The Royal Wedding Of Prince Charles and Diana; A Fairytale Wedding

The royal wedding of Prince Charles and Diana was one of the more spectacular royal weddings as it took place on June 29, 1981. Prince Charles, the son of Queen Elizabeth II, married Lady Diana Spencer in a royal wedding that was being hailed about as a fairytale wedding, as well as the wedding of the century.

There was so much interest in England, that many people were given a special day off in honor of the occasion. An estimated crowd of over two million people lined the wedding procession path in which the princess’ carriage took, as everyone was excited to see the fairytale wedding dress that had been kept under wraps for so long.

To all concerned, Princess Diana was born into a good family and was pretty much considered just a regular girl, and not from royalty. This is one aspect as to what made this wedding so exciting, as it fed many girls’ fantasies of getting swept off their feet by a prince. Therefore it was through Diana that many females, young and old, were living out their own fantasy.

Even though she was not an outstanding student, a lot of people still praised her for her wanting to help her community. She left her school at age 16 and went to a Swiss finishing school. After a little time there, Diana was able to move into her own place in London as a birthday gift from her family. It was there that she began to try out different career paths, including such stints as a dance instructor, kindergarten teacher and a party hostess. Some say these may have been great learning experiences now that she was married into royalty.

At the time Prince Charles was single, in his mid-30’s and was under a lot of pressure from his royal family to get married. The pressure was so that he could start having children, therefore one day there would be an heir to the throne after him. The first time Diana met Prince Charles, the prince was dating Diana’s older sister, Sarah Spencer. After meeting Lady Diana, who was only 19 at the time, he thought that she was a very sweet young woman. Not only young and beautiful, but someone he thought would make both a good partner and Queen. Diana believed that he was her true love, her prince in shining armor. However, not everyone was sure whether or not he felt the same about her.

Despite the concerns, Charles proposed to Diana in the nursery in Windsor Castle. When he first proposed she thought that he was just joking, after all she was pretty young and they had not been seeing each other for very long. He was finally able to get her to realize that he was not kidding and that he was serious. A glimpse into their future may have been after her accepting his proposal, for it is known that after she said “yes,” she followed that up with, “I love you so much.” To which Prince Charles replied, “Whatever love means.” The engagement ring was white gold with a blue sapphire. They formally announced their engagement in the gardens of Buckingham Palace on February 24, 1981.

There was so much excitement about the wedding. After all, the world’s most eligible bachelor was getting married. There were approximately 3,500 people invited to the wedding and because it was so large, instead of having it at Westminster Abbey, were royal weddings are usually held, they had to have it at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The people were crazy for Lady Diana and often referred to her as their English Rose.

Princess Diana’s dress was designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel. The dress was silk taffeta in ivory and was created to be very a romantic and fairytale fitting dress. It had very puffy sleeves, a 25-foot train, it was hand embroidered, antique lace and had 10,000 sequins and pearls. The royal wedding dress was said to cost about 9,000 pounds, which in American dollars in 1981 was approximately $17,000. She was also wearing a cathedral length veil with a blusher covering her face, along with a beautiful diamond tiara. Her groom, the Prince, was dressed in his naval commander uniform.

After the wedding they had their wedding breakfast at the location where the wedding cake was made by famous Belgian pastry chef S.G. Sender, who back then was called the cake maker for the kings. The wedding went off beautifully and was just as amazing as everyone