Royal wedding not the first to face difficulties

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, leave following the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, London (PA) Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The planning of a wedding can be an emotional time and Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s is not the first royal one to run into difficulties as the big day approaches.

With the couple preparing to wed in Windsor this weekend, Ms Markle’s father Thomas Markle is reported to not be attending the wedding nor walking his daughter down the aisle.

When Harry’s father the Prince of Wales married Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall, in 2005, the wedding day went smoothly in the end.

But the arrangements and technicalities of the wedding created a number of problems.

Charles and Camilla initially planned to wed at Windsor Castle, but were forced to switch venues to the Guildhall around the corner after it emerged that licensing the castle would have allowed members of the public to marry there as well.

The couple’s ceremony had to be slotted in ahead of three other brides and grooms getting married at the same venue.

Charles and Camilla with Prince Harry and Prince William after their civil ceremony (Phil Wilkinson/TSPL/PA) Credit: Charles and Camilla with Prince Harry and Prince William after their civil ceremony (Phil Wilkinson/TSPL/PA)

Then the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh chose not to attend their son’s civil marriage service.

The Queen, conscious of her role as supreme governor of the Church of England, was not present at the non-religious 20-minute service where the couple, both previously divorced, were married.

But she did join the newlyweds afterwards for their televised blessing in the 15th-century St George’s Chapel in the grounds of nearby Windsor Castle, where Harry and Ms Markle are due to wed on Saturday.

Charles and Camilla with the Queen on the West Steps of St George's Chapel (Odd Andersen/PA) Credit: Charles and Camilla with the Queen on the West Steps of St George's Chapel (Odd Andersen/PA)

Charles and Camilla’s ceremony was even dramatically postponed the week before because it clashed with Pope John Paul II’s funeral, which the prince had to attend.

The wedding date was moved from April 8 to April 9, with royal souvenirs commemorating the occasion having to be remade at the last minute.

Two official china tankards celebrating Charles and Camilla's marriage featuring the date April 8 - which was later changed (Royal Collection/PA) Credit: Two official china tankards celebrating Charles and Camilla's marriage featuring the date April 8 - which was later changed (Royal Collection/PA)

Camilla, who became an HRH and a duchess, wore a Robinson Valentine oyster silk basket-weave outfit for her civil wedding and a porcelain blue silk coat by the same designers and a gold sweeping feathered Philip Treacy head-dress for the blessing.

The Queen gave a warm, witty speech at the evening reception in the castle’s State Apartments and, in a nod to the Grand National which ran that day, welcomed Charles and Camilla to the “winner’s enclosure”.

“They have overcome Becher’s Brook and The Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles,” she said. “They have come through and I’m very proud and wish them well.

“My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.”