It was an event watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world on television screens. Although the royal wedding looked like a fairy tale, the marriage of Diana and Charles unfortunately did not end happily. But how did the big day of the young girl, who could not even eat due to nervousness, and a few days before the ceremony thought that she would cancel the party?
If the fans of the royal family were really impatiently waiting for something before the ceremony, then it was the wedding dress. At the time, Diana wanted to support British designers, so she chose siblings Elizabeth and David Emanuel from London, who were just starting out in the fashion industry.
Speculation about what robes Charles’s fiancée would eventually wear did not end. If some newspapers managed to get a design or even a picture of a bride’s dress at the time, it would be worth a million. But the young creators tried to prevent this at all costs. From the first days when they started working on clothes, the windows of the salon were constantly covered with blinds, and the secret robe was even guarded by special security.
The longest siding and talismans for good luck
In the end, heavy, ruffled dresses with distinctive shoulders were created, which rightly ranked among the most famous clothes in history. The robe had the longest siding in the history of British royal weddings, measuring an incredible 7.6 meters. Diana had to practice walking in her clothes for a long time, and it is no wonder that the journey to the altar where Prince Charles stood took her 3.5 minutes. The dress was so bulky that Diana’s father, Earl John Spencer, could barely fit in the carriage.
According to tradition, the robe hid two trifles, a small blue ribbon and a gold horseshoe decorated with diamonds, which were supposed to bring happiness to the couple. However, as it turned out later, even the talismans could not provide the newlyweds with a joyful and fulfilling relationship.
Charles dated Diana’s sister first
Prince Charles might never have married Diana if he didn’t have to get married quickly. But once he was in his thirties, the media put incredible pressure on him to introduce his wife to the public as soon as possible. However, Camilla’s ex-girlfriend married Brigadier General Parker Bowles after their breakup, so the future British king had to look elsewhere.
Before Charles began to choose the future bride, he received precise instructions on what his future bride should meet. He was to bring a young, innocent girl from a noble family to Buckingham Palace, who would look up to him. That’s exactly what Diana did, and Charles soon began to court her. “Apart from her noble birth, Diana, which the royal court considered most important, was a virgin with the qualities necessary for a future queen,” reads Vanity Fair, for example. Shortly before, Charles dated her sister Sarah.
They both wanted to back out of the wedding
It was later revealed that the couple had only met thirteen times before the wedding. But there was definitely nothing wrong with the couple, because other people were always present at their meetings. No wonder that just before the ceremony, the two couples felt that they did not even know each other properly and were thinking about how to back out of the marriage at the last minute. While Charles wanted to cancel the wedding, Diana, despite her youthful naivete, sensed that her future husband did not take Camilla as an ordinary friend.
Terrified, Diana confided in her two sisters, who told her plainly that the way back no longer existed. “It is too late for any step back. Your face and name are already printed on flags, T-shirts and mugs, “said the nurses without packaging at the time. Camilla’s mistress was even in the cathedral among the wedding guests, and Diana began to suffer from bulimia for the first time. In the end, she was told that the wedding was in fact the worst day of her life.
As if the war had just ended
The princess later admitted that she was very nervous during the ceremony and probably that is why she mispronounced Charles’s name. 750 million people watched television worldwide. Pubs and bars were open throughout the UK from early in the morning until late at night. It was celebrated as if tomorrow was not to come, and some Britons likened the wedding to the end of World War II.
I will definitely not listen to you
It is no great secret that Princess Diana, with her unconventional approach, humanized the royal monarchy and changed a number of established rules. She started this at the wedding, when she refused to promise Charles obedience as part of her newlyweds’ vows. She broke a century-old tradition and set a precedent for other brides, and so did Kate or Meghan, marrying Prince William and Harry.
During the wedding feast paid by Queen Elizabeth II, luxury dishes such as lobster sauce or meat delicacies were served. Rare Cuvée Dom Perignon 1961 champagne was drunk with them, which was not a randomly selected year. The year corresponded to the date of the bride’s birth. According to historian Angela Clutton, the reception was much more modest than it was at previous royal weddings. “The menu was definitely simpler, and with fewer courses than was typical of earlier generations. It definitely showed that the couple decided to take the wedding in a more modern spirit, “Clutton said a few years ago for Huffington Post.
The cake had five floors and weighed 100 kilos
Nevertheless, thousands of wedding guests certainly did not suffer during the feast. For example, confectioners made twenty-seven cakes, each a little different. The official wedding cake had five floors, measured one and a half meters and weighed over a hundred kilos. “It was a fruit cake designed by David Avery. It was decorated with, among other things, flowers, the coat of arms of the royal family and the initials of the couple, “says the website Smithsonian Magazine. “The last remaining slice of this culinary gem was auctioned in 2018 for 32,000 crowns,” he wrote for lightning former castle protocoler Jindřich Forejt.
After several years of marriage, Charles followed the voice of his heart and began to reunite with his longtime girlfriend Camilla. Diana succumbed to bulimia, attempted suicide, and sought solace in the arms of many lovers. Exactly one year after the divorce of the royal couple, a tragedy occurred in the Paris tunnel. The car in which Princess Diana was driving and her then-friend Dodi Al-Fayed crashed into a pillar at high speed, and the princess died several hours after being transported to the hospital. She was only thirty-six years old.
Check out the wedding of Diana and Prince Charles. They married on July 29, 1981.
