Each royal wedding is accompanied by endless souvenirs. For the 2011 Prince William and Catherine Middleton wedding, staff photographer Kirk McKoy took the above image. The extended caption to McKoy’s image added:
It's a given that there are enough commemorative plates, coins, tea pots, tea towels, coasters, champagne flutes, pillows, shortbread tins, paper dolls, stickers, postcards, pencils, magnets and thimbles to fill Buckingham Palace.
But the campiest souvenirs are the most memorable, including William and Kate bobble heads, a replica engagement ring, and nail clippers with a photo medallion of the glamorous duo.
Here’s a selection of images from 1999 to the present.
May 11, 1999: Shown is one of two commemorative stamps featuring portraits of Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, and Sophie Rhys-Jones.
(Associated Press)
April 4, 2005: T-shirts and masks are sold in Windsor High Street, England, for the marriage of Prince Charles and longtime companion Camilla Parker Bowles. “Those bloody people” refers to a comment the Prince was overheard to make about the media at a recent photocal
(Dave Caulkin / Associated Press)
April 8, 2005: Souvenirs celebrate the wedding between Britain’s Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.
(Dave Caulkin / Associated Press)
Feb. 23, 2005: A joke shop in London offers masks of Prince Charles, Camilla Parker Bowles and the queen.
(Getty Images)
March 30, 2011: Castle Rock Brewery in Nottingham, England, offers a beer celebrating Prince William and Kate Middleton’s marriage.
(Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)
April 21, 2011: A cake featuring figurines of Prince William and Kate Middleton is displayed at an exhibition of Royal Wedding cakes.
(Oli Scarff / Getty Images)
April 11, 2011: A collectors’ coin features a sapphire-colored crystal inlay to symbolize Kate Middleton’s engagement ring.
(AFP/Getty Images)
April 8, 2011: Kate Middleton dolls are pictured at Hamley’s toy store in central London.
(Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images)
April 18, 2011: A manual by Fiona Goble, “Knit Your Own Royal Wedding,” presents knitting patterns in honor of the royal family.
(Alastair Grant / Associated Press)
An extended Associated Press caption for the image above added:
The bride's dress, it can now be revealed, is made of wool. So are the groom, the guests and the royal corgi.
Amid the acres of souvenirs, memorabilia and merchandise produced to mark the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, one surprise success is “Knit Your Own Royal Wedding,” a stitch-by-stitch guide to creating the April 29 event out of yarn.
The book has sold 50,000 copies and been through four print runs since it was released last month by a small English publisher, Ivy Press. It is part of a tide of stitching, printing, painting and other handicrafts that are commemorating the royal nuptials — and celebrating a quirkily old-fashioned sense of British style.
March 31, 2011: Royal Wedding souvenir pill boxes featuring Prince William and Kate Middleton are displayed in London.
(Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images)
Feb. 19, 2011: With a cheeky touch, plates commemorate Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
March 25, 2011: Airline-style sickness bags are specially commissioned for people who have had too much of the royal wedding.
(Alastair Grant / Associated Press)
Tea bags celebrating the April 29, 2011, wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
April 1, 2018: A shopkeeper holds souvenirs featuring Prince Harry and fiance Meghan Markle, the American actress.
(Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images)
March 28, 2018: Mugs and other souvenir items for the upcoming wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are displayed for sale in a shop in London.
(Matt Dunham / Associated Press)
Royal fan Margaret Tyler shows memorabilia celebrating the forthcoming wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
(Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images)
The extended Getty Images caption on Margaret Tyler, above, added:
Festooned with bunting and guarded by a stained-glass sentry, the eccentric London home of retired charity worker Margaret Tyler is already bursting with souvenirs, but is getting fuller by the day ahead of a busy summer for royal fans.
The “loyalist royalist” has been collecting souvenirs for four decades, amassing over 10,000 mugs, life-size cutouts, effigies, tapestries, books, posters, toilet seats, nodding corgis, tea-sets, and countless other nick-nacks in her London home.
