Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding: All the Details

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Anwar Hussein/WireImage

Still, their extravagant wedding was seemingly a dream come true for the bride. “I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn’t take my eyes off him,” she later told Andrew Morton for his 1992 book,Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words.“I just absolutely thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. He was going to look after me.”

She later said in an excerpt from Lady Colin Campbell’sThe Real Diana: “It was heaven, amazing, wonderful, though I was so nervous when I was walking up the aisle that I swore my knees would knock and make a noise.”

The groom was also full of optimism, reportedly writing in a letter to a friend, “There were several timeswhen I was perilously close to crying from the sheer joy of it all.”

Diana, who met Charles only 13 times before marrying him, according to a series ofprivate tapesthat were recorded in 1992 with her voice coach, Peter Settelen, would later reminisce on her big day a bit differently, reportedly calling it the “worst day of her life.” “If I could write my own script I would have my husband go away with [Camilla Parker Bowles] and never come back,“she reportedly saidin the tapes, which were aired in a 2017 documentary titledDiana: In Her Own Words.

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Registry

Tim Graham Photo Library

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Rehearsal

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Diana did not join in the celebrations,spending the night at Clarence Housewith her sisters and bridal party in order to get up for her 6:30 a.m. wedding day call. According to journalist Penny Junor’s bookThe Duchess: The Untold Story, her future husband sent her a gift from Buckingham Palace in the form of a signet ring bearing his Prince of Wale feathers, along with a sweet note that read, “I am so proud of you and when you come up, I’ll be there at the altar for you tomorrow. Just look ‘em in the eye and knock them dead.”

Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ Wedding Venue

The pair’s venue choice of St. Paul’s Cathedral marked the first royal affair to be held there since 1501. In addition to itsenormous seating(St. Paul’s holds 3,500 wedding guests to Westminster Abbey’s 2,000),Prince Charlesgave some insight into the venue choice while speaking to British television networks. According to the royal, the cathedral was chosen in part for its “spectacular” acoustics, which he felt would provide guests with a “stirring, dramatic and noisy” sound. ‘‘If you have something rather quiet, you start hearing your ankles cricking, you know what I mean?’’ hereportedly asked.

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Guest List

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Among the3,500 who attendedthe pair’s nuptials were many world leaders, includingPrincess Grace Kelly of Monaco, Nancy Reagan, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the prince’s parents, Queen Elizabeth II andPrince PhilipandPrincess Anneand Mark Philips, to name a few.

Also in attendance wasPrince Charles’s current wife,Camilla Parker Bowles, though she was not invited to the couple’smore intimate wedding breakfast.

Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty

Absent from the service were several family members that were cut from a list of people her father, John Spencer, requested seats for. According topublished journalsof the late journalist Kenneth Rose, the Princess of Wales “crossed out all the family who had not bothered to come to the weddings of her sisters!” He added, “One day she will be very formidable.”

Princess Diana’s Wedding Dress

Princess Diana and Prince Charles.Jayne Fincher/Princess Diana Archive

“It was all about drama and making Diana a fairytale princess,” designer Elizabeth Emanuel explained toBritish Vogue. “The gown was typical of early ’80s style — overblown, romantic, flouncy — but we had to get it right because we knew it would go down in history.”

It was also completely the designers' creation. “There was no red tape, there were no limitations” from the palace,” David toldE! News. “We had completely, utterly free reign, and it was down to [Diana], and her alone, that she had the confidence to select Emanuel and to believe in it.”

Princess Diana and Prince Charles.Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty

Designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel went to great lengths to keep Diana’s dress a secret,deliberately placing bits of unused fabricin the trash for the press to find, according to “Royal Style in the Making” exhibit curator Matthew Storey.

David alsoconfirmed the design for an erroneous sketchof the gown to aWoman’s Wear Dailyreporter, who approached him on the morning of the couple’s wedding. “I don’t think they forgave me for one year,” he toldE! Newsof the incident.

As for the real sketch, the designer toldHello!magazine, “As soon as [Diana’s mother] Mrs. Shand Kydd saw it and she loved it,we ripped up the designas we didn’t want people to see it.”

With so much interest in the bride’s wedding gown, designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel prepareda second dressin the event that the original was leaked ahead of schedule.

“At the time we wanted to make absolutely sure that the dress was a surprise,” Elizabeth told PEOPLE in 2011. “Had the secret of the real dress got out it’s possible that Diana would actually have worn this one.”

Princess Diana’s Wedding Tiara

Princess Diana on her wedding day.Lichfield/Getty

Unfortunately for Diana, it alsocaused her a bit of pain. As her brother revealed toETin 2010, “I just remember she had a cracking headache too because she wasn’t used to wearing a tiara all morning.”

Princess Diana’s Wedding Flowers

Princess Diana and Prince Charles on their wedding day.Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images

Like her dress designers, Princess Diana’s florist was prepared in the event of a disaster, making not one, but two bouquets of gardenias, tephanotis, odontolglossum orchid, lily of the valley, Earl Mountbatten roses, freesia, veronica, ivy, myrtle and trasdescantia.

Florist David Longman toldExpressthat afterQueen Elizabethlost the flowers during her own wedding, she started the tradition of having two identical bouquets made to prevent a similar mishap.

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Party

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The royal couple’s wedding party was made up of two pageboys (Lord Nicholas Windsor and Edward van Cutsem) and five bridesmaids, including Diana’s niece, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (now Chatto), Diana’s favorite former student, Clementine Hambro, Charles’s goddaughter, India Hicks, Catherine Cameron and Sarah-Jane Gaselee. “Each bridesmaid had been chosen forpersonal reasons of the bride and groom,” Hicks would later explain toHarper’s Bazaar.

The bridal attendants dressed in outfits similar to Diana, with taffeta satin, lace trim and yellow sashes. Hambro, then 5, and Cameron, 6, were the youngest of the group, and also wore flower crowns to match their bouquets.

At one point, Hambro, the great-grandaughter of Winston Churchill, had a misstep, falling and bursting into tears. She later recalled toTODAYthat Diana asked her if she “bumped her bottom,” to which she replied, “No, I bumped my head.”

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Ceremony

Anwar Hussein/Getty

Diana walked down the aisle on the arm of her father, Earl Edward John Spencer, despite theunsteadiness he faced from a strokehe had suffered three years prior.

The Princess of Wales broke from tradition when she decided to leave the word “obey” out of her vows toPrince Charlesfrom the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, which dates back to 1662. “Lady Diana has chosen to follow the new ritual of the Church of England, and she will promise in the ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral only to ‘love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health,’ theNew York Timesreported ahead of the pair’s nuptials.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty

According to the paper, the decision was one the couple made together after “very serious” discussions with Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie.

Despite their careful planning, the royal couple’s vow recital didn’t exactly go swimmingly. Diana accidentally referred toPrince Charles, whose full name isPrince CharlesPhilip Arthur George, asPrince PhilipCharles. Charles, for his part,mistakenly offered Diana “thy goods” instead of the more traditional “my worldly goods.”

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Reception

David Levenson/Getty

Before the couple jetted off for their honeymoon, they celebrated their monumental moment with a far smaller group of loved ones: Just 120 of the cathedral’s 3,500 guests were invited to the gathering at Buckingham Palace. There, they were treated to an epic feast that included such lavish dishes as brill in lobster sauce andSuprême de Volaille Princesse de Galles, a play on a chicken breast stuffed with lamb mousse, wrapped in brioche and topped off with Madeira sauce and asparagus tips. It was named for Diana herself, who loved chicken.

Though the couple’s first dance song is unknown, they reportedly enjoyed music from jazz and pop bandleaderLester Lanin and his orchestrato kick off their wedding reception. Lanin also performed at Princess Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier III engagement party.

July 29, 1981: Charles and Princess Diana leave for their honeymoon.Serge Lemoine/Hulton Archive/Getty

The British author said that the new royal also gave thema sweet parting gift. “Diana thanked us and gave us each a kiss and a present: a pretty gold-rimmed Halcyon Days china box. Inside were two of the silkworms that had spun the silk for her wedding dress.”

Princess Diana and Prince Charles' Wedding Legacy

Prince Philip at the 1981 royal wedding of Charles and Diana.

Added wedding expert Cornelia Powell: “It put a new era of fancy wedding hoopla into motion: elaborate designer gowns; a return of the status wedding celebration; staged over-the-top productions and celebrity weddings as media spectacles.”

source: people.com