The wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral in London, United Kingdom. The groom was the heir to the British throne. The bride was a member of the prominent Spencer family.
The ceremony was a traditional Church of England wedding service. The Dean of St Paul's Cathedral Alan Webster presided at the service, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie conducted the marriage. Notable figures in attendance included many members of royal families from across the world, republican heads of state, and members of the bride's and groom's families. After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The United Kingdom had a national holiday on that day to mark the wedding. The ceremony featured many ceremonial aspects, including use of the state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry.
Their marriage was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" and the "wedding of the century". It was watched by an estimated global TV audience of 750 million people. Events were held around the Commonwealth to mark the wedding. Many street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom to celebrate the occasion. The couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.
Video Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
Engagement
The Prince of Wales had known Lady Diana Spencer for several years. They first met in 1977. He took serious interest in her as a potential bride in 1980 when they were guests at a country weekend, where she watched him play polo. He invited her for a sailing weekend to Cowes aboard the royal yacht Britannia as their relationship began to develop. This was followed by an invitation to Balmoral Castle, the Windsor family's Scottish home, to meet his family. Diana was well received at Balmoral by the Queen, Prince Philip, and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The couple then had several dates in London. Diana and Charles had been seeing each other for about six months when he proposed on 3 February 1981 in the nursery at Windsor Castle. Diana had planned a holiday for the next week, and Charles hoped she would use the time to consider her answer. Diana accepted, but their engagement was kept secret for the next few weeks. Diana later claimed that the couple had met only 13 times in total before the announcement of their engagement.
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, and the couple gave an exclusive interview. Diana selected an elegant, large £30,000 engagement ring that consisted of 14 solitaire diamonds surrounding a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire set in 18-karat white gold.
Two nights before the wedding, a gala ball was held at Buckingham Palace, and the Queen subsequently hosted a dinner for a crowd of 90 individuals.
Maps Wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
Wedding
3,500 guests made up the congregation at St Paul's Cathedral. Charles and Diana selected St Paul's over Westminster Abbey, the traditional site of royal weddings, because St. Paul's offered more seating and permitted a longer procession through London.
The ceremony was a traditional Church of England wedding service, presided over by the Most Reverend Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Very Reverend Alan Webster, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. An estimated 750 million people watched the ceremony worldwide, and this figure allegedly rose to a billion when the radio audience is added in, although there are no means of verifying these figures. 660,000 spectators lined the route of Diana's procession from Clarence House, with 4,000 police and 2,201 military officers to manage the crowds. The security increased and sharpshooters were stationed due to the potential threat of an attack by the Irish Republican guerrillas. The security screenings in the airports also increased. The cost of the wedding was later estimated to be $48 million in total (between $70 and $110 when adjusted for inflation) with $600,000 being spent on security.
All of the Queen's governors-general, as well as Europe's crowned heads, attended, with the exception of King Juan Carlos I of Spain. (The Spanish king was advised not to attend by his government because the newlyweds' honeymoon included a stopover in the disputed territory of Gibraltar). Most of Europe's elected heads of state were among the guests, with the exceptions of the President of Greece, Constantine Karamanlis (who declined because Greece's exiled monarch, Constantine II, a kinsman and friend of the bridegroom, had been invited as "King of the Hellenes"), and the President of Ireland, Patrick Hillery (who was advised by Taoiseach Charles Haughey not to attend because of the dispute over the status of Northern Ireland). First Lady Nancy Reagan represented the United States at the wedding.
Regiments from the Commonwealth realms participated in the procession, including the Royal Regiment of Canada.
Lady Diana arrived at the cathedral in the Glass Coach with her father, John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer; she was escorted by six mounted Metropolitan Police officers. She arrived almost on time for the 11:20 BST ceremony. The carriage was too small to hold the two of them comfortably due to her voluminous dress and train. As the choir sang "Trumpet Voluntary", an anthem by Jeremiah Clarke, the bride made the three-and-a-half minute walk up the aisle.
Diana accidentally changed the order of Charles's names during her vows, saying "Philip Charles Arthur George" instead of the correct "Charles Philip Arthur George". She did not promise to "obey" him as part of the traditional vows. That word was eliminated at the couple's request, which caused a sensation at the time. Charles also made an error. He said he would offer her "thy goods" instead of "my worldly goods". In keeping with tradition, the couple's wedding rings were crafted from Welsh gold. The tradition of using Welsh gold within the wedding rings of the Royal Family dates back to 1923. Upon marriage Diana automatically acquired the title of Princess of Wales.
Other church representatives present who gave prayers after the service were a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, Cardinal Basil Hume, the Right Reverend Andrew Doig and the Reverend Harry Williams CR.
Three choirs, three orchestras and a fanfare ensemble played the music for the service. These were the Bach Choir, the Choir of St. Paul's Cathedral, the Choir of the Chapel Royal, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra and a fanfare ensemble from the Royal Military School. The choirs were conducted by Barry Rose, the choirmaster at St. Paul's Cathedral. The cathedral's organist, Christopher Dearnley; and its sub-organist, John Scott; played the organ. The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra were conducted by Sir David Willcocks, who was the director of the Royal College of Music; Richard Popplewell, the organist at Chapel Royal; and Sir Colin Davis, who was the musical director of Covent Garden. Music and songs used during the wedding included the "Prince of Denmark's March", "I Vow to Thee, My Country", "Pomp and Circumstance No.4" and the British National Anthem. New Zealand soprano, Kiri Te Kanawa sang "Let The Bright Seraphim" from G.F.Handel's SAMSON.
Clothing
Diana's wedding dress was valued at £9,000 (equivalent to £31,658 in 2016), The dress was made of ivory silk taffeta, decorated with lace, hand embroidery, sequins, and 10,000 pearls. It was designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel and had a 25-foot train of ivory taffeta and antique lace. The dress was designed according to Diana's wishes who wanted it to have the longest train in the royal wedding history. The bride wore her Spencer family's heirloom tiara, and had her hair styled short crop down. She wore a pair of low-heeled shoes "with C and D initials hand-painted on her arches". For the customary bridal themes of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue", Diana's gown had an antique lace "made with a fabric spun at a British silk farm" (the "old"), the Spencer family tiara (the "borrowed"), and a blue bow sewn into the waistband (the "blue"). The official parfumeur of the royal wedding was the House of Houbigant, the oldest French fragrance company. Diana was reported to have accidentally spilled perfume over a part of her dress which she later covered by hand during the ceremony. Per the Queen's orders, two similar bouquets were prepared for the bride by David Longman which contained "gardenias, stephanotis, odontolglossum orchid, lily of the valley, Earl Mountbatten roses, freesia, veronica, ivy, myrtle and trasdescantia". Charles wore his full dress naval commander uniform.
Attendants
The royal couple had seven bridal attendants. Eleven-year-old Lord Nicholas Windsor, son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and eight-year-old Edward van Cutsem, godsons of the Prince of Wales, were page boys. Diana's bridesmaids were seventeen-year-old Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, daughter of the Earl of Snowdon and Princess Margaret; thirteen-year-old India Hicks, the granddaughter of the Earl Mountbatten of Burma and daughter of David and Lady Pamela Hicks; six-year-old Catherine Cameron, daughter of Donald and Lady Cecil Cameron and granddaughter of the Marquess of Lothian; eleven year-old Sarah-Jane Gaselee, daughter of Nick Gaselee and his wife; and five-year-old Clementine Hambro, daughter of Rupert Hambro and the Hon Mrs Hambro (now Countess Peel) and granddaughter of Lord and Lady Soames and great-granddaughter of Sir Winston Churchill. Andrew and Edward were the Prince of Wales's supporters (the equivalent of "best man" for a royal wedding).
Reception
The couple and 120 guests went to Buckingham Palace for a wedding breakfast following the ceremony. Diana and Charles made a traditional appearance on a balcony of Buckingham Palace at 13:10 BST, and delighted the crowd when they kissed, initiating the tradition of kissing the bride on the balcony. The couple received gifts from foreign officials including "an engraved Steuben glass bowl and a handmade porcelain centerpiece by Boehm" from the US, a set of antique Canadian furniture, handcrafted silver platters from Australia, and "a matching diamond and sapphire watch, bracelet, pendant, ring, and earrings" from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.
The couple had 27 wedding cakes. The Naval Armed Forces supplied the official wedding cake. David Avery, head baker at the Royal Naval cooking school in Chatham Kent, made the cake over 14 weeks. They made two identical cakes in case one was damaged. The Prince of Wales's coat of arms and the Spencer family's crest were used in the decoration of the five-foot-tall layered fruitcake which weighed 225 pounds. The couple's other wedding cake was created by Belgian pastry chef S. G. Sender, who was known as the "cakemaker to the kings". Another wedding cake was created by Chef Nicholas Lodge; Chef Nicholas had previously made the Queen Mother's 80th Birthday Cake and would be commissioned to create a Christening Cake for Prince Harry. A slice of the couple's wedding cake was later auctioned off by Julien's Auctions in 2018 and was estimated to sell between $800-$1,200.
The wedding ceremony was positively received by the public, and according to The New York Times symbolised "the continuity of the monarchy" in the UK. A number of ceremonies and parties were held at different places by the public to celebrate the occasion across the United Kingdom. The wedding was widely broadcast on television and radio in many countries, and news channels covered the ceremony in different languages. Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom John Betjeman released a poem in honour of the couple.
A group of people left London and travelled to France and Ireland in protest to the wedding, while some released black balloons over London amidst the wedding procession.
Honeymoon
A "just married" sign was attached to the landau by Princes Andrew and Edward. The couple was driven over Westminster Bridge to catch the train from Waterloo station to Romsey in Hampshire to begin their honeymoon. The couple left from Waterloo station in the British Royal Train + 975025 Caroline. They travelled to Broadlands, where Prince Charles's parents had spent their wedding night in 1947. They stayed there for three days, then flew to Gibraltar, where they boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia for an eleven-day cruise of the Mediterranean, visiting Tunisia, Sardinia, Greece and Egypt. Then they flew to Scotland, where the rest of the royal family had gathered at Balmoral Castle, and spent time in a hunting lodge on the estate. During that time, the press was given an arranged opportunity to take pictures.
See also
- List of wedding guests of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Dimbleby, Jonathan (1994). The Prince of Wales: A Biography. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-12996-X.
- Morton, Andrew (1997) [1992]. Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85080-X.
External links
- "Wedding of Charles and Diana". Times Online. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009.
- The Royal Wedding Cakes, Classic Celebration Cakes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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