On this day ~ 16th May 1770
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Marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette On the morning of the 16th May, the young Archduchess Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles.
She entered through the Palace gates around 10 am, and was shown to the Queen's State apartments, where she was to get ready for the official wedding in the Royal Chapel.
Marie Antoinette’s wedding gown was constructed out of cloth of silver, and was also covered in diamonds, which had been a gift from her mother, Maria Theresa of Austria.The dress also featured large panniers, which could be described as hip pads today.
The panniers added a significant amount of horizontal width to Marie Antoinette’s silhouette from the waist down.
But it was the bodice of her dress that created a substantial size issue....
Since Marie Antoinette’s gown was constructed before her arrival in France, it had been made based off of estimates of her measurements.When she tried on the dress for the first time on the day of her wedding, it was clear that it was way too small.
The back could not be fully closed and revealed a bit of her corsetry and chemise.
There was no solution or extra material to fix the dress, so Marie Antoinette essentially walked down the aisle in a gown that couldn’t be completely closed up.
At 1 pm Marie Antoinette entered the King’s Cabinet.The Dauphin, dressed in the gold and diamond-covered habit of the Order of the Holy Spirit, took her hand.
The young couple crossed the crowded State Apartments, followed by the King and the princes of the blood.
Once in the chapel, they knelt before the altar, from where the Archbishop of Reims took over the ceremony.
The Dauphin slipped the ring onto his wife’s delicate finger.
After the ceremony the signing of the registers took place.
In the early afternoon the Dauphine received her wedding gift in her apartment, a splendid carved cabinet containing an abundance of jewellery and precious objects.The young couple then attended the reception in The Hall of Mirrors.
The planned firework display was cancelled at the last minute, due to a storm.
The day ended with a sumptuous feast, followed by the bedding ceremony.The newly-wed couple were led to the nuptial bedchamber, the one belonging to Marie Antoinette.
The bed was blessed by the Archbishop of Reims, after which the king gave the Dauphin his nightshirt, and the Duchess of Chartres gave the Dauphine hers.
In the presence of the entire Court, the couple lay down to prove that they shared the same bed.
The wedding celebrations continued on until the 30th May, when fireworks on the Place de la Concorde killed 132 people.It was a grim omen of a reign that would prove tragic.......
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Source ~ chateauversaille/marriage-dauphin-marie-antoinette.
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Kirsten Dunst & Jason Schwartzman in 'Marie Antoinette' 2006
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