The wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry was perhaps the most awaited one ever since their relationship itself got revealed.

The biggest confirmation of them being serious came when Harry took Markle to his sister-in-law Kate Middleton’s sister Pipa Middleton’s wedding in May last year. Although she didn’t attend the actual ceremony, she was present at the reception during the evening.

Of course, then a whole lot of drama was created by the media of whether the Queen would allow the wedding her permission or not considering Markle was a divorcee and a non-white.

But thankfully, everything went about peacefully and on 19th May, a beautiful Saturday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married at the Windsor Castle with much fanfare.

With a guest list of about 600 people, 30 royals and about millions as global television audience, this wedding was truly the wedding of the year.

From the dress to the venue, to the guests and everything in between was the subject of much attention, but another thing that was noticed by many was how different this ceremony was from any royal wedding before.

Meghan Markle has been breaking traditions ever since her engagement with Prince Harry was announced and even her wedding broke away from several royal traditions:

1. Not Obey

Keeping in line with her late mother-in-law Princess Diana and sister-in-law Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle too did not use the word obey in her vows.

Diana was one of the first ones to omit that word from her vows in a major royal ceremony, Kate followed it up during her own wedding in 2011 and Markle while breaking the old one kept with the new and more modern tradition.

Even Prince Harry followed his bride and broke 2 traditions at once, one by deciding to wear a wedding ring. His brother Prince William and father Prince Charles do not wear wedding bands.

And the second would be by having a platinum band instead of Welsh gold as is customary for the royal family.

2. Acknowledged Meghan’s Divorced Status

Usually, the wedding invitations for royal weddings would address the bride-to-be as Miss signifying their single status till now.

But the wedding invitations for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry addressed her as Ms. that alluded to her divorced status and thus this being her second marriage. Apparently, this is a big break from tradition.

3. Meghan Walked Herself Down The Aisle

While Prince Charles walked Markle through the last few steps of the aisle, the bride walked a big portion of the aisle by herself.

Markle’s father suffering from a heart attack right before the wedding could not be present at the ceremony, thus breaking a long-held tradition of the father of the bride giving her away.

And even then, Prince Charles did not end up giving her away, he just escorted her down the aisles while Meghan herself took the last few steps to her groom.

Read More: Why European Royal Families Would Die Out If They Married Into Royalty

4. Cake And Hair

Few other departures from traditions this wedding had were with the wedding cake being a lemon elderflower cake. Generally, as per royal tradition, wedding cakes of royal weddings are of the fruitcake variety.

The new and modern flavours of this cake are not only breaking away from the royal norm but also representing the feeling of spring, something the royal couple wanted.

Along with that, Markle chose a different style for her wedding hairdo by keeping it in a low, soft bun instead of letting her hair flow loose.

5. Sermon Delivered By An African-American Bishop

We can’t exactly say that British royal weddings are the most diverse of them all, but this time as a first, a sermon was given by African-American bishop, the Most Reverend Michael Curry.

The presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church delivered an emotional sermon and quoted Dr. Martin Luther King by saying, “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love, and when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world.”

There were several other breaks in tradition such as the bride making a speech at the wedding reception, something that is usually made by the father of the bride, or having modern and unique music like using cello.

There were also about 2000 members of the public that attended the royal wedding along with Meghan not having a maid of honour.

It is also said to be the most BLACK royal wedding, ever.

All in all, it was truly a unique wedding in every sense of the word.


Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: The IndependentLondon Evening Standard, Harper’s Bazaar + more


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