Princess Leia's Wedding Bouquet Is A Deep Cut Star Wars Easter Egg
It's the wedding that "Star Wars" fans had, up until now, only imagined in their heads.
Princess Leia and Han Solo, finally tying the knot in a romantic ceremony on Endor — with guests coming from all over the galaxy far, far away to watch and celebrate the Empire-stomping duo. But according to the updated "Star Wars" canon, we never got this moment. Prior attempts to walk Leia and Solo down the aisle were all included in now-disregarded canonical novels, including the 1993 "Jedi Prince" installment "Prophets of the Dark Side" and the 1994 book "The Courtship of Princess Leia" (via Wookiepedia). Now, thanks to Beth Revis' new novel "The Princess and the Scoundrel" — which came out in mid-August 2022 and is officially "Star Wars" canon — we have an exact idea of what the wedding would've been like. But most importantly, we get an awesome description of how Leia would've looked on her special day, down to the type of flowers she is holding. And if you're a "Star Wars" diehard, you may recognize the bouquet from somewhere.
Newly released concept art by artist Tara Phillips shows the Princess of Alderaan in a subtle but eloquently styled green wedding dress, with Variety obtaining a description from "Princess and the Scoundrel." The book sets the ceremony on the forest moon of Endor, at the temple of the Great Tree (via Entertainment Weekly).
"The Ewoks had outdone themselves in decorations," says a description obtained by EW. "Flower garlands wove around the entire outer perimeter of the temple built high into the Great Tree." According to the excerpt from Variety, flowers were also heavily incorporated into Leia's wedding look. And if you do some digging into Endor's past, you might notice the flowers resemble ones included in a previous "Star Wars" movie — which surprisingly isn't "Return of the Jedi."
Leia's bouquet was inspired by flowers seen in the Star Wars TV movie Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
According to Lucasfilm exec Pablo Hidalgo, the flowers incorporated into Princess Leia's wedding dress and bouquet for "The Princess and the Scoundrel" were inspired by ones featured in the 1984 TV movie "Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure." Hidalgo tweeted an image on August 29, 2022, from the film that shows its young main character, Cindel Towani (Aubree Miller), holding a bouquet similar to Leia's.
"I requested that the flowers match these," Hidalgo tweeted, after being asked about the Variety concept image of Leia's wedding dress and what inspired the bouquet. "Star Wars" diehards loved the attention to detail, with one Twitter user saying: "Best production nugget I've seen in a while." User @FilipeGrassie wrote: "Another day, another W for Ewok movies fans."
In the "Princess and the Scoundrel" excerpt obtained by Variety, fans get to hear exactly where the flowers come from and how they play a key role in Leia's look. "Leia wore a gown made of soft meadow green, embroidered with flowers similar to the ones bedecking the outside of the temple," Revis writes. "She held a bouquet of wildflowers tied with the same bit of lacing woven in her hair, and Han suspected that Leia had picked the flowers just before she'd climbed the ladder to the temple." According to the excerpt obtained by Entertainment Weekly, the flowers scattered around as decorations actually symbolized things within the Ewok culture. But you wouldn't know it by talking to Han Solo. "C-3PO had tried to explain what each flower symbolized, but Han hadn't even known how to distinguish the different varieties, much less that the yellow bloom wrapped around the pink one was supposed to be a blessing of the forest for many children," Revis says. "The furballs really had gone above and beyond."