In the 60th year of her marriage the Queen has been reunited with her wedding dress as she was given a private preview of the summer exhibition at Buckingham Palace.

The exhibition is titled A Royal Wedding: 20 November 1947 and includes not just the fabulous Norman Hartnell couturier gown that the Queen wore, but also many of the 2,500 wedding presents - ranging from a large quantity of tinned pineapple to a diamond stomacher presented by her grandmother, Queen Mary.

The display is being staged in the cavernous Ball Supper Room at the palace, the same room where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh's wedding breakfast was held after the service at Westminster Abbey. It aims to show the mood of public rejoicing that swept Britain in the bleak, post-war years as the marriage approached. Winston Churchill summed up the occasion as "a flash of colour on the hard road we travel".

The Queen was shown black and white footage of her journey to the ceremony in the Irish State Coach drawn by a pair of matched greys, her appearance on the palace balcony, the crowds who had been waiting outside in the bitter cold in the Mall since the night before, and private images taken inside the palace.

On her way round the exhibition she lingered by her ivory silk-satin wedding dress with its full train, which bears the symbol of the rose of York embroidered in more than 10,000 seed pearls and glittering crystals.

With its fitted bodice and scalloped, heart-shape neckline, the dress is also embroidered with jasmine flowers, ears of wheat, star-shaped syringa and appliques of transparent tulle. It took three months to make.

Sir Hugh Roberts, the director of the Royal Collection, who escorted the Queen on her private tour before the display opens tomorrow, hinted that her Majesty had been moved and fascinated at this year's show.

"This one is very personal to her and must bring back many extraordinary memories of that day 60 years ago," Sir Hugh said. "I think, as with everybody really seeing the dress again, she will have marvelled at the quality of the embroidery and the way the dress was so particularly well suited to that great occasion.

Next to the dress is a reproduction of the Queen's wedding bouquet of white orchids, made by the granddaughter of Martin Longman, the florist who made the original bouquet. The floral display which decorated each table at the wedding breakfast has also been reproduced.

Nearby is a display of royal bridal jewels, including the dazzling Russian fringe tiara, originally made in 1919 for Queen Mary, that held the Queen's veil. Her shoes, in their original cream, padded, monogrammed box, are on view.

The gold quill pen presented by the Chartered Institute of Secretaries with which the Queen - after some considerable difficulty - eventually managed to sign the register, is also on show.

The Duke's wedding outfit as a Lieutenant of the Royal Navy is on display, as are the apricot and gold brocade ensemble worn by the Queen Mother and the ivory silk tulle dresses worn by the eight bridesmaids.

Some of the best used wedding presents were the sets of porcelain presented by foreign heads of state and British regiments, which had been used at palace dinners for the last 60 years.

Queen Mary's gift of three brooches linked together as a stomacher to be worn across the front of a dress had seen considerably less use, Sir Hugh implied, as had a necklace which the Queen spotted in one of the display cases. "I think she probably hadn't seen it since it was given because it's not perhaps a particularly wearable one," he said.

A piece of delicate lace hand-spun by Mahatma Gandhi, featuring the words "Jal Hind", or Long Live India, and a pair of Meissen porcelain chocolate pots given by Pope Pius XII, are also on show.

Information panels reveal that the Queen and the Duke were presented with 500 tins of pineapple, 131 pairs of nylons, 17 pairs of silk stockings, 24 pairs of gloves and a refridgerator.

The Duke's own present to his bride was a platinum and diamond bracelet, made from a tiara that had belonged to his mother, Princess Andrew of Greece.

Like all British brides in the days of post-war rationing, the Queen received 200 extra clothing coupons from the Government towards her wedding trousseau.

Hundreds of women across the UK also sent their own coupons to ensure that the 21-year-old princess could have the wedding of her dreams but as it was then illegal to give coupons away these had to be returned.

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