That was fast! One day after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement, palace officials revealed on Tuesday, November 28, that the royal couple now has a wedding date and a venue.
“The marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales and Ms. Meghan Markle will take place at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in May, 2018,” Kensington Palace announced in its statement. “Her Majesty The Queen has granted permission for the wedding to take place at the Chapel.”
In addition to the venue, the British Royal Family will be taking on all costs for the biggest wedding since Prince William wed Kate Middleton in 2011. “The Royal Family will pay for the wedding,” palace officials initially concluded Tuesday. “Further details about the wedding will be announced in due course.”
St. George’s Chapel is a special place particularly for Prince Harry, who was baptized at the very location back in 1984. Windsor Castle, which dates back to the 15th century, is also the part-time home of Queen Elizabeth II.
Florists put the finishing touches to a decorative hanging baskets outside St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle prior on the day of the Royal wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones. (Photo by Phil Noble – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
“Windsor is a very special place for Prince Harry and he and Ms. Markle have regularly spent time there over the last year and a half,” the palace added.
Other weddings to be held at the religious site include the June 1999 nuptials of Prince Harry’s uncle, Prince Edward, and Countess Sophie Rhys-Jones. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camila Parker Bowles, also exchanged vows on the Windsor Castle property in their civil wedding ceremony in April 2005.
Now, the world’s attention is focused on the fifth in line to the throne, who proposed several weeks ago in Nottingham Cottage. It was another typical Sunday night for the pair as they attempted to roast a chicken. “It was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee,” Markle told BBC on Monday.
“She didn’t even let me finish,” the prince recalled of the private proposal. “She was like, ‘Can I say yes? Can I say yes?’ And then there were hugs and I had the ring in my finger and I was like, ‘Can I give you the ring?’ and she was like, ‘Oh, yes, the ring!’”
Harry designed the ring himself in conjunction with the Queen’s go-to jeweler, Cleave and Company. “The ring is obviously yellow gold, that’s her favorite,” he said. “The main stone itself is from Botswana. And the little diamonds on the side are from my mother’s jewelry box collection to make sure she stays with us.”
