Kate's Royal Wedding Dress to go on display at Buckingham Palace

The beautiful wedding dress worn by Kate Middleton now the Duchess of Cambridge at the Royal Wedding on 29th April 2011 is to go on display at Buckingham Palace this summer from 23rd July to 3rd October 2011.

The Royal bride's veil, tiara, diamond earrings and shoes will also go on display along with the Royal Wedding cake.

The wedding dress designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen is made from ivory and white satin-gazar and the train measures 2.7 metres. Kate worked closely with Sarah Burton on the design.

The veil is made of layers of soft ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers and was held in place by the Cartier 'Halo' tiara which was lent to Kate by the Queen. The tiara had been given to Queen Elizabeth by her mother on her eighteenth birthday when she was still a princess. The shoes were also hand-made by the design team at Alexander McQueen.

The Royal Wedding Cake

Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton have chosen Leicestershire-based cake designer, Fiona Cairns to create their wedding cake. The wedding cake will be a multi-tiered traditional fruit cake. The cake, which will be decorated with cream and white icing, will have a strong British floral theme using elements of the Joseph Lambeth technique. 

Ms. Cairns was chosen for her creative style and beautifully crafted handmade cakes using traditional British ingredients. Prince William and Miss Middleton were keen to choose a British cake designer and they had seen and tasted some of Ms. Cairns’ cakes in the past.

Ms. Cairns’ business, which started 25 years ago at her kitchen table, is now based at a state of the art bakery in Leicestershire, in the heart of the English countryside. Ms. Cairns was first contacted by St James’s Palace in early February 2011. Like any bride, Miss Middleton did her own research into the cake’s design and met Ms. Cairns to give her specific guidance on what she would like the cake to look like.

The Lambeth technique is derived from a style of decorating that was popular in England where chefs and decorators would use a lot of intricate piping to create 3-D scrollwork, leaves, flowers, and other decoration. The method is still popular today and is frequently used by wedding cake designers and decorators to create ornate wedding cakes.