful and meant to be worn more than once. Victoria chose a white gown not because it symbolized purity, but because it was the best color to showcase the Honiton lace used in her design. The queen even ordered that no one else at her wedding wear white, which is now common courtesy.