Starring roles for Charlotte and George at Pippa wedding
PIPPA Middleton’s wedding will be given the star treatment with the help of two extra special guests.
Prince George and Princess Charlotte will play key roles as their aunt gets married next month, it was revealed last night.
Kensington Palace confirmed the children will be page boy and bridesmaid when the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister weds financier James Matthews on May 20.
Princess Charlotte, who will have just celebrated her second birthday on May 2, will walk down the aisle with Miss Middleton at the secluded St Mark’s Church in Englefield, Berkshire.
Three-year-old Prince George will act as page boy as his aunt marries the 41-year-old hedge fund manager.
The couple got engaged last summer after Eton-educated Mr Matthews proposed on a trip to the Lake District after less than a year of dating.
A spokesman for Kensington Palace said: ‘The service will be attended by close family and friends, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
‘Prince George will be a page boy, and Princess Charlotte will be a bridesmaid.’
The statement appears to settle speculation over whether the Duchess of Cambridge herself would be a bridesmaid, omitting her name from the list of official duties.
At the Royal wedding in 2011, Miss Middleton was maid of honour when she stole the spotlight from her sister with her striking figurehugging white Alexander McQueen dress.
But there is no danger of 33-yearold Pippa being upstaged at her own wedding as she is said to be enforcing a ban on unattached girlfriends – including actress Meghan Markle, who is dating Prince Harry. The wedding will take place in the 12th-century church on a private estate that is owned by Tory MP Richard Benyon.
Resident priest the Rev Nick Wynne-Jones will officiate, a church spokesman said yesterday.
The church is only a few miles from the village of Bucklebury where Miss Middleton grew up with her elder sister Catherine and younger brother James.
After the service, the newlyweds are expected to travel to the Middleton’s £6million family home for the reception, believed to be held in a grand marquee in their 18-acre garden.
Other key guests are Mr Matthews’ parents, David Matthews and Jane Parker, and his reality TV star brother Spencer, who is expected to be best man.