PERFECT DAY
The sun shone on a ceremony that heralded a new chapter for the royal family—and celebrated the unifying power of love
Harry and Meghan’s nuptials couldn’t have been better.
Rising early on the morning of May 19, Meghan Markle sipped coffee, relaxed as can be, with mum Doria Ragland in her sunlit suite at the five-star Cliveden House hotel, as hairdresser Serge Normant set to work creating her signature messy bun. “It was all smiles, just one of those dreamy moments,” said Normant, noting the “just beautiful” bond between mother and daughter. Mere hours before exchanging vows with Prince Harry in front of an estimated global audience of 2 billion, pre-wedding jitters were not in the script for this one-of-a-kind bride. “No nerves ... She was calm and chatty. She was very happy, it was a beautiful morning— the perfect morning to get married.”
It was indeed as if the weather gods were smiling on the history-making union between the former Suits star, 36, and Prince Harry, 33, adding a bonus note of beauty to an occasion that merged cultures, combining tradition and innovation, celebration and solemnity—with every second steeped in love. “Every once in a while there is a moment when time stands still—that happened today,” reflected Meghan’s friend, actress Priyanka Chopra, who attended the ceremony and both receptions. “You, my friend, were the epitome of grace, love and beauty. Every choice made at this wedding by you both will go down in history ... because this incredible wedding stood for change and hope.”
The woman transforming the House of
Windsor emerged to cheers when she arrived with her mum at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle shortly before 12 PM, giving the world its first glimpse of her elegant Givenchy gown, complemented by a simple bouquet including blooms handpicked by Harry from their garden. Carefully, Meghan made her way up the stairs, trailing a 5 metre veil—hand-embroidered with flowers representing the 53 Commonwealth nations— carried by pageboys Brian and John Mulroney, the 7-year-old twins of Meghan’s best friend, Jessica Mulroney. Alongside them, the other eight members of the scene-stealing junior bridal party held hands, including Princess Charlotte, 3, and Prince George, 4. Like Kate Middleton before her, Meghan’s dark hair sparkled with a tiara from the Queen’s collection—the 1932 Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau, featuring diamonds set in platinum. Delicate earrings and a bracelet by Cartier completed the look. British designer Clare Waight Keller, head of French fashion house Givenchy, collaborated with the bride—a “strong woman,” she summed up—on the “modern, fresh” design, she told Hello! magazine. “I wanted her to feel absolutely incredible in the dress and also I wanted her to feel like it was absolutely right for the occasion.”
When Meghan stepped into the 15th-century chapel on her own—she decided not to have a maid of honour—a fanfare sounded, then a hush fell upon the ancient space, where celebrities including George and Amal Clooney, Victoria and David Beckham, Elton John and Oprah Winfrey joined members of the royal family, among them, 92-year-old Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, the Duchess of Cambridge (month-old baby Louis stayed home) and Prince Harry’s cousins. The 600 VIPS rose to their feet and turned to the ornate doorway. “When the bride entered and walked down from the west door on her own, the sun came in through the windows and through her veil,” says guest Dominic Reid. “It was the stuff of fairytales.”
Stepping down the aisle to the haunting strains of Handel’s “Eternal Source of Light Divine” performed by Welsh singer Elin Manahan Thomas and the couple’s chosen orchestra, the bride looked “strong and proud and regal and beautiful,” recalled Suits creator Aaron Korsh. “It was symbolic,” adds Colleen Harris, Prince Charles’s former press secretary and the first black member of the royal household. “She has been walking on her own to a certain extent for a lot of her life. It has not been easy, and she has held her head high and gone in the direction she wanted to travel. This was a continuation of that.”
But she didn’t travel alone the whole way. Halfway down the aisle, Meghan’s soon-to-be father-in-law took her arm and escorted her to Prince Harry, wearing his official British Army Blues and Royals frockcoat uniform, who smiled and said, “Thank you, Pa.” The part Prince Charles played may not have been what Meghan originally planned given the personal family dramas that turned mortifyingly public, culminating in the confirmation 48 hours before the big day that her father, Thomas Markle Snr, would be unable
“The sun came in through the windows and ... her veil ” —Guest Dominic Reid
to attend due to health issues. Still, it was her choice to ask Prince Charles to do the honours. “They’ve been spending quite a bit of time together,” says a palace source of Meghan and Charles. “There is a warmth born of their shared interest in art and culture. He was really touched to be asked.”
Reunited with his love at the altar, Prince Harry, with best man Prince William at his side, wiped away a tear and reached for her hand, telling her, “You look amazing” Meghan’s mum, who had flown from Los Angeles four days earlier, looked on from her seat, eyes welling. After Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led the declarations— when the bride and groom state their will to wed— Princess Diana’s older sister, Lady Jane Fellowes, gave a moving reading from the Song of Solomon, which struck a hopeful note in the wake of Diana’s tragic loss: “Now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ... Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death.”
Then, after the Choir of St George’s Chapel burst into song, Chicago-based Episcopalian priest Bishop Michael Curry took to the pulpit with a searing call to love that made headlines. “We must discover the power of love ... And when we do that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world. Love is the only way,” he boomed, quoting civilrights leader Martin Luther King Jr in an
impassioned, 14-minute sermon that went off script and rewrote royalwedding rules. “Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up. But it’s not just for and about a young couple who we rejoice with. It’s more than that ... imagine our world when love is the way.”
Meghan’s smiling eyes seemed to contain that future as she sat, hands entwined, with her groom while the Bishop spoke. After Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir performed a heart-lifting rendition of “Stand
By Me”, it was time to realise that new life, as the couple exchanged vows: “I Harry, take you, Meghan, to be my wife,to have and to hold from this day forward,” began Harry. Meghan, holding hands with her groom, had her turn, although she followed the lead of the Duchess of Cambridge, and Diana, who chose to omit the vow to “obey” their husbands. Next, they exchanged rings; a band fashioned from Welsh gold gifted by the Queen for Meghan and for Harry,
a band of textured platinum. For the prince, who weathered dark times in the wake of his mother’s death, the moment he shakily placed the ring on his bride’s finger heralded the beginning of a new, light-filled season. “There will always be nerves—i’ve never seen a bridegroom who isn’t,” a guest tells WHO. “But what came over to me was this sheer sense of love and commitment. It was so strong. Everyone felt that.”
It was clear once the newlyweds emerged from the chapel into the sunshine and exchanged their first kiss as husband and wife on the steps, sending the crowd wild. Also on show, the blossoming bond between Harry’s family and Meghan’s mother, Doria, a social worker and yoga instructor who met the Queen for the first time on the eve of the wedding.
On the chapel steps after the ceremony, “Prince Charles was walking with Camilla, and he stopped and glanced over at Doria and he extended his arm to her,” says guest Diana Hosford. “It was unity and love in so many ways: the two countries coming together, the individuals coming together,
the families coming together. It was an incredibly beautiful touch.”
As the ripple effects of her union with Harry spread throughout the globe, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Sussex climbed into an open-top Ascot Landau carriage with her prince, remembering, perhaps, that she was once a little girl posing for tourist snaps in front of Buckingham Palace. A you-couldn’tscript-it plotline that is unlikely to have escaped her storyteller friend Korsh. The wedding “was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It was one oncein-a-lifetime experience after another.”
The couple smiled and waved as the carriage proceeded 10.5km through the town, before returning to Windsor Castle along the Long Walk—a fitting picture of the full circle of the Prince’s experiences through loss and love. “It was amazing— when you think of what that boy has been through,” the guest told WHO. “He loves her and she clearly loves him. It really is a fairytale.”