Wardrobe slip-ups, a rowdy young prince, and rings that just won't
go on the dang finger. We'll never forget these dicey moments from royal weddings.
When British fashion designers David
and Elizabeth Emanuel received the request to make Lady Diana Spencer's wedding gown,
they thought it was a joke. David told Hello! Magazine:
"We got a call to say, 'Would you do the honor of making the wedding gown?' but
when we weren't in the running in the press, I thought, gosh,
perhaps it was a hoax call? But later, she did ring back, it must have been a month or so later."
"We wanted her to look like everybody's vision of a fairytale princess."
The gorgeous confection, which would be seen by millions, would endure several mishaps on its way
to the altar. For starters, Lady Diana spilled perfume on the front of the gown and the stain
couldn't be removed. It's doubtful that many people noticed, but two people were mortified
for a different reason when they saw her exit the wedding carriage. The Emanuels couldn't
believe how wrinkled the gown had become during transit. Elizabeth told The Mirror:
"We did know it would crease a bit,
but when I saw her arrive at St. Paul's and we saw the creasing, I actually felt faint."
It turns out they didn't have to be worried. David told Hello! magazine,
"We had a little party and just as I'm about to lock up, the phone rings ... I thought,
who's calling? It was Diana! She said, 'I just wanted to say thank you so much for
the gown. I loved it. Prince Charles loved it. All the family loved it.'"
The woman who had the privilege of making Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's $70,000 wedding cake
described the mishap that would have gotten a very cool reception had it not been addressed just in
time. When baker Claire Ptak was tapped for the job, it was only four months prior to the event.
"Yeah, I was really lucky to be chosen."
She recalled her meeting with the couple in Town & Country a year afterward, saying,
"We discussed that they wanted something very unique and outside the box;
they didn't feel that there should be any kind of constrictions, to do something within tradition."
With that in mind, Ptak created an elderberry flower and lemon-flavored
cake that was smaller and less formal than many of its predecessors. The display cake was used
for photos and then donated to charity, while additional tiers were pre-cut into slices to
serve the 750 guests. Ptak described the near disaster to Town & Country:
"The ones that we cut were nice and cold, and then they're meant to stay out at room
temperature until they're served so they go lovely and soft. But there was a miscommunication,
and they were all put back into the fridge. [...] I freaked out."
Fortunately, they were able to transport the slices to a warmer
kitchen and they were served at their ideal temperature, narrowly averting disaster.
When Queen Elizabeth's son Prince
Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones, the couple took a simpler approach to their
royal nuptials. The wedding took place on June 19, 1999 at St. George's Chapel,
and was dubbed the "people's wedding" because 8,000 spectators had been invited onto the grounds
of Windsor Castle to witness the event. They first met in 1987 and then crossed paths again
at a tennis match in 1993. The two started dating shortly after. After becoming engaged in 1999,
the couple have since established themselves as reliable working members of the royal family.
Prince Edward and Sophie have managed to avoid most of the scandals that have
plagued other members of the royal family, perhaps experiencing their
most awkward moment as a couple just after they took their vows. Afterward,
on the steps of the church, they refused to share the customary kiss,
which was a disappointment to the crowds and the media. Royal watcher Ayesha Hazarika commented,
"I think they decided, 'You know what, we're going to actually not give the press
what they want and we're also going to send a signal that we are not 100% public property."
Many years prior to Prince William's own wedding,
where 3-year-old bridesmaid Grace van Cutsem's meme-worthy scowl would make her famous,
the young prince engaged in his own antics at his uncle Prince Andrew's wedding.
In the most anticipated wedding since Charles and Diana's celebration a few years prior,
Prince Andrew was set to marry Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson on July 23, 1986. The event would be
watched by 500 million people worldwide and included several younger family members,
including William and his cousins, Zara and Peter Phillips. The prince, who was 4 years
old at the time, served as a page boy and wore an adorable sailor outfit for the occasion. During
the 45-minute-long ceremony, Prince William was seen fidgeting, yawning, sticking his tongue out,
and making faces at other members of the wedding party. Apparently unfazed by the
tiny prince's mischievousness, the queen gave her grandson a sweet embrace after the ceremony.
October 12, 2018 was the date that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's youngest daughter,
Princess Eugenie, married her boyfriend of seven years, Jack Brooksbank. The wedding, which was
attended by all of the most senior members of the royal family, was held at St. George's Chapel at
Windsor Castle. Among the guests, of course, were Eugenie's cousin Prince William and his wife,
Kate. Little did the foursome realize that the princess and Brooksbank would have an experience
at the altar nearly identical to the one William and Kate had navigated several years prior.
It didn't help that Eugenie was already nervous
about the nuptials. As she told Vogue prior to tying the knot:
"It's nerve-wracking because you want it to be perfect, but then you realize that
you're going to be with the person you love forever and nothing else really matters."
The small hitch came as Brooksbank went to slide the Welsh gold wedding band
onto Eugenie's finger in front of their 800 guests. He struggled and made a funny face,
which prompted the princess to reach in with her other hand to provide a
little elbow grease. Awkward! Keen royal watchers surely flashed back to 2011,
when Kate had to do the same for William after he had a similar challenge. It turns out that
Kate had gotten her ring resized prior to the wedding, but had made it one size too small.
Sarah Ferguson has endured only too many awkward moments since she entered public life upon
becoming romantically involved with Prince Andrew. The couple, who married in 1986 and
were divorced in 1996, remain close friends, and were on hand to celebrate their youngest daughter
Princess Eugenie's marriage to Jack Brooksbank in 2018. Also present at the royal nuptials,
and serving in the role of bridesmaid, was Theodora "Teddy" Williams, the 6-year-old
daughter of English singer/songwriter Robbie Williams and his wife, Ayda Field.
The awkward moment, which was caught on video, occurred when Ferguson and the little girl
crossed paths outside of St. George's Chapel after the ceremony. As Ferguson made her way
down the steps, Williams mistook her for a certain someone else in the royal family.
"Are you the queen?"
"No, I'm not the queen."
"You're a princess?"
"Yes."
Despite the mother of the bride's apparent discomfort, Williams, who seemed to finally
be satisfied, adorably raised her bouquet into the air as Ferguson jumped into a waiting car.
Leave it to Fergie to be at the center
of yet another awkward wedding moment – this one at her own. Prior to Sarah Ferguson's
wedding ceremony to Prince Andrew, Parliament member Clare Short claimed:
"If Fergie wanted to give a lead to modern women, this is not the way."
She was commenting on bride-to-be Sarah Ferguson's plan to use the traditional
vows "to love, honor, and obey," rather than the more modern version, "to love,
honor, and cherish," which Lady Diana had chosen. Prince Andrew, for his part,
was entering the marriage after several awkward episodes. Among those was his relationship with
actress Kathleen "Koo" Stark, whose topless appearance in an "art house" film in the
1970s brought a level of notoriety to their relationship that it could not withstand.
Now poised to marry a wholesome young woman who had grown up in the small village of Dummer,
England, Prince Andrew seemed to be on the verge of overcoming his
romantic scandals. Fergie's choice of vows, which seemed oddly old-fashioned to many,
would be delivered with a brazen little twist that nobody saw coming. The LA Times reported in 1986:
"Some spectators said they saw her wink at Andrew beneath her
veil as she vowed to 'obey' her husband."
"To love, cherish, and to obey."
"'Til death us do part."
Queen Consort Camilla, as she is now known,
shared an endearing story about the queen in a personal tribute after her death. The event,
as Camilla explained, occurred on the day she and Prince Charles were married in 2005. The couple,
whose relationship had been fraught with challenges since they met — and who had married
and divorced other people before they reunited — were finally to be married in a civil ceremony.
Due to the fact that both Prince Charles and Camilla were divorced,
the couple would be married in a civil ceremony that would be attended by the
queen. Camilla recalled the funny incident during the taped tribute to the queen, saying,
"I remember coming from here at Clarence House to go to Windsor the day I got
married. [...] For some unknown reason I put on a pair of shoes and one had
an inch heel and one had a two-inch heel. Talk about a hop-a-long. There
was nothing I could do. I was halfway down in the car before I realized it."
"And you know, she could see it, and she laughed about it and just said,
'Okay, I'm terribly sorry,' and she did, you know, she had a good sense of humor."