By Daniel Hordon and Ben Mills
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined hands in marriage on Saturday in an emotional wedding ceremony.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joined hands in marriage on Saturday in an emotional wedding ceremony. The Royal Couple who, it was confirmed by Buckingham Palace before the wedding, take the title of Duke and Duchess of Sussex were married at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. 18 million people in the UK and, it is thought, over 2 billion people around the world tuned in to watch the events of the day.
The engagement was announced back in November just months after the couple were first seen together in public at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games. Harry had proposed to Markle in their Kensington Palace cottage over a roast chicken dinner.
Events in Windsor commenced with the arrival of the guests at the chapel. The guest list consisted of 1,500 members of the public, close friends of the couple and fellow royals. A-listers including Oprah, Idris Elba, Elton John and the Beckhams were among the star studded line up of Markle’s Hollywood colleagues. Prince Harry was joined by ex-servicemen who he served with in Afghanistan during the ceremony and procession as well as other guests including ex girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
Alongside the celebrity guests, many members of the royal family were also in attendance at the wedding. In addition to the immediate family, more minor royals such as Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and Prince Andrew secured invitations to the ceremony. The younger members of the family also played key roles in the ceremony, with Prince George and Princess Charlotte (the eldest children of Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) taking the positions of pageboy and bridesmaid respectively. Other children with close ties to the couple, such as goddaughter of Meghan Markle, Rylan Litt, were also given these roles.
The Queen and her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, also attended the wedding together; it came after doubts over whether the health of the latter, who has recently undergone hip surgery, would affect his ability to attend, but the 96 year old, who appears to have recovered well from the operation accompanied his wife of 70 years in watching the marriage of his own grandson.
Royal Commentators have already described the wedding as an insight into the potential modernisation of the Royal Family which the new Duchess of Sussex could help to bring about. Markle, as a mixed race woman, is expected to bring a new dynamic to the royal family.
There was a large incorporation of African-American culture into the wedding, with the gospel group The Kingdom Choir singing Ben E. King’s Stand By Me and the hymn Amen/This Little Light of Mine in the chapel. The leader of the American Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, delivered a passionate and upbeat speech to the guests at the ceremony where he commented on the “power of love”. He referenced Martin Luther King and a traditional song sung by slaves, saying “When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook, [...] when love is the way, there's plenty good room, plenty good room for all of God's children. Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we're actually family."
After much speculation in the week previous, Markle’s father was not present at the wedding. American tabloid website TMZ had reported last week that Mr Markle would undergo surgery and would not be fit to travel to the wedding. The mother of the bride, Doria Ragland, was present and travelled with her daughter from Cliveden House hotel where the pair had stayed the overnight on Friday. It had been rumoured that Ragland would walk her daughter down the aisle however it was confirmed on Friday that the Prince of Wales would walk his now-daughter-in-law to the altar.
Markle’s dress for the ceremony, the details of which were kept secret until the day of the wedding itself, was designed by British designer and first female artistic director of famed French fashion firm Givenchy, Clare Waight Keller. Kensington Palace said that the choice of designer was made based on her “timeless and elegant aesthetic” and “relaxed demeanour”. The silk dress was minimalistic and elegant in style - pure white with a boat neck - and was accompanied by a large veil embroidered with a flower from each of the 53 Commonwealth nations, hinting at the role the new Duchess wishes to play in the Commonwealth.
Meghan also carried a bouquet designed by Phillipa Craddock, which featured flowers handpicked by the couple from their private gardens, including white jasmine, sweet peas, lilies-of-the-valley and forget-me-nots, a favourite of the late Princess Diana. This was not the only tribute of the day to the mother of Harry and his best man, Prince William; as she left for the evening reception on Saturday night, Markle could be seen wearing a favourite turquoise ring of Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997. Biding with tradition and as seen at all Royal Weddings, the bouquet contained myrtle from a plant planted by Queen Victoria.
Unlike modern weddings where the bouquet is thrown by the bride, royal bouquets are usually laid on the tomb of the Unknown Warrior who was buried in Westminster Abbey after WW1 to remember those who lost their lives in battle.
The couple engaged in the much-anticipated first kiss on the steps of the chapel as they left as husband and wife. Fans of the couple had been gathered outside of the chapel and cheered the kiss - something which has become a royal tradition, last seen with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at their wedding in April 2011.
A royal procession followed which saw the couple wave to eager wedding watchers gathered on the streets of Windsor and on the long walk (see lead image above).
A more intimate evening reception of 200 relatives and close friends of the couple, with celebrity guests including James Corden, George Clooney and Serena Williams, took place at Frogmore House; after an outfit change for the newlyweds (a suit for Harry and a Stella McCartney gown for Meghan), guests enjoyed a sit down meal as well as less traditional foods such as burgers and candyfloss at an after-party with a “carnival atmosphere”. In another break with royal tradition, the bride decided to give a speech, alongside Harry, William and Prince Charles.
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