Lady Louise Mountbatten, 1923

She looks delighted by this turn of events! I could not resist kicking off our retrospective with this amazing piece of marital history. Informative Caption tells us the following about Lady Louise: She is "pictured Here On the Announcement of Her Engagement to HRH Gustavus Adolphus, Crown Prince of Sweden, [is the] Second Daughter of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse, and Elder Sister of Lord Louis Mountbatten." WHAT A GIDDY BRIDE TO BE! She became the Queen of Sweden and she doesn't look that stoked about the process. (She is Prince Philip's aunt.) This is perhaps because Lady Louise was UNLUCKY IN LOVE. Per her Wiki: "At the age of twenty, Louise became secretly engaged to Prince Christopher of Greece, but they were forced to give up their relationship for financial reasons. While living in exile more than 10 years later, he would wed the wealthy widow, Nancy Stewart Worthington Leeds....Shortly before World War I broke out, Louise fell in love with a man of whom her parents approved but he was killed in the early days of the war." Ugh, poor Louise.   But there's more! "Later during the war, while she volunteered as a nurse in Nevers, she began a relationship with Alexander Stuart-Hill, a Scottish artist living in Paris. Anticipating that her parents would be disappointed in her choice, Louise kept their engagement a secret. Eventually, she confided in her parents, who were initially understanding, and invited Stuart-Hill for visits at Kent House twice.... Lacking resources, the engaged couple agreed to postpone marriage until after the war. But in 1918 Louise's father explained to her that Stuart-Hill was most likely homosexual, and that a marriage with him was impossible." POOR LOUISE. Finally, she decided the fourth time was the charm and married the future king of Sweden,  and she used to go around the world making speeches in favor of gender equality, abolished debutante presentations at court in favor of "'democratic ladies' lunches', to which she invited professional career women," and sounds like she was basically awesome, so CHEER UP, LOUISE, this one is gonna work out.

Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, 1947

This one also worked out.

Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly, 1955

I just read on Wikipedia that Grace Kelly's family (so, I assume Grace herself) had to give Rainer a two million dollar dowry so they could get married. I think I speak for us all when I say, "WHAT." (She does look delighted here, and, of course, incredibly beautiful. Rear Window is on TMC in heavy rotation this week and I am, in fact, looking at her face right now. It's an excellent face.)

Princess Margaret and Anthony Armstrong-Jones, 1960

This is the Royal Lodge at Windsor, and it says something about this room that it is nearly distracting from the happy couple, it's so lovely. (Prince Andrew lives here now.)

Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, 1973

Even Anne's engagement photo is on the move!

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, 1981

We had high hopes for this one!

Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew, 1986

We also had high hopes for this one! Fergie's coat has proven to be rather timeless, no? It also seems that the British royals are very fond of jovially posing out on the lawn.

Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys Jones, 1999

We were just talking about how much Sophie resembled Diana when she and Edward got engaged and she really did -- I think it's mostly similar coloring and her haircut, which is VERY Diana.

Willem-Alexander and Maxima Zorreguieta, 2001

This photo is AMAZING. Willem-Alexander still looks at her like this, which is awfully heart-warming.

Crown Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson, 2003

Doesn't Crown Prince Frederik look absolutely delighted by his good luck?

Crown Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz, 2003

"Oh, you two! Congrats! Now, just pop out for some pictures. No, no, the driveway's fine. Don't worry about it."

Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling, 2009

This is the pained smile of a woman answering a press question she thought was dumb. (Also, Daniel was dishy back in the day.)

Princess Madeleine AND THIS DUDE!?!?!?, 2009

AND THEN. Scandale!!! I went looking for Priness Madeleine's engagement photo and this popped up. (a) She was REALLY BLOND in 2009 and (b) this is NOT HER HUSBAND. Obviously, I turned immediately to Wikipedia, where I learned that Sweden's Princess Madeleine of Sweden was egnaged to this dude, Jonas Bergstrom. And then Wiki was weirdly vague, like, "they eventually broke up due to issues," which is weird because usually Wikipedia is like, "WELL, GET READY FOR SCANDALE." So I turned to the rest of the internet, where I learned that he SLEPT WITH A NORWEGIAN HANDBALL STAR AT A SKI RESORT. She fled to New York; he ended up marrying HER BEST FRIEND FROM CHILDHOOD. Poor Madeleine. I couldn't get her engagement photo with her husband Chris O'Neill, because from what I understand they didn't do a photocall (possibly because she felt burned from this one). Oh, Madeleine! It all worked out!

Prince William and Kate Middleton, 2010

Look at these two photogenic lovebirds! I'm not sure if William has EVER looked this happy in photos before or after; Kate looks happy, too, but Wills looks so giddy. 

Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock, 2010

Charlene and Al look like the stars of a new night-time soap on Oxygen.

Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist, 2014

This is a fine entry into the Happy Couple Poses Joyfully in the Garden genre.

Princess Mako and Kei Komuro, 2017

They look besotted with each other, don't they? As it should be.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, 2017

YAY! Welcome to the tradition of People Joyfully Posing in Gardens, you guys!

Let's Revisit Royal Engagement Photos of Yore!

How does Harry and Meghan's measure up? (Very nicely!)