So, is one of these in the post for you?
Harry and Meghan’s wedding invitations revealed (and three of his former flames can expect one!)
THEY will be thudding on to the doormats of some 600 lucky guests any day now.
But while Kensington Palace revealed yesterday what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding invitations look like, the list of those receiving one is still a secret.
That may, in part, be because three of Harry’s old flames are believed to be among those on it.
Ex-girlfriends Cressida Bonas and Chelsy Davy are said to have been sent invitations along with singer Ellie Goulding, who was once romantically linked with the prince.
Zimbabwean Miss Davy, 32, dated Harry on and off between 2004 and 2010. Actress and model Miss Bonas, 29, went out with the prince for two years after being introduced to him by Princess Eugenie in 2012.
Pop star Miss Goulding, 31, sang at the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011. She subsequently exchanged texts with Harry and was said to have been spotted sharing a kiss with him at a polo party in 2016, shortly before he met Miss Markle.
They will join guests at the ceremony and reception in Windsor on May 19.
The gilded cards, sent out by the groom’s father Prince Charles this week, were created by the Queen’s printers Barnard & Westwood using a machine
‘Cool, calm and unflappable’
dating back to the 1930s. Miss Markle, a former calligrapher, helped choose the design and typeface. Printed on extra strong British card using American ink, the invitations feature the Prince of Wales’s badge of three feathers.
They took two days to print and the guests’ names were added later by a calligraphy printer, the palace said.
The invitations read: ‘His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales KG KT requests the pleasure of the company of ....... at the Marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on Saturday 19th May, 2018 at 12 Noon, followed by a Reception at Windsor Castle.’
The dress code is uniform, morning coat or lounge suit for men, day dress with hat for women – suggesting that Harry will wear military uniform, probably that of the Royal Marines, as he is their Captain General.
Although it is traditionally the bride’s parents who send out wedding invitations, royal protocol dictates that they come from a senior member of the Royal Family, not least because royal weddings can often be semi-state occasions and their sheer size means that they are paid for by the monarch and their family.
William and Kate’s invitations were sent out in the Queen’s name. A royal aide explained: ‘The Duke and Duchess’s wedding was a state occasion, and therefore the invitations had to come from the Head of State.
‘In this case, as a wedding for family and friends, it was deemed more fitting to be issued by The Prince of Wales … because it still is a royal wedding, hosted by the Royal Family on a royal estate.’
After the ceremony at St George’s Chapel, the Queen will host at a lunchtime reception in the castle’s St George’s Hall. That evening, around 200 of the bride and groom’s closest family and friends will attend a private reception given for the couple by Prince Charles at Frogmore House in Windsor Home Park, about half a mile from the castle.
A private royal residence since 1792, it was chosen by Harry, 33, and Miss Markle, 36, as the backdrop for their official engagement photos. Harry has drafted in a trusted former aide, Thea Garwood, to help plan his big day.
She joined William and Harry’s staff in 2007 as an engagements secretary when they were planning their Diana Memorial pop concert and quickly became an indispensable part of their lives.
She left the royal household a few years ago when she started a family but has agreed to come back and help oversee the wedding plans. Described as ‘beautiful, cool, calm and unflappable’ she has been having regular meetings with royal aides at Buckingham Palace, liaising largely through the Queen’s assistant private secretary, Samantha Cohen.
Further details about the wedding will be announced soon, with the children of Miss Markle’s close friends Jessica Mulroney and Benita Litt expected to be among the bridesmaids and page boys, as are Prince George and Princess Charlotte, Zara Phillips’ daughter Mia Tindall and Jasper Dwyer, Harry’s godson and the eldest son of his mentor Mark Dwyer.
Although Kensington Palace has not revealed the guest list, the Mail understands that Harry has insisted on inviting a large number of military personnel that he has become good friends with through his work in the forces and with the Invictus Games.