Many brides or grooms preparing to walk down the aisle know that it can be a stressful affair.
From the laborious task of picking a venue to disagreements over the guest list, families will often find themselves at loggerheads during the planning process for their big day.
However, on that sunny Saturday in May 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding appeared to be a picture-perfect affair.
The Royal Family looked more united than ever and the newly minted Duke and Duchess of Sussex were joined by all the leading members of the Royal Family who gathered to celebrate their marriage.
Prince William was best man and Prince Charles even walked Meghan down the aisle.
But behind these idyllic scenes, tensions were running high within the Firm and a number of blunders suggest preparations for the ceremony were more chaotic than first meets the eye.
From Meghan’s arguments over which tiara she could wear to questions over Harry’s treatment of staff, the bride and groom’s ambitious plans for the event were at the centre of the conflicts.
Here, MailOnline looks back over the long list of blunders to have come to define Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding.
‘Tiara-gate’
While preparing for the big day, it is customary for royal brides to pick out a tiara from the Palace’s extensive collection to wear as they walk down the aisle, with the monarch having the final say on the choice of headwear.
However, this seemingly minor task blew up into a big bust-up between the soon-to-be Duchess of Sussex and Angela Kelly, the late Queen Elizabeth’s personal advisor for her wardrobe, according to royal writer Tom Bower.
‘Meghan alighted on a tiara sparkling with emeralds. Her choice was approved by Harry. Kelly suggested that its Russian origin made it unsuitable,’ Bowers wrote in his biography Revenge, which documents Harry and Meghan’s fall-out with the Royal Family.
Meghan Markle got into a disagreement with Angela Kelly, the late Queen Elizabeth’s personal advisor for her wardrobe, over her choice of tiara for the wedding
Prince Harry also got involved in the disagreement, reportedly claiming, ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets’
Meghan eventually opted to wear Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau
Harry reportedly became angry with Kelly, leading to the prince receiving a dressing-down from his grandmother.
During the meeting, Harry was put ‘firmly in his place’ and warned by the Queen that ‘Meghan cannot have whatever she wants. She gets what tiara she’s given by me,’ The Times reported.
Meghan eventually opted to wear Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, but this was not the end of the tiara-related drama.
During wedding rehearsals, Meghan asked that the tiara be taken out of storage so her hairdresser – who had flown from New York – could work around the £2million headwear.
The request was refused on the grounds that permission was needed from the Queen herself.
Harry once again became angry with Kelly and reportedly told her: ‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets’.
Meghan’s ‘too white’ wedding dress
‘What Meghan wants, Meghan gets’ was certainly the case when it came to her choice of wedding dress – more specifically the colour of her outfit.
The city girl-turned-duchess wore a Audrey Hepburn-inspired floor-length gown crafted by French fashion house Givenchy and Clare Waight Keller, their first female artistic director.
Meghan’s decision to wear a white wedding gown raised some eyebrows
The late Queen in particular allegedly took issue with divorcee Meghan’s crisp white dress
It featured long sleeves and a bateau neckline, which was a nod to the iconic Givenchy dress in the 1957 movie Funny Face, and cost £100,000.
While it was a truly beautiful wedding gown Meghan’s choice of colour raised some eyebrows within the family.
The late Queen in particular allegedly took issue with divorcee Meghan’s crisp white dress.
Ingrid Seward, one of the most prominent and respected writers on the British Royal Family, discussed the nuptials in her book, My Mother And I.
The royal biographer wrote: ‘The Queen never voiced her true opinions except to her close confidants, such as Lady Elizabeth Anson, or Liza as she was known to her friends.
‘She told me that the Queen had made only one remark about Meghan and Harry’s wedding and that was that Meghan’s Givenchy wedding gown was “too white”.’
‘In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal,’ Seward added.
Meghan had previously been married to Hollywood film producer Trevor Engelson between 2011 and 2014.
Traditionally, divorced brides are expected to forgo the white dress and opt for a different coloured dress.
The city girl-turned-duchess wore a Audrey Hepburn-inspired floor-length gown crafted by French fashion house Givenchy and Clare Waight Keller, their first female artistic director
It is a custom that previously married royals have often respected.
Queen Camilla, who had previously been married to Andrew Parker Bowles between 1973 and 1995, stuck with tradition and opted not to wear white for the blessing for her wedding to Charles in 2005.
She instead wore a floor-length embroidered pale blue and gold coat over a matching chiffon dress.
Likewise, when the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson married King Edward VIII in 1937 she wore a pale blue dress.
Meghan’s decision to wear a veil
Like her choice to wear a white dress, Meghan’s decision to don a veil for the big day also ruffled some feathers among the Royal Family.
The practice of brides wearing veils is said to go back to ancient Greeks and Romans, who wore them to disguise themselves from any evil spirits who wanted to stand in the way of their happiness.
Over the centuries many cultures have embraced the garment and it is now often associated with aspects of bridal virtue such as modesty and chastity.
Like her choice to wear a white dress, Meghan’s decision to don a veil for the big day also ruffled some feathers among the Royal Family
Meghan’s 16ft-long veil was trimmed with lace depicting flora from each of the 53 Commonwealth countries
But despite this being her second walk down the aisle, Meghan wore a 16ft-long veil trimmed with lace depicting flora from each of the 53 Commonwealth countries.
Once again the Queen questioned why the divorcee Meghan needed to wear such traditional wedding attire.
Royal author Tom Bower claimed Her Majesty raised her concerns in his 2022 book Revenge, writing: ‘The Queen also questioned why Meghan needed a veil for the wedding, given it was to be her second marriage.’
Prince Harry’s behaviour
It wasn’t only Meghan who caused drama in the run-up to May 19, 2018 with Prince Harry having his fair share of run-ins with royal staff.
Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother And I, has claimed that Harry’s behaviour was already ruffling feathers before the wedding – with none other than the Queen.
According to Seward, Lady Elizabeth Anson – Queen Elizabeth’s cousin and close friend – said that that the monarch was ‘dismayed by Harry’s high-handed attitude before and after the wedding’.
Tensions reached a high point during the aforementioned ‘tiara-gate’.
While it is unclear what behaviour this allegation is about, in 2020 it was reported that the Queen scolded Harry after he shouted at the Queen’s dresser who was unable to meet Meghan’s sudden demand to visit Buckingham Palace with her hairdresser to try on her wedding day tiara.
It wasn’t only Meghan who caused drama in the run-up to May 19, 2018 with Prince Harry having his fair share of run-ins with royal staff
MailOnline exclusively revealed that the late Queen apparently confided in her first cousin that Harry was ‘rude to her for ten minutes’ in one meeting
Ingrid Seward, author of My Mother And I, has claimed that Harry’s behaviour was already ruffling feathers before the wedding – with none other than the Queen
Earlier this week, MailOnline exclusively revealed that the late Queen apparently confided in her first cousin that Harry was ‘rude to her for ten minutes’ in one meeting and that ‘Meghan and William and Kate were not working well’ together, adding that it was ‘particularly…the two girls’ who didn’t get on.
The ‘jury was out’ on whether the Queen really liked her grandson’s then bride-to-be, and she felt ‘left out’ of the planning for the wedding by Harry who tried to ‘patch up’ their relationship in the weeks before walking down the aisle.
Bridesmaid drama
One of the most notorious clashes of personalities took place between Meghan and her soon-to-be sister-in-law Kate Middleton.
It has been widely reported that the tense stand-off between Kate and Meghan took place after Charlotte’s fitting for her bridesmaid dress.
According to Bower, Kate allegedly believed that the bridesmaids should wear tights as per royal protocol. However, at Meghan’s ‘insistence’ the tradition was dropped.
Their biggest disagreement was over the length of Charlotte’s hem, which Kate believed was too short for the three-year-old princess.
Meghan’s assistant Melissa Toubati and dress-fitter Clare Waight Keller claimed to have ‘witnessed Meghan emphatically reject Kate’s observation,’ Bower said.
The altercation caused Kate to burst into tears according to presenter and friend of Queen Camilla, Kirstie Allsopp.
Reports differ about what happened next. Bower wrote that Kate went over to Meghan’s quarters in Kensington Palace with a bunch of flowers and asked her not to speak rudely to her staff.
‘In Kate’s version, Meghan slammed the door in her face and threw the flowers in a dustbin,’ Bower wrote.
Princess Catherine allegedly believed that the bridesmaids should wear tights as per royal protocol. However, at Meghan’s ‘insistence’ the tradition was dropped
Kate and Meghan’s biggest disagreement was over the length of Charlotte’s hem, which Kate believed was too short for the three-year-old princess
After the wedding it was the now-Princess of Wales’ report of the altercation that made headlines about Meghan’s ‘diva’ behaviour.
Brown wrote that the Duchess of Sussex ‘demanded the Palace denounce or correct the story’ and she was ‘outraged’ when they did not immediately deny the claim.
‘The culture of the Palace press department is almost never to comment on personal matters relating to the family,’ Brown added.
Meghan would recall her version of events during her bombshell interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
There, she claimed that the tears were in fact hers, and the flowers an apology.
‘A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower-girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings,’ Meghan said during the interview.
‘What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do but that happened to me.’
‘And the people who were part of our wedding going to our comms team and saying, “I know this didn’t happen.” I don’t have to tell them what actually happened,’ she added.
Meghan’s clash with a Windsor caterer
After finding herself at loggerheads with the Queen’s dresser and then with Princess Catherine, Meghan also reportedly had a tense exchange with with a member of catering staff.
In her book The New Royals, Katie Nicholl wrote: ‘On one occasion in the run-up to the wedding, Meghan went to Windsor Castle for a menu-tasting and ended up having a tense exchange with a member of staff, according to one source.
In her book The New Royals, Katie Nicholl wrote: ‘On one occasion in the run-up to the wedding, Meghan went to Windsor Castle (pictured) for a menu-tasting and ended up having a tense exchange with a member of staff
‘”Meghan was at the castle to taste some of the dishes, and told one of the caterers she could taste egg,” said the source. “She got quite upset, saying that the dish was meant to be vegan and macrobiotic.”‘
The bride-to-be’s ‘direct approach’ with the staff member allegedly came to the attention of Queen Elizabeth II – who was known for treating aides like family, even buying them Christmas presents every year.
So it is no surprise that Her Majesty had some stern words of advice for Meghan, according to Nicholl’s inside source.
‘Suddenly the Queen walked in and said: “Meghan, in this family we don’t speak to people like that.”‘
Dishes served at Harry and Meghan’s wedding included an array of canapés including Scottish langoustines wrapped in smoked salmon with citrus crème fraiche and croquette of confit Windsor lamb, roasted vegetables and shallot jam.
The bizarre guest list
Harry and Meghan’s guests had more of a tinsel-town sparkle than at previous royal weddings.
George and Amal Clooney, the cast of Suits and Oprah Winfrey were just some of the Hollywood guests in St George’s Chapel.
Although many famous faces from across the pond were there as friends of Meghan, it has been claimed that the duchess was not very chummy with the stars.
The attendees were not Meghan’s nearest and dearest but rather the friends she ‘most wanted to recruit’, royal insider Tina Brown wrote in her book The Palace Papers.
‘The celebrity guests were a portrait not of Meghan’s intimate circle but of the friends she most wanted to recruit,’ Brown said.
Even Oprah had ‘scarcely met’ Meghan before the big day and when columnist Rachel Johnson asked the Clooneys how they knew Meghan, the couple replied: ‘We don’t.’
Harry and Meghan’s guests had more of a tinsel-town sparkle than at previous royal weddings. George and Amal Clooney (pictured) were among the guests
Oprah Winfrey outside St George’s Chapel. It has been claimed that Meghan was not as chummy with the stars at her wedding as first meets the eye
Since Harry and Meghan stood down as working royals in 2020, the duchess has struggled to recruit the friends she was so keen to make.
Amal attended Meghan’s lavish £221,000 New York baby shower in 2019. However, in recent years the lawyer has only deepened her ties with royals by launching the Amal Clooney Women’s Empowerment Award with the King’s Trust.
After her notorious interview with Oprah in 2021 – when the duchess opened up about her mental health struggles and claimed a member of the Firm asked about Archie’s skin colour – it does not appear the pair have been in contact much since.
And Oprah was not one of the guests Meghan booked for her Netflix series With Love, Meghan.
