Fans descend on Windsor for Harry and Meghan’s lavish royal wedding
WINDSOR, England: Thousdands of fans gathered in the English town of Windsor for the lavish royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday, a union that supporters hope will inject new life into a monarchy striving to stay relevant in the modern age.
Millions are expected to watch on TV when Elizabeth’s popular grandson and the American star of the TV drama “Suits” tie the knot at the 15th Century St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world.
As dawn broke over the castle’s ancient stone walls, excited crowds began to assemble behind barriers lining Windsor’s genteel lanes, many draped in British and American flags. Police armed with semi-automatic weapons patrolled the streets and monitorered from nearby roofs.
“I just think it will be magical. There will be so much shouting and cheering and noise. I love the royal family,” said Ronda Musgrove, 59, who camped overnight on the street opposite.
More than 100,000 fans are expected to cram the narrow roads of Windsor, about 20 miles (30 km) west of London. Security was tight and visitors had to pass through police search points set up around the castle, home to 39 English monarchs since 1066.
The world’s media has been gripped by the union of Harry, 33, the sixth-in-line to the British throne, and Markle, 36, a divorcee whose mother is African-American and father is white, and hundreds of TV crews have descended on Windsor.
To some black Britons, the wedding is a fairytale which personifies the breakdown of barriers and reveals a more modern Britain where a person’s background is no obstacle to even the most elite and traditional of institutions.
To others, it is an irrelevance or mild distraction to the schism of Brexit which has deeply divided the United Kingdom, and polls have suggested that most Britons will not bother tuning in to watch the event.
The hour-long ceremony begins at 1100 GMT.
The bride will arrive at the church with her mother, Doria Ragland, 61, with whom she spent Friday night at a luxury hotel. Harry was staying at another hotel with elder brother and best man Prince William, whose daughter Charlotte and son George will be among the bridesmaids and page boys.
Markle will enter the chapel unescorted. Then Harry’s father and heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles will walk his future daughter-in-law down the aisle.
Her own father Thomas Markle, 73, a lighting director for TV soaps and sitcoms, pulled out this week, telling the US celebrity website TMZ he had undergone heart surgery on Wednesday.
Confusion over his attendance marred the build-up to the wedding, which had been carefully choreographed for months by royal aides and his name still appears in the order of service.
On Friday, Ragland met the 92-year-old monarch and her husband Prince Philip, 96, who will be among the senior royals in the 600-strong congregation. It will also include a smattering of celebrities, including fellow cast members of Markle from “Suits”.
The service will be conducted by the Dean of Windsor with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, overseeing the exchange of vows. A black US bishop, Most Reverend Michael Bruce Curry, will give the wedding address.
In a sign of modernity for the royals, Harry will wear a ring while Markle will not vow to obey her husband. Senior male British royals do not traditionally wear rings.
Interspersed with traditional hymns, a choir will perform American soul singer Ben E. King’s 196o’s hit “Stand by me”.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds are expected to greet some of the 1,200 members of the public specially invited into the grounds of the castle before setting off on a carriage procession through Windsor.
A reception will be held in the castle’s St George’s Hall before 200 guests join the couple at an evening event at Frogmore House, another grand mansion in the grounds.