Prince Harry and the royals arriving at King Charles and Queen Camilla’s royal wedding by bus has gone viral on .
Royal weddings are more commonly known for their gold state coaches than the kind of coach hired by tour guides, but Charles and Camilla moved to tone down aspects of their ceremony eight years after the death in a car crash of .
Some details were beyond their control, efforts to afford them a religious wedding at St George’s Chapel, Harry and ‘s wedding venue, were rejected by the Church of England because Camilla was a divorcee with a living former spouse.
![Prince Harry in Charles, Camilla's Royal Bus](https://i0.wp.com/regalrumination.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/prince-harry-charles-camillas-royal-bus.jpg?resize=1200%2C800)
Scott Barbour/Getty Images/Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
They therefore got married at the local government-run Windsor Guildhall, frequently used by ordinary folk, which pitches itself online as “a popular choice for those planning smaller, intimate ‘micro weddings.'”
However, it was the mode of transport offered to guests that caught the eye of royal watchers on TikTok, who had expected something a little more grand.
One clip compared what appears to be and Prince Philip in the carriage procession at and ‘s 2011 royal wedding to the royal tour bus at Charles and Camilla’s nuptials in 2005.
An on-screen caption read: “At other weddings the royal family arriving in floats and luxurious cars… at King Charles’ wedding…”
The post was liked 41,300 times and viewed more than 515,000 times. A close-up showed sat opposite his cousin Zara Tindall and in front of Princess Anne.
The choice was commented on at the time in 2005 too, when The New York Post was particularly scathing: “Royalty went slumming yesterday, as the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles wound up looking more like a union of commoners than the wedding of a future king.
“Royals arrived at the quiet civil ceremony in a cheesy tour bus and the body language among family members suggested they’d rather be anywhere else.
“Attending the down-market affair were such low-watt celebrities as Joan Rivers and Absolutely Fabulous actress Joanna Lumley.
“And when it came time to toast the happy couple, the queen spoke first of the horse-racing results before her son.”
And there were significant concerns beforehand at the palace and even for Camilla herself.
Royal author Penny Junor, author of The Duchess, told Regalrumination.com in 2020: “I was there that day in Windsor and I remember arriving at 5.30 a.m. and there was practically nobody there, just a couple who had camped overnight.
“There were lots of police barriers in place. I thought oh my God, no one’s going to come.
“When I got back into the high street mid-morning it was absolutely heaving with people. You couldn’t walk through because they weren’t moving.
“Camilla had to be prised out of bed that morning. She was absolutely terrified because nobody knew what was going to happen.
“They didn’t know whether they were going to have rotten eggs thrown at them or whether it was going to be a complete non-event.
“They just did not know. It turned out that the bulk of that crowd were well-wishers and it was a lovely atmosphere that day.”
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Regalrumination.com, based in London. You can find him on at and read his stories on Regalrumination.com‘s
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