Some of my favourite hats at King Felipe and Queen Letizia’s wedding were worn by members of the bride’s family. Letizia’s mother, Paloma Rocasalano, wore a large straw picture hat that featured a slightly upturned front brim trimmed with a large pleated fan bow. With her coordinating dress and coat, she was a vision in vibrant coral pink. While I loved this hat, I think I would have loved it even more in a lighter, more neutral colour to provide some contrast to this ensemble.
Princess Letizia’s younger sister Telma wore a dramatic pale pink picture hat with large, cartwheel brim, a mass of rosettes on the crown and a huge bow. She also coordinated her hat to her suit and I thought the whole ensemble worked beautifully together. The brim may have been a little too big for her petite frame but I love this hat all the same.
Letizia’s other sister Erika also took a monochrome approach to her fashion for this wedding and topped her red suit with a red picture hat that featured light, frothy straw swirls around the brim. It was a lot of red but the frothy trim on the hat lightened the overall look. I also thought the scale of the brim was perfect for petite Erika and she looked wonderful. Sadly, Erika passed away in 2007.
Letizia’s paternal grandmother, Menchu Alvarez del Vaille, wore an ecru straw hat with a wide, rolled brim and flower spray on the side. With her coordinating suit, she looked very elegant.
Letizia’s maternal grandmother, Enriqueta Rodriguez also chose a monochrome ensemble in pale lilac. Her hat was more angular than those of her daughter and granddaughters, with a squared crown and upturned brim.
I can only imagine it is difficult for the non-royal family at such a high profile wedding to find an outfit and hat that is comfortable for them and fits the formality of the event. The women of this family adopted a formula that worked very well: dress and coat or suit in a single colour + brimmed hat in the same colour. This is a fairly simple approach that yielded some striking outfits.
Tomorrow we will take a peek at the hats worn by the extended Spanish royal family and Greek royal family.
Photos from Getty as indicated and: Andrea Comas via Corbis; Reuters and EFE via Boda Real; El Mundo, El Mundo and El Mundo
Royal Hats 
Who is that woman walking with queen Letizia’s paternal grandma?cool hat
Such successful outfits for this wedding; I assume the family coordinated the idea, since surely someone would otherwise have gone for some pattern or contrasting colours! Anyway, it worked beautifully, and there were some gorgeous dramatic hats.
This family is so chic! Apparently they hoard all the color so Letizia can’t have any…. All kidding aside, these ladies all looked lovely, head to toe, didn’t they?
I loved all their outfits and there were some dramatic hats and lots of color. I would have said that there outfits were over-the-top for most weddings, however, this is a Royal Wedding and it was in Spain, and having been there myself, I know that Spaniards are noted for their bold colors and exotic hats.
The hats are a little dated but for the time, they were great. I never noticed this “formula” but it’s now so obvious when all the Rocasolanos are seen together. I learn something new on this blog all the time! Great job on this wedding coverage (better than anything I remember at the time)
The Rocasolanos look fantastic! I wonder, is that an aunt with paternal grandparents? Also very stylish!
They brought their top game didn’t they. I particularly like her mother’s and sisters’ outfits. Very dramatic hats and colours yet they held their own very well against some of the somewhat more bizarre outfits the foreign royals trotted up in!
I read about her sister Erika recently, that was very very sad.