Harry & Meghan’s wedding details trickling out
Tantalizing tidbits emerge as Kensington Palace prepares for the May 19 event. What we know and don’t know.
A little more than eight weeks to go and we know a wee bit more about the plans for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding as Kensington Palace continues to dribble out tantalizing details. Tidbits about the cake, the invitations, the reception venue and the commemorative china are coming into focus, but we’re still in the dark about the most tantalizing detail of all. Here’s what we know so far, and what we don’t:
The dress
Who will create the wedding gown for the most unprecedented royal bride in centuries?
When Markle, 36, walks down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, will she be in a frothy princessy-style confection of the sort worn by Harry’s mother, Lady Diana Spencer, in 1981? Or an elegant couture stunner by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen like that worn by Kate Middleton when she married Harry’s brother, Prince William, in 2011?
As always when it comes to royal speculation, let’s go to the bookies.
In February, a surge of wagers on McQueen caused London’s bookmakers to suspend taking bets (in case a leak gave some punters unfair advantage) on that design house, still a favorite of Duchess Kate of Cambridge.
Then last month, after a similar flurry, Ladbrokes suspended bets on Britain’s couture house Ralph & Russo. The team of Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo have been touted as front-runners ever since Markle wore one of their exquisite creations in one of her official engagement photos.
Another designer with high odds is
Here’s a safe bet: We won’t find out for sure about Meghan Markle’s dress until she arrives at the chapel door.
Roland Mouret, the London-based Frenchman who is a friend of Markle’s. Some fashion-followers are convinced he dropped hints he might get the job in a recent interview with WWD when he was asked directly. “Mmmmm, I don’t want to say. No comment. It’s … there is no comment on that. She’s a friend. And that’s … I can’t say.”
He also told the New York Post that Markle “knows really well what she likes and the main thing with Meghan is to listen to her and work in collaboration with her.” Then he clammed up, adding: “I’ve already said too much.”
Meanwhile, some news outlets reported months ago the designer had been chosen. In January, ABC News cited a series of tweets by British royal reporter Omid Scobie about how Markle had chosen the designer and dress, had her first fitting at Kensington Palace and was relying on her Canadian pal/stylist Jessica Mulroney for help in planning the nuptials.
Here’s a safe bet: We won’t find out for sure about Markle’s dress until she arrives at the chapel door.
The cake
Think spring: Lemon, elderflower, fresh flowers. The palace announced the wedding cake will be a lemon elderflower concoction incorporating “the bright flavors of spring,” covered with buttercream and adorned with fresh flowers.
And it will have an American flavor — California, specifically: Claire Ptak is the chosen confectioner. She was raised in California and worked as a pastry chef under the celebrated Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and now runs Violet Bakery in London.
The invitations
In the mail, the palace announced. Who’s getting one? The guest list has not been released yet, and it might not be until the day of the wedding.
But now we know 600 people will be in the chapel for the nuptials and at the luncheon reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth II later at St. George’s Hall in the castle State Apartments.
The palace released pictures of the invites. Printed in gold and black American-made ink on English card stock and featuring the three-feathered badge of the Prince of Wales (Harry’s father), they were made by Barnard & Westwood, which has supplied royal invitations since 1985.
The dinner reception venue
This is the private sit-down dinner for 200 hosted by Prince Charles after the main reception at the castle. It’s going to be at Frogmore House, the 17th-century manor on the castle estate best known as a former royal family home and the site of the royal mausoleum where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are buried.
Frogmore is a favorite of Harry and Meghan, who posed for some of their engagement photos there.
The china
OK, it’s not their personal china, but the “official commemorative English fine bone china” sold to tourists and royal fans as souvenirs by the Buckingham Palace Shop.
According to the palace, the china is handmade in England using methods unchanged for 250 years.
The design features a monogram of the couple’s initials tied together with white ribbons and surmounted by the coronet of Prince Harry. The decorative borders are inspired by the mid-13thcentury Gilebertus door at St. George’s Chapel, one of the few surviving parts of the earliest chapel at Windsor Castle.
Prices range from about $15 for an official Harry and Meghan tea towel to about $70 for an official Harry and Meghan commemorative plate.
Proceeds go to the Royal Collection Trust, the charity that cares for and manages the Royal Collection of art, museums and palaces open to the public.
The baptism
Markle is now a member of the Church of England, headed by her soonto-be grandmother-in-law, the queen.
We know this because news of the private ceremony at the Chapel Royal in St. James’ Palace in London leaked out to British media. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (the day-to-day head of the church) later confirmed it.
Welby, who will be officiating the wedding and officiated at the baptism, said he could say almost nothing about that ritual but did describe it as “very special. It was beautiful, sincere and very moving. It was a great privilege.”
It used to be that British royals, especially those close to the throne, could not marry outside the Church of England, if they wanted to keep their place in the succession. (Harry will be sixth in line.) But those rules have been somewhat relaxed recently.
Still, Markle, whose religious upbringing is unspecified (she attended a Catholic school growing up, and her first wedding to a Jewish man featured Jew- ish traditions), chose to join the church as one of the most important symbols of joining the royal family: The Church of England would not exist but for Henry VIII in the 16th century and his determination to divorce Wife #1.
The crowd and the carriage
Since they’re getting married within the smaller confines of Windsor, Harry and Meghan sought to arrange their wedding so that as many people as possible could share the experience.
The couple have invited 2,640 people to watch them and their guests arrive at and depart from St George’s, including 1,200 people nominated by authorities in nine of the United Kingdom’s regions, as well as charity workers, local children, and employees of the queen.
After the noon wedding, the newly married couple will board a royal carriage and proceed via Castle Hill along the High Street and through Windsor Town, returning to the castle along the famous Long Walk. The short procession will allow more of the crowds outside the castle walls to see the couple.
The flowers
The couple have chosen English floral designer Philippa Craddock to create the arrangements. Craddock will direct a team that includes florists from St. George’s Chapel and Buckingham Palace to create the displays at the chapel and St. George’s Hall.
The arrangements are set to include locally sourced foliage as well as plants that are in season, including branches of beech, birch, hornbeam, white garden roses, peonies and foxgloves.
Once the wedding is over, the flowers will be given to charities.
Still unanswered but the focus of feverish speculation
Who will be invited among Markle’s family besides her father, Thomas Markle Sr., a former Hollywood lighting director now retired in Baja California, Mexico, and her mother, Doria Ragland, a social worker and yoga teacher who lives in Los Angeles?
Will both parents, who are divorced, walk her down the aisle? Will Markle have multiple pals in her bridal party? What role will Harry’s royal relatives, such as nephew Prince George and niece Princess Charlotte, play? Will Markle make a speech at the reception?
Stay tuned.