Tule Royal Wedding, PLANNING A ROYAL WEDDING 3: BEHIND THE SCENES

GIVEAWAY: We will be giving away a print copy of Liz Fielding’s The Bridesmaid’s Royal Bodyguard. Comment in our post with what you’re looking forward to in Harry and Meghan’s upcoming wedding! As this will be a continuing blog series, make sure to comment on all related posts leading up to the wedding for a chance to win each book in the Royal Wedding Invitations series!
We will announce the winners in our weekly newsletter, so make sure to subscribe if you haven’t already!

PLANNING A ROYAL WEDDING 3: BEHIND THE SCENES
Jessica Hart and Liz Fielding

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle marry at Windsor Castle on 19 May, we’ll all be eager to see the fairy-tale elements of a royal wedding: the majestic setting of Windsor Castle, the gathering of royal guests, the cheering crowds lining the street, the horse-drawn carriage taking the bride and groom through Windsor and then back to the Castle along the iconic Long Walk to a reception in St George’s Hall.

The Long Walk and Windsor Castle

We won’t see how much work and planning goes on behind the scenes to ensure that the wedding and reception goes off without a hitch. Anyone who has planned a wedding knows how much thought has to go into every tiny detail; imagine that you are a royal bride and need to think in addition about where the television cameras will go, security, involving the public, planning a processional route …

 

If she’s sensible, Meghan Markle will have passed many of these decisions onto the experienced members of the royal household who are old hands at running royal events with the meticulous precision for which the British monarchy is famous.  The horses and carriage that will take Meghan and Prince Harry on a route through the town of Windsor will come from the Royal Mews, where staff will be up very early indeed that morning to exercise the horses and make sure that they are looking their immaculate best.  No doubt the carriage will be given a final polish too.


Inside the castle, the royal chef will have been planning the menu for the reception ever since the wedding was announced. He and his team of chefs work in the huge medieval kitchen at Windsor Castle, but the canapes will be served by liveried footmen from what is known as ‘G’ (or General) Branch of the royal household.  In the last few days and hours before the wedding, members of ‘H’ (Household) branch will be making sure that St George’s Hall looks immaculate, with every piece of silver-gilt or wood polished to a mirror shine, while the craftsmen of ‘C’ branch will have removed every last scratch or dent. Windsor Castle is not a museum: it is a working castle, used for a variety of events, and there are inevitable spills and chips and wear-and-tear as people sit on the chairs, walk on the carpets, drink from the glasses and eat off the exquisite porcelain.   

Hope may want a simple country wedding, but it still needs planning …

Like Meghan Markle, Hope passes all the behind the scenes arrangements onto her close friend, Ally Parker. Ally is super efficient and having worked for celebrity magazines herself, understands exactly what Hope needs to do.

Ally has worked for celebrity magazines like these in the past

Because Prince Harry is unlikely to be King, his wedding can be a more private affair than his elder brother’s.  Nevertheless, he and Meghan Markle have invited 2,600 members of the public into the grounds of Windsor Castle to share in the atmosphere of their wedding day. Ally suggests a similar scheme (and honestly, Liz thought of this long before they did!).  Hope and Jonas may have chosen an intimate country wedding, but the little village of Combe St Philip is about to be inundated with press and paparazzi.

The little village of Combe St Philip is about to be inundated

Instead of St George’s Chapel, they are marrying in the village church and the reception will be in a marquee in the grounds of Hope’s childhood home, so numbers are limited.  It is Ally’s idea to throw a separate party for the villagers and to involve them as far as possible in the celebrations, and she sets it all in motion: booking musicians, getting the WI to make cupcake posies for the tables, setting up a huge screen so that everyone can watch the ceremony and even organising a carousel and bouncy castle to keep the children amused.

Ally organises a separate wedding party for the villagers on the village green
She’s even remembered a bouncy castle to keep the kids amused
Becoming a Princess isn’t easy. Ally’s diary of the royal wedding preparations is making Fredrik very suspicious

Ally’s doing a great job pulling together the details of the wedding, but the head of security for the royal family of San Michele, Count Fredrik Jenssen is suspicious of her background. He’s going to keep a close eye on Ally Parker, he decides. A very close eye.

Not quite Ally and Fredrik, but – according to Liz Fielding, who should know -pretty damn close.

Photos from Bigstock or authors’ own

Read Ally’s story now in The Bridesmaid’s Royal Bodyguard!

Liz Fielding was born with itchy feet. She made it to Zambia before her twenty-first birthday and, gathering her own special hero and a couple of children on the way, lived in Botswana, Kenya and Bahrain. She has more than seventy books in print and has been translated into more languages than she can remember (she is very big in Japan!)  She has won a number of awards, including two RITAs in the US and the RoNA Rose in the UK.

21 Comments

  1. I want to see who the guests are & what they are wearing – gotta check out those fascinators!

  2. I’m looking forward to seeing her dress & the bridal party dresses & all the ceremonial parts of the wedding. I remember watching Princess Diana’s Wedding & also Prince William & Kate’s. Thanks for this generous giveaway.

  3. I am looking forward to seeing the bride and bridesmaid dresses, as well as the wedding cake , as I have iced a number of wedding cakes, and it is always a priviledge to be asked to be involved .

  4. I am looking forward to seeing Meghan’s dress. I am also looking forward to seeing all the different types of clothing the guests will be wearing. Trying to outdo one another.

  5. I’m looking forward to see the whole fairy tale aspect and then their faces as they leave the church.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published or shared.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.