On their return from church, the royal family traditionally changes into formal attire for luncheon in the dining room at 1:15. They are served off china, crystal, and silver, with a menu in French that resembles an American Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner—roast turkey and all the fixings. The dining room, painted in a shade of pistachio known as Braemar green, with walnut and mahogany paneling, has a dark, intimate atmosphere, made all the more cozy with the addition of a pair of Christmas trees sparkling with fairy lights.
The $298 dress from the Canadian brand Club Monaco that Meghan wore during the Christmas lunch with her new family was the dark cherry polyester velvet midi-length Tay dress with fluttering cap sleeves. But what made it a rather daring choice for the afternoon (not to mention the future in-laws) and sent the Internet aflutter was the wrap dress’s plunging neckline.
Every hour is accounted for. The royal family’s Christmas Day tradition continues at three P.M., when they adjourn to the Saloon, a vast, high-ceilinged room decorated in shades of soft cream. Brussels tapestries adorn the walls. A trio of fluted Corinthian columns supports three Romanesque arches, above which is a balcony worked in wooden tracery. The entire unit is a hodgepodge of architectural elements that looks as if it had been imported from a church into a high Victorian manse.
The television in the Saloon is turned on so that everyone can watch the Queen’s Christmas address. Afterward, it’s usually a good time to walk off lunch, because tea is served promptly at five P.M.; and no one wants to miss the traditional Christmas sweets—brandy snaps, mince pies, and the Yule log.
In 2017, looking like a grandmotherly angel in snowy white, the Queen delivered her sixtieth annual Christmas broadcast. Seated at a desk topped with photos of herself and Prince Philip, and a double frame of her great-grandchildren Prince George and Princess Charlotte, the monarch opened with an excerpt from her very first televised message to her subjects in 1957, then added with a wry remark, “the presenter has evolved somewhat, as has the technology she described.” Her first few annual addresses were given over the wireless, after her ascension in 1952. Her Majesty traditionally speaks of faith and family, peace on earth, and goodwill to all; but with grim times comes the recognition of tragedy as well.
In 2017, the Queen mentioned the victims of the Caribbean hurricanes and the two terrorist attacks on British soil, as well as those who perished in the Grenfell Tower high-rise fire. The Queen mentioned Meghan obliquely in the context of looking forward to welcoming new members into the family in 2018, a sentiment that would also apply to William and Catherine’s third child, due to arrive in April.
There’s no telly watching permitted in the Saloon during the evening. That’s when the board games come out—except for Monopoly, which the royal family is forbidden from playing—because, as Prince Andrew explained, “it gets too vicious.” They can always step away from the dice and play charades, which remains a popular improv game with the Windsors. Harry evidently takes after his grandmother: the Queen is said to be an excellent mimic, and both are terrific charades players. With her acting skills, Meghan would probably excel at charades as well.
The annual Boxing Day shoot on December 26 is a big deal, especially to the Windsor men. Various birds of a feather meet their demise, including pheasant, partridge, quail, duck, and woodcock. Hunters eat lunch in a hut on the grounds, dining on venison stew, mashed potatoes, and sausages with fried plum pudding; and drinking whisky and tea to keep warm. When Harry was a boy, he couldn’t wait to be old enough to join his older relatives. His mother hated such excursions (“they’re always shooting things”). Meghan, who is very comfortable in her own skin, felt no pressure to “shoot things” just because the Windsors enjoy it so much, and out of respect for his fiancée’s compassion for animals and her dislike of blood sports, Harry did not participate in the 2017 Boxing Day shoot. Somewhere, Diana is smiling.
The couple capped off their holiday by spending New Year’s Eve in Monaco. Harry and Meghan flew coach to the South of France and took a quick helicopter ride to the tiny principality, where they met up with a group of friends for a glamorous celebration.
After Harry told BBC’s Radio 4 that Meghan had an “amazing Christmas” with his relatives, adding, “I suppose it’s the family she’s never had,” Meghan’s half sister Samantha, who currently resides in Florida, lashed out at her future in-law and at the media, tweeting, “Actually she has a very large family who were always there with her and for her. Our household was very normal, and when Dad and Doria divorced, we made it like it was so she had two houses. No one was estranged, she was just too busy.” What followed was a plug for Samantha’s book. Samantha’s brother and Meghan’s father also took umbrage at Harry’s remark.
There is nothing in Samantha’s tweet that would seem to contradict anything Meghan has ever said about growing up Markle. But what Harry had, perhaps awkwardly, been trying to express, was that some of Meghan’s family had not always been there for her lately.
Namely Samantha. After Meghan’s romance with Harry was made public, her older sister was coaxed out of the woodwork to dish the dirt and had terribly naughty things to say about Meghan. It makes one wonder if, as Samantha has claimed, she wishes her sister well and her tell-all is filled with only nice things about her, why then does she use a nasty nickname to refer to Meghan in the book’s title?
Family baggage aside, Meghan required a sizable suitcase for her first Christmas with the Windsors. They adore dressing up for the holidays, and multiple changes of clothing were a requirement. In many ways, it’s still one long Edwardian house party. Five changes of ensemble were mandated for Christmas Day alone. A peek inside Meghan’s trunk would have revealed evening gowns, day dresses, smart suits, and casual clothes, in case she changed her mind about the Boxing Day shoot—or just wanted to take a long walk with Harry through Sandringham’s vast acreage.
Except for the hats, the Barbour jackets (she does own several), and the Wellies, she might as well have been packing for a Suits promotional tour.
American Princess
Keen to have a more intimate wedding—by royal standards—Harry and Meghan also didn’t want to draw comparisons either to the 2011 nuptials of William and Catherine, which took place in Westminster Abbey, or the marriage of Harry’s parents, which was the first royal wedding to be held in London’s spectacular (and cavernous) St. Paul’s Cathedral.
For their ceremony, Harry, the first British royal to wed an American on his home turf, chose a venue that has sentimental meaning to them both. On Saturday, May 19, 2018, they will tie the knot in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The wedding reception will be held inside the castle in the vast red-carpeted St. George’s Hall, a hallmark of medieval heraldry. The cream-colored walls are adorned with portraits, alternating with armored knights standing atop pedestals represented by St. George’s shield. Standing on the floor below them are a series of carved busts resting on tall columns.
Dating back more than a thousand years to 1066, the thousand-room Windsor Castle has the most storied history of all of Great Britain’s royal residences, a constant through every reign. Harry visited the castle frequently when he was growing up, especially when he was a student at Eton, just a stone’s throw across the Thames.
The royal family itself has a deeply personal connection to St. George’s Chapel. The chapel itself, which dates to 1528, is the traditional site of funerals and memorial services. Several famous royals, including ten kings, among them Henry VIII, are interred there. It’s also the site of many family christenings—including Prince Harry’s—as well as weddings between royal couples who prefer to exchange their vows in a more intimate venue. Harry’s first cousin Princess Eugenie will marry her fiancé, Jack Brooksbank, in the chapel a few months after Meghan and Harry walk down the aisle.
Sitting atop the facade of St. George’s Chapel are seventy-six heraldic statues representing fourteen different animals, the Queen’s Beasts. The original sculptures dated
to the sixteenth century. However, Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, thought they spoiled the chapel’s aesthetics, so he ordered them removed. The current Beasts were placed there in 1925 after a renovation; they represent emblems of Great Britain and long-dead royals—among them the lion of England, the red dragon of Wales, the unicorn of Edward III, and the panther of the Seymour family, included because Jane Seymour is buried at St. George’s Chapel beside her husband Henry VIII.
The chapel’s fifteenth-century fan vaulted quire, where Meghan’s and Harry’s closest relations will likely be seated during the wedding ceremony, is hung with the colorful heraldic banners of the members of the Order of the Garter, and each stall is surmounted by their respective crests. The large stained-glass window above the altar, which has been restored many times and now features the images of seventy-five kings, princes, saints, and popes, refracts light like thousands of precious gemstones onto the black-and-white-tiled floor. Gaze skyward and you will see Tudor red and white roses concealing the seams in the vaulting. Worshipers are watched over by a continuous frieze of two hundred and fifty carved angels.
Compared to Westminster Abbey or St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. George’s Chapel conveys a more “human” and intimate scale, as it can seat only about 800 people. The most recent royal marriage performed there was the May 17, 2008, union of Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips to Canadian Autumn Kelly. Before embarking on a professional career as a management consultant, Autumn had worked as a bartender, model, and—gasp—actress. Prince Charles celebrated his marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles in St. George’s Chapel, although they did not have a church wedding there. Instead, having taken their vows in a civil ceremony in Windsor Guildhall earlier in the day, they received a blessing for their marriage inside the chapel.
St. George’s Chapel is also the spiritual home to the Order of the Garter, the world’s oldest order of chivalry. Inspired by Arthurian legend, the order was created by Edward III in 1348; its motto, honi soit qui mal y pense, translates to “Evil to him who thinks evil.”
Among those who might pause to consider these words are Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, the daughters of the divorced Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. They were reportedly not fond of Kate Middleton because of her middle-class origins; and Catherine’s beauty, poise, and popularity continues to eclipse theirs. Now they are said to be envious of the Queen’s swift acceptance of Meghan into the family. The princesses are evidently mortified that a woman of Meghan’s background would marry Harry (demonstrating that common is a word that applies equally to one’s behavior). Apparently, the two younger Yorks remain chagrined that Harry broke up with their aristocratic friend Cressy Bonas—to them a more suitable royal bride—although there were myriad reasons that Harry and Cressy were a mismatch in the long run.
According to several sources, including Woman’s Day, the princesses have seethed for some time over the Queen’s easy acceptance of an American commoner into the bosom of the royal family, as well as a perception fostered by their father Prince Andrew that Her Majesty favors Prince Charles’s family over theirs. For a pair of young women who wore hats to William and Catherine’s wedding that directly echoed those worn by the beastly stepsisters in the Disney classic Cinderella, Beatrice and Eugenie might wish to emulate kinder role models when they consider their headgear for Harry’s wedding to Meghan.
HARRY’S REPUTATION AS a rebel remained intact, even when it came to his wedding plans. He broke a royal tradition by choosing to get married on a weekend. The announcement of the wedding date had both traditionalists and sports fans in a tizzy. May 19 is the same day that Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, was executed in 1536 after a sham trial on the grounds of high treason and infidelity. (But perhaps new love erases bad karma?) Yet—horrors—after football (soccer to Americans) fans realized that the FA Cup final was scheduled to be played on May 19, 2018, they became miffed at the prospect of having to choose which event to watch—or attend. Prince William, who is the president of the Football Association, usually attends the final and presents the trophy to the winning club.
Kensington Palace assured football fans that the timing of the events would not clash. The celebration of Harry and Meghan’s nuptials would begin at noon, and the footie match would kick off several hours later, at five-thirty. The most affected party would be Prince William, who would have to dash the twenty-three miles back and forth between the two, in his effort to be present at all ceremonies and receptions, making it one of the busiest days of his life that hasn’t involved the birth of one of his children.
Another break with royal tradition that Harry and Meghan made was the choice to get married in the month of May. Queen Victoria refused to permit any of her large brood to wed during the month, observing a popular superstition of the day “Marry in May; rue the day.” And ever since, nearly every royal couple—even those who have exchanged their vows in the spring, such as Prince William and Catherine Middleton, and Prince Charles and Camilla—have chosen a different month, opting for April instead. The only recent exception is the May 17, 2008, wedding of Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly.
Although royal engagements tend to be quite short, allowing only a few months in which to plan and produce an event with such pomp, splendor, and pageantry, May 2018 was the soonest that Meghan and Harry could tie the knot. When it came time for the couple to select their wedding date, they had to be mindful of state events on the Court Calendar, as well as personal family ones.
The due date for the Duchess of Cambridge’s third child was projected for April 2018. All thought it courteous to permit Catherine a few weeks of rest after the birth. On May 2, the family would be celebrating Princess Charlotte’s third birthday.
Additionally, Harry’s “gramps,” the Duke of Edinburgh, who only recently retired from his royal duties, would celebrate his ninety-seventh birthday on June 10, 2018. Naturally, the prince was keen for his grandfather to share his wedding day.
One thing Queen Victoria might have been pleased by, however, was the news that Meghan might carry a sprig of myrtle in her wedding bouquet.
The romance surrounding these creamy white blooms dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, when myrtle was associated with Aphrodite and Venus, their respective goddesses of love and beauty, laughter, protection, and joy. Myrtle was also the symbol of marriage to the ancient Hebrews. As the centuries progressed, myrtle continued to be emblematic of love and desire, associated with sex because it was an ingredient in many love potions, believed to be helpful in creating and preserving love. In English folklore it was held that “marriage will follow shortly after the myrtle blooms,” so in Victorian times it became a symbol of fidelity. Queen Victoria herself was knowledgeable about the language of flowers. Prince Albert’s grandmother gave her a cutting of myrtle, which was planted at Osborne House, the queen’s residence on the Isle of Wight. When Victoria and Albert’s oldest child, Princess Victoria, married Frederick III of Prussia, the future Kaiser Wilhelm I, in 1858, she carried a sprig from her mother’s myrtle bush in her wedding bouquet, and a tradition was inaugurated. Myrtle has been a feature of royal wedding bouquets ever since.
Catherine Middleton’s myrtle came from Victoria’s own garden in Osborne. Meghan may continue this tradition in its classic form or opt to give it a more modern twist, incorporating the blue-black or amber myrtle fruit itself into her bouquet. Myrtle berry leaves are a glossy green with a spicy orange citrus scent. Another floral tradition would be to incorporate May’s birth flower, the lily of the valley, whose light scent is said to lure the nightingale to his mate, and which Harry’s mother carried in her bouquet when she married his father. It would be a sentimental nod to Diana; and in the language of flowers, the lily of the valley symbolizes both trust and the return of happiness: doubly apt metaphors for a May bride, like Meghan, who is marrying for the second time.
Because wedding bouquets tend to blend tradition with the br
ide’s personal taste, it’s possible that Meghan would include peonies in her bouquet. Years ago, on her Instagram page she posted photos of these large and lush but delicate blooms and declared her affinity for them. And shortly after she and Harry began dating, he sent her a lavish bouquet of the pink and white blossoms. Meghan posted a photo of the arrangement to her Instagram feed with the caption “Swooning over these. #London #peonies #spoiledrotten.”
Meghan might also carry orange blossoms, which in times past were woven into a wreath and worn by royal brides as a headdress with their veils, another tradition that began with Queen Victoria.
At many British weddings, including recent royal ones, young children act as bridesmaids and page boys rather than adult bridesmaids and groomsmen supporting the bridal couple. Harry has already invited his nephew and niece Prince George and Princess Charlotte to have some part in the ceremony. Little Ivy Mulroney, the daughter of Meghan’s best friend and stylist Jessica Mulroney, is also expected to be in the wedding party. Jessica, who is a daughter-in-law of Canada’s former prime minister Brian Mulroney, has also acted as a fashion stylist to the Duchess of Cambridge and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, spouse of the current prime minister of Canada.
Yet the British tradition of children attending the bride, dressed like idyllic illustrations from a Victorian picture book, is not set in stone. In 1947, when Princess Elizabeth (now queen) married Prince Philip, and when her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, married the Duke of York in 1923, adult bridesmaids—young ladies of aristocratic breeding and impeccable character—carried their long trains. The same was true of Queen Victoria’s wedding in 1840.
It remains to be seen whether Meghan, being American, asks a number of her adult girlfriends to be her bridesmaids, as a way of honoring women who have been a special part of her life, as well as incorporating part of her own background and culture into the ceremony. She might even bend tradition by having her mother, her closest family member and lifelong best friend, be the parent to walk her down the aisle.
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