17 royal wedding mistakes you never knew about
Like the time Princess Diana said the wrong name at the altar...
Royal weddings are carefully choreographed affairs that take months of planning by teams in the hundreds—but even the most epically scheduled wedding can go wrong. Here are the mistakes, flubs, snafus, and fails you never even knew happened. Take note, Meghan and Harry.
Prince William was completely sleep deprived on his wedding day
Apparently, Prince William only had a half hour of sleep before his wedding to Kate Middleton, and was completely exhausted the entire day. Why? A brutal combination of nerves and screaming fans camped outside his house.
"They were singing and cheering all night long, so the excitement of that, the nervousness of me and everyone singing, I slept for about half an hour," he said. Fortunately, William managed to get through his wedding day without falling asleep.
Queen Elizabeth's tiara broke on the morning of her wedding
Queen Elizabeth II was given the Fringe Tiara (made in 1919 for Queen Mary) to wear when she married Prince Philip in 1947—and it broke the morning of her wedding.
"The Fringe Tiara was given to Queen Elizabeth on her wedding day, and the hairdresser broke it," royal jeweller House of Garrard tells MarieClaire.com. "On that day, they had it police escorted to the House of Garrard workshops. We fixed the tiara that morning, had it sent back to Queen Elizabeth, and then she got married in it. You don't expect the royals to have those sorts of mix-ups, but they do!"
The tiara clearly survived the snafu, because Elizabeth's daughter Princess Anne wore it on her wedding day as well. (The piece can also be worn as a necklace.)
Prince Charles messed up his vows
Prince Charles and Princess Diana's 1981 wedding had so many issues it's hard to keep track. First of all, Prince Charles messed up his vows, offering to give Diana "thy goods" instead of his "worldy goods." But the real blunder came from Diana, so go ahead and swipe to the next slide.
Diana forgot Prince Charles' name
Even more amazing than Prince Charles messing up his vows was Diana messing up her husband's name. Instead of referring to him as "Charles Philip," she called him "Philip Charles Arthur George."
Princess Nathalie forgot her bouquet
Princess Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg of Denmark forgot her bouquet and had to wait almost ten minutes for it to arrive before she walked down the aisle. This is a photo of her waiting—fortunately, she doesn't look too stressed.
Alfred the Great
That's right: royal wedding fails date back to the 800s. When Alfred the Great (King of Wessex) married Ealhswith, there was an epic all-day feast and he was, "struck without warning in the presence of the entire gathering by a sudden severe pain that was quite unknown to all physicians."
Alfred likely had Crohn's disease, so suffice it to say his wedding wasn't the most pleasant experience.
King Harthacnut died at his friend's wedding
There are very limited images of poor King Harthacnut, who was King of England from 1040 to 1042. He was partly responsible for ruining the wedding of Tovi the Proud after drinking too much and having a stroke.
Diana had an awful headache all day
Diana wore the Spencer Family Tiara for the duration of her wedding day, and apparently it left her with a splitting headache. ''In the evening [after the wedding] we all went to a sort of semi-private party," the Princess' brother Charles Spencer said. "And she was there and she seemed incredibly relaxed and happy and I just remember she had a cracking headache too, because she wasn't used to wearing a tiara all morning."
A horse panicked during William and Kate's wedding
Apparently a frightened horse from the Household Cavalry freaked out as the couple traveled to Buckingham Palace. The poor horse threw its rider and ran past William and Kate, but fortunately no one was injured, and barely anyone remembers this even happening.
Marie Antoinette's wedding dress was too small for her
Turns out Marie Antoinette's sumptuous wedding dress was made with incorrect measurements, and didn't fit her. Her shift was even visible from behind.
Apparently, the Duchess of Northumberleand said, "the corps of her robe was too small and left quite a broad stripe of lacing and shift quite visible, which had a bad effect between two broader stripes of diamonds. She really had quite a load of jewels."
Princes Diana's dress was completely wrinkled
Diana's wedding dress is understandably one of the most iconic royal gowns out there, but no one anticipated how wrinkled it would get during the carriage ride to St. Paul's Cathedral. As you can see in this photo, the dress (and accompanying 25-foot train) was infamously rumpled.
King George IV was so drunk at his wedding he had to be propped up
This wedding was never going to go well. First of all, King George IV and his wife Caroline were cousins. Second of all, they'd never met prior to their engagement, and George only agreed to marry her because he was in debt.
Even worse, the King got so drunk during their wedding day that he had to be physically held up. He also burst out crying when no objections were made to the marriage. Oh, and Caroline said that on the wedding night George passed out in front of the fire.
Princess Caroline couldn't walk in her dress
To make matters more awkward, the same Princess Caroline literally couldn't walk or stand in her wedding dress while marrying King George IV. Apparently, the velvet, ermine, lace, and silver tissue outfit was simply too heavy.
Diana's bridesmaid tripped and started crying
This moment is more sweet than disastrous, but legend has it that a 5-year-old bridesmaid in Diana's wedding (who happened to be Winston Churchill's granddaughter) tripped on her dress and started crying.
Augusta of Saxe-Gotha vomited all over her mother-in-law
Poor Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. While walking down the aisle to marry Frederick Prince of Wales, she ended up vomiting all over her wedding dress, and all over her mother-in-law. No one can really blame her, considering she was 17, had just arrived in the country, didn't speak a word of English, and was marrying a man she'd never met.
A pouting bridesmaid photobombed William and Kate's kiss
This may have been the most adorable part of their wedding.
The wind blew up Lady Charlotte Wellesley's veil
When Lady Charlotte Wellesley (descendant of Queen Victoria and daughter of the Duke of Wellington) married in 2016, the wind caught her veil and lifted it sky high. She didn't seem too bothered, though, and laughed it off shortly after.
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