Were Meghan Markle’s wedding-day Cartier jewelry pieces bought or loaned?

The new Duchess of Sussex wore some notable pieces of jewelry on her wedding day. Of course people were obsessed with the Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau tiara which came straight from the Queen’s jewelry vault. Of course people were interested and moved by the fact that Prince Harry gave Meghan his mother’s large aquamarine ring after the wedding ceremony. Of course people wanted to see the simple Welsh gold wedding band that Harry put on Meghan’s finger. But I was also interested in the other pieces of jewelry Meghan wore: namely, the bracelet during the wedding ceremony, and the two pairs of earrings she wore, one pair for the wedding ceremony and one pair for the post-reception party. As it turns out, all of those pieces were Cartier.

When she walked down the aisle to marry Prince Harry in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, Meghan accessorized her boatneck Givenchy Haute Couture gown with two other diamond pieces by Cartier. For her earrings, the new duchess went with a pair of simple white gold and diamond studs, and on her right arm, she wore a 10.11 carat bracelet constructed with over 150 individual diamonds, valued at $155,000.

To complement her silk open back gown created by Stella McCartney Meghan wore a pair of 18-karat white gold Cartier chandelier earrings, which retail for $68,000 according to Cartier’s website (each set has a total of 1.89 carats of diamonds).

[From People]

One of the little factoids I remember about Kate Middleton’s wedding was that her parents gave her a pair of diamond earrings, which she wore on her wedding day. I thought that was such a thoughtful gift from her parents. I bring that up because… I still don’t know if these Cartier pieces are now Meghan’s or if she borrowed them. Did Cartier lend them to her? Are they pieces from the Queen’s collection which the Queen let her borrow? I don’t think the latter is the case at all – the Cartier pieces seem to be newer pieces, so either Cartier loaned those pieces to Meghan or someone bought them. Did she buy them? Did Harry? Did Charles? I want to know.

Photos courtesy of Alexi Lubomirski for Kensington Palace, Pacific Coast News and WENN.