On today’s date in 2011, Prince William, the second in line to the British throne, wed Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London, England.
On the royal couple’s wedding day, before they exchanged their vows “in regal pomp and enchanting splendour,” Canada Post issued two commemorative stamps. One was released at what was then the domestic rate and the other at the then-international rate.
The domestic-rate Permanent stamp (Scott #2464) shows a November 2010 photograph of the couple announcing their engagement. The international-rate stamp (SC #2465) features the official engagement picture taken by Mario Testino, a prominent fashion photographer. In the latter picture, against Middleton’s white dress, is the sapphire and diamond engagement ring first worn 30 years prior by Lady Diana Spencer, who became Princess of Wales, Prince William’s mother.
Isabelle Toussaint, the Montreal-based graphic artist who designed the stamps, used photos of the famous Benedictine abbey’s ecclesiastical architecture across the set. The abbey has been the coronation church since the year 1066, and in the past century, it has been the setting of several royal marriages, including of Prince Williams’ grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1947, when she wed then Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, before his death earlier this year).
Canada Post announced the addition of these stamps to its 2011 stamp line-up in February of that year, months after the annual stamp program was unveiled. The Crown corporation expedited its typical stamp approval, selection and production processes – usually the responsibility of the 12-person Stamp Advisory Committee – to give Canadians “a memento of the occasion on the day of the wedding,” it said in a 2011 statement.
This Permanent stamp was issued on June 11, 2011, to mark the couple’s Royal tour of Canada.
2011 ROYAL TOUR
As the royal couple set off on its first official cross-country tour of Canada, Canada Post issued the third and final stamp of the “Royal Wedding” series.
This domestic-rate Permanent stamp (SC #2477a) features a candid photograph of the newlyweds in the 1902 State Landau, the family’s horse-drawn carriage, during the procession.
Like the first two stamps in the set, a souvenir sheet and official first-day cover also show photographs of the Benedictine abbey’s architecture.
The couple has three children—Prince George in 2013, Princess Charlotte in 2015 and Prince Louis in 2018.
In 2013, Canada Post issued a “Royal Infant” stamp featuring the couple alongside the newborn Prince George.