Primrose Yellow for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton

For the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011, the Queen, as could be expected, wore something new. The Palace statement described the outfit in these words: "Her Majesty The Queen is wearing an Angela Kelly designed single crepe wool primrose dress with hand sown beading at the neck in the shape of sunrays. Matching double crepe wool tailored primrose coat.
An Angela Kelly designed matching crepe hat with hand made silk roses and matching apricot coloured leaves".

For this important occasion, Her Majesty opted for a cream Launer handbag and cream shoes with bows, instead of her trademark black patent leather accessories. The appropriately-named Lover's Knot brooch, an impressive piece acquired by Queen Mary from Garrard in 1932, completed the look:

 

 

The wedding party posing for official photos in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace:

 

A few months after the Royal Wedding, the Queen recycled this outfit while on tour in Australia, wearing it on 23 October 2011 to attend a service at St John the Baptist Church, the oldest church in Canberra. It was a warm day and we saw just the dress being worn, without the coat, accessorised with a diamond brooch in the shape of a rose flower:

 

 

Below you can just see the beading detail around the collar of the dress:

 

 

After church, the Queen was introduced to horse trainer Bart Cummings at a lunch at the Governor General's residence in Canberra:

This is a rather grand outfit, suitable for special occasions, and it got another balcony appearance a year later, when the Queen wore it again for Trooping the Colour on 16 June 2012, with the Guards' badge usually worn on this occasion:

We saw once again the dress worn by itself on 25 December 2013, when the Queen chose to wear it for the Christmas broadcast, accessorising with the Flower Basket brooch. I thought at the time the Christmas tree in the background, trimmed with blue and gold baubles, provided the perfect backdrop for this dress:

 

 

On 3 June 2014, the outfit came out again for the second garden party of the season at Buckingham Palace. This time it was accessorised with the yellow gold Frosted Sunflower brooch and an umbrella with matching yellow trimming, against the late spring showers: