HM Queen Elizabeth II more than likely met her future husband, The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (Philippos of Greece and Denmark; born 10 June 1921) after visits with him in 1934 and 1937. 

Earl Mountbatten arranged, in 1939, for Philip to escort Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King George VI. Philip was put in charge of entertaining the King's two daughters while the King and Queen toured Dartmouth Naval College. Elizabeth (who was Philip's third cousin through Queen Victoria, and second cousin, once removed, through Christian IX of Denmark)—fell in love with Philip and they began to exchange letters.

Eventually, in the summer of 1946, Philip asked the King for his daughter's hand in marriage. Before the marriage, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, and adopted the style Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, the surname adopted by his mother's family. Just before the wedding, he was created Duke of Edinburgh and granted the style of His Royal Highness. The King granted his request providing any formal engagement was delayed until Elizabeth's twenty-first birthday the following April.

The engagement was announced to the public in July 1947. Louis Mountbatten urged Philip to renounce his Greek and Danish royal titles, as well as his allegiance to the Greek crown, convert from Greek Orthodoxy to the Church of England, and become a naturalised British subject,^[all of which was done by 18 March 1947.

The day preceding his wedding, King George VI bestowed the style His Royal Highness on Philip, and on the morning of the wedding, 20 November 1947, he was made the Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich in the County of London. Elizabeth's mother was reported, in later biographies, to have opposed the union, even dubbing Philip as "The Hun".

The Commonwealth had still not yet completely rebounded from the devastation of the war; rationing still required that the Princess save up her rationing coupons to buy the material for her gown, designed by Norman Hartnell.

The wedding was seen as the first glimmer of a hope of rebirth. Elizabeth and Philip received over 2,500 wedding gifts from around the world. At the ceremony,

Prince Michael of Kent, paternal first cousins

In post-war Britain, it was not acceptable for any of the Duke of Edinburgh's German relations to be invited to the wedding, including Philip's three surviving sisters.

Elizabeth's aunt, Princess Mary, Princess Royal, allegedly refused to attend because her brother, the Duke of Windsor (who abdicated in 1936), was not invited due to his marital situation; she gave ill health as the official reason for not attending.