Private letters and mementos giving a rare behind-the-scenes look at royal British weddings have gone public at Windsor Castle. The items on display include extracts from Queen Victoria's journal written shortly before her 1840 marriage to Prince Albert, in which she describes him as "excessively handsome."

The journals are part of a collection put together to mark the diamond anniversary of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The exhibition, which begins Friday covers five royal weddings, from the union of Victoria and Albert through to the present monarch's 1947 marriage to Philip.

Royal librarian Jane Roberts said the display showed "how the royal family really had the same sort of views about marriage and love and weddings as the rest of us".

In her journal, Queen Victoria describes her joy when Prince Albert agrees to marry her, saying how happy she is to "feel I was loved and am loved by such an angel."

She praises her fiancé's "beautiful blue eyes, and exquisite nose, and pretty mouth with delicate mustache and slight but very slight whiskers."

Another intimate exchange is also revealed between Queen Elizabeth's father King George VI and his parents on the occasion of his engagement to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The letter reads: "I am very, very happy and I can only hope that Elizabeth feels the same."

He goes on to say that his bride-to-be was touched by his parent's kind letters to her congratulating the young couple but, "a little shy to know how to answer them."