On 6 May 1960, at Westminster Abbey, Princess Margaret - sister of Queen Elizabeth II - married the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones. The wedding gown was made by Norman Hartnell, the same designer who dressed Elizabeth. But this one was different - and that was deliberate.

Princess Margaret's gown was declared by Life magazine „the simplest gown in the history of royal weddings". No lace, no embroidery, no rhinestones. Just organza. Long sleeves, a fitted waist, a V-neckline (rather bold for the era) and a voluminous 30-metre tulle skirt pleated into triangular folds. It was deliberate - Princess Margaret wanted to look different from her sister.

Elizabeth, in 1947, married in a gown with 10,000 pearls, gold thread, Swarovski crystals and a five-metre train. That was the court. Margaret, 13 years later, was the antithesis. A simple gown. A sheer veil. And a tiara - that she bought for herself.

The „Poltimore" tiara - made in 1870 for the British aristocrat Lady Poltimore, with diamonds in the shape of short bursts and spiral ornaments - Margaret bought at auction for 5,500 pounds. That is more than 150,000 euros today. It makes hers the first royal wedding in British history in which the bride paid for the tiara herself. Not borrowed. Not family. Bought with her own money.

The wedding cake was the opposite of simplicity: 180 centimetres tall, 68 kilograms, in hexagonal tiers, with Princess Margaret's coat of arms, the couple's initials, the English rose and the French lion. Princess Margaret had a sweet tooth - and she made it visible even through the cake.

The wedding was the first royal wedding broadcast live on television - in black and white at the time. It was also the first marriage of a British royal to a „commoner" - Antony was not a nobleman. 120 guests, a banquet at Buckingham Palace, a wave from the balcony. Margaret was 29. Ten years earlier she had been in love with a divorced captain 16 years her senior - the marriage had been forbidden by the court. When she heard he had remarried - within months she accepted Antony's proposal.

The couple divorced in 1978. Antony was unfaithful, Margaret had her own affairs, their breakdown filled the press for a decade. But the gown, the cake, the tiara - they remained. The first and last time a British monarch crowned a moment with taste that feels like it comes from the 21st century, not from 1960.