Queen Elizabeth II Picked Out Prince William's Wedding Outfit

The Daily Mail has gotten an extended insider scoop on the royals, thanks to Mail reporter Robert Hardman's research for his book "Our Queen."

While there will surely be many juicy anecdotes from the book, our favorite so far is a tidbit from Prince William talking candidly about his grandmother -- and her taste in clothes.

"I wanted to decide what to wear for the wedding," Prince William said in the excerpt. But the Queen would have none of it.

"I was given a categorical: 'No, you’ll wear this!'"

The "this" was the bright red military uniform. Writes Hardman, "Having just appointed Prince William to the position of Colonel of the Irish Guards, his most senior military appointment — and one of her Guards regiments to boot — the Queen was quite clear that her grandson should be getting married in his Irish Guards uniform."

Apparently the prince is an officer in all three Services of the British military as well as a Royal Air Force member -- we didn't realize there were so many uniform options!

What we did know, however, is that the Queen has plenty of opinions about such things. Although Kate picked out her own dress, Queen Elizabeth II was not a fan of the dress's exhibition at Buckingham Palace.

"Horrid, isn't it? Horrid and dreadful!" the Queen supposedly commented to her new granddaughter, who took in the Royal Wedding exhibit with the Queen in July.

Read more of the exclusive excerpt from "Our Queen" at DailyMail.co.uk.

Comments

[unique]

09:37 PM on 11/18/2011

Queen Elizabeth II, did a wonderful job as usual.
I love the Queen, especialy that she stayed in
England with her people during WW2.

[agness nutter]

02:04 PM on 09/26/2011

Ah, the Daily Mail. Like the t-shirt says, "It's like spending 20 minutes in a mental hospital." They always have a "highly placed insider" as a source. It's a rather interesting approach to journalism.

[GracieGiraffe]

04:37 PM on 09/26/2011

I like the fact that the arrows are both Green and Up OR Red and Down, in case you can't work out which to choose by one form of symbolism.

[lenuk]

06:19 PM on 09/26/2011

The Daily Mail. The voice of middle-England (and possibly middle-Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.).

Also a refuge for right-of-centre Americans.

[ae12wrangell]

10:46 AM on 09/26/2011

According to Today, Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II DID pick out everything William was to wear. Except underwear, I hope.

[tyrdofwaitin]

10:08 PM on 09/26/2011

Kate picked those: Fruit of the Lump, I believe.

[GracieGiraffe]

10:42 AM on 09/26/2011

I would not necessarily believe all of this inside information. I believe all princes wear their most senior military uniform to their weddings. Who knows if William was told he has to follow this tradition.

[mcc1cam]

11:50 AM on 09/26/2011

You're correct in saying the most senior military uniform is worn at such an occasion (I'm sure a uniform was already picked for the wedding, and then he was made Colonel of the Irish Guards, so I'm sure he was told to make the change). As far as QEII referring to Kate's dress as 'horrid!,' if she said anything, I'm sure she was referring to the fact that it was on exhibition (she was over ruled by her cabinet on that). It is well-known that the Duchess did not want the exhibition either.

[GracieGiraffe]

04:40 PM on 09/26/2011

I doubt a grandmother-in-law keen on having a marriage work out both for the sake of its participants as well as the monarchy, would refer to the dress itself as "horrid" and "dreadful" ;)

So I am sure you are right.

[AspenAlways]

08:41 PM on 09/26/2011

You are so "sure" of everything you assume. I can't help but wonder why you are so "sure" of things you know less than nothing about.