None can deny that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a grand wedding in 2018. The wedding service at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor was packed with celebrities and notable guests, even if there had been plenty of drama leading up to the big day.
Meghan and Kate Middleton reportedly argued — and even cried — over Princess Charlotte’s dress. In his book, Spare, Harry claimed that his wife then had a falling out with his sister-in-law after the honeymoon, after the pair tried to settle their differences.
These days even more fanciful claims are to be found, with it said that had Prince William had chosen the location for Harry and Meghan’s wedding, it would’ve been somewhere else entirely. In Spare, Harry made a particularly shocking claim about his brother, who he said wanted Harry and Meghan to tie the knot far away from the lavish castles and churches that might have been considered.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement to one another less than two years after their first date.
Prince Harry proposed to Meghan Markle in the kitchen
On November 27, 2017, the couple released a statement through Clarence House informing the world that they had gotten engaged in London earlier that month.
“Prince Harry has informed Her Majesty The Queen and other close members of his family. Prince Harry has also sought and received the blessing of Ms. Markle’s parents. The couple will live in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace,” the statement read.
The same day, Harry and Meghan gave an interview with the BBC in which they revealed that the Duke had proposed during a quiet night at home. At the time, Meghan was roasting a chicken.
“It was just so sweet and natural and very romantic,” Meghan said. “He got on one knee. As a matter of fact, I could barely let [him] finish proposing. I was like, ‘Can I say yes now?’”
The following summer, Harry and Meghan tied the knot. However, before the bells rang, there were plenty of things that needed to be taken care of, including a deal of avoidable drama.
The wedding location itself was reportedly a big talking point within the Royal Family, and Harry and his brother William are said to have harbored very different ideas as to what was appropriate.
Prince William suggested a “small quiet wedding” For Prince Harry
Ultimately, it became a battle between the brothers. According to Harry, William wasn’t keen on he and Meghan having a grand wedding in London akin to the one William and Kate had seven years earlier.
In Spare, Harry recalled the discussion with his brother. He initially suggested Westminster Abbey, though William dismissed the idea, saying it was “no good” since he and Kate had already tied the knot at the same venue.
Prince Harry relented, suggesting St. Paul’s Cathedral instead, to which William replied, “Too grand.” The Prince of Wales is then said to have added: “Plus, Pa and Mummy did it there.”
Expressing his opinion, the future king then suggested a surprising venue: Tetbury, an intimate location near King Charles’ and Queen Camilla’s royal residence of Highgrove House, Gloucestershire.
“I snorted. Tetbury? The chapel near Highgrove? Seriously, Willy? How many does that place seat?” Harry recalled in his book Spare.
“Isn’t that what you said you wanted – a small, quiet wedding?” William reportedly answered.
Harry wrote in his book: “In fact we wanted to explore. Barefoot in Botswana, with maybe a friend officiating, that was our dream. But we were expected to share this moment with other people. It wasn’t up to us.”
And the venue for the wedding was just one of many things the two brothers argued about. According to the Duke, there were also “heated debates” as to whether Meghan should wear a veil for the ceremony – as she was a divorced woman – and Harry wrote that William “was livid” because he refused to shave off his beard for the big day.
Prince Harry & Meghan Markle – wedding
Finally, the royals settled for St. George’s Chapel at Windsor. The ceremony played out on May 19, 2018, and from the outside, Harry and Meghan’s wedding was the ideal union; the mirror image of perfection to follow the wedding of William and Kate Middleton seven years earlier.
Both royal weddings saw millions of people celebrate the respective unions. Of course, William and Kate’s wedding was arguably more significant because it involved a future king tying the knot with his future queen.
The two ceremonies were also quite different. William and Kate’s was more serious, with few laughs, while Harry and Meghan’s was far more relaxed and included gospel singing.
In Spare, Harry wrote about his and Meghan’s big day, recalling the moment he stood at the altar, waiting for his soon-to-be bride.
“I stood at the altar, smoothed the front of my Household Cavalry uniform, watched Meg floating towards me,” Harry wrote.
“I’d worked hard to choose the right music for her procession, and ultimately I’d landed on Handel’s ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’. Now, as the soloist’s voice rang out above our heads, I thought I’d chosen well. Indeed, as Meg came nearer and nearer, I was giving thanks for all my choices.”
“Last of the gold”
The Duke continued by explaining how he was ‘amazed’ how he could “hear the music over the sound of my own heartbeat” as Meghan walked up next to him and held his hand.
“I saw the archbishop extend the rings, his hands shaking. I’d forgotten, but he clearly hadn’t: twelve cameras pointed at us, two billion people watching on TV, photographers in the rafters, massive crowds outside roistering and cheering,” Harry continued.
“We exchanged the rings, Meg’s made from the same hunk of Welsh gold that had provided Kate’s. Granny had told me that this was nearly the last of it. Last of the gold. That was how I felt about Meg.”
Many had anticipated that William would be Harry’s best man – the honor the Duke held for his brother seven years prior. However, he wasn’t, and in hindsight that raises questions over the possibility that their feud had already started at that point.
In Spare, Harry stated that his brother was grumpy that he chose his “old friend” Charlie to be his best man instead.
“I asked what was really happening. Was he sulking because he wasn’t my best man?” Harry wrote.
“Was he annoyed because I had asked my old friend Charlie instead? (The Royal Family announced Willy was the best man as they had done with me when he and Kate got married. Did that have something to do with it?).”
Royal experts questioned Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s wedding guest list
The wedding between Harry and Meghan was a predictably glamorous affair, but one question about the Sussexes’ wedding was on the lips of several royal experts when all was said and done.
William and Kate’s guest list included world leaders, ambassadors, and prime ministers, among many other notable guests, as well as the many friends and family they wanted in attendance. Harry and Meghan, meanwhile, didn’t have any obligations to serve. Rather, their guest list was packed with a colorful variety of celebrities.
Afterwards, two royal experts wondered whether the guests were there just for the sake of it.
For example, movie star George Clooney and his wife, Amal, were in attendance. Royal expert Rachel Johnson suggested they didn’t know Harry or Meghan.
“There’s a story doing the rounds that while Carolyn Bartholomew, Diana’s former flatmate, was waiting for the wedding service to start, she turned to the couple alongside her and asked how they knew Harry or Meghan,” Johnson wrote in the online publication AirMail. ‘”We don’t,’ the Clooneys answered brightly.”
After the wedding, Harry and Meghan were said to have visited the Clooneys at their residence in Como, Italy. George Clooney also revealed that the four had dinner several times in recent years.
The Sussexes kept a big wedding secret from the public
Royal expert Andrew Morton, author of Diana: Her True Story, also questioned the celebrity guest list.
“(She) populated the wedding with A-list Hollywood celebrities who … have proved their worth to her by speaking out in public about the criticisms of her,” Morton said.
“I don’t think she (had) even met Oprah Winfrey (before the wedding). I don’t know whether Harry had. But she invited these people along, and now she has her own court.”
Witnessing a couple say “yes” to one another is undoubtedly special. The moment itself can often seem like something out of a fairytale, but Harry and Meghan kept a big secret from royal fans worldwide.
In the infamous Oprah Winfrey interview, which many deem to have marked the beginning of Harry and Meghan’s ongoing feud public with the Royal Family, the Sussexes claimed that they actually got married three days prior to their official wedding at the grand St. George’s Chapel ceremony.
This private union took place in the couple’s garden, they claimed, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was present.
“We want our union between us”
“No one knows that,” Meghan told Oprah in their first interview since leaving the Royal Family behind. “But we called the Archbishop, and we just said, ‘Look, this thing, this spectacle is for the world, but we want our union between us.’ So, like, the vows that we have framed in our room are just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
Shortly after the interview aired, the Archbishop of Canterbury said the legal wedding was on Saturday. He “signed the wedding certificate,” adding that he would have “committed a serious criminal offence if I signed it knowing it was false.”
In Spare, Harry wrote at length about the early wedding service.
“The archbishop reached the official part, spoke the few words that made us the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, titles bestowed by Granny, and he joined us until death parted us, though he’d already done similar days earlier, in our garden, a small ceremony, just the two of us, [dogs] Guy and Pula the only witnesses,” he wrote.
“Unofficial, non-binding, except in our souls. We were grateful for every person in and around St. George’s, and watching on TV, but our love began in private, and being public had been mostly pain, so we wanted the first consecration of our love, the first vows, to be private as well. Magical as the formal ceremony was, we’d both come to feel slightly frightened of…crowds,” The Duke concluded.
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