She’s destined to be a picture perfect bride when she walks down the aisle to become Prince Harry’s wife, but there are two traditions Meghan Markle won’t be following when it comes to her big day.
Over the weekend Kensington Palace confirmed Meghan had decided to ditch the tradition of having a maid of honour at her nuptials.
Jason Knauf, Kensington Palace’s communications secretary, said the bride-to-be had such strong bonds with her friends, who have all been invited to the wedding, that she was unable to select just one to be her maid of honour.
Instead she has picked youngsters as bridesmaids and pageboys – with Prince George and Princess Charlotte certain to be among them.
Meghan’s close friends include her stylist Jessica Mulroney, who runs a bridal store in Toronto and is said to have helped the bride choose her gown.
Indian actress and philanthropist Priyanka Chopra will also have been a source of support.
Chopra has paid tribute to Meghan as a ‘strong, free spirit’ who ‘found her prince, fell in love and in turn made a cynical world believe in fairy tales again’.
The actress wrote a piece to accompany Meghan’s entry in Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2018, saying she would be a ‘princess for the people’.
Meghan is also close to tennis champion Serena Williams.
She wrote on her lifestyle website thetig.com how she hit it off immediately with Williams after meeting her at a celebrity flag football game in 2014.
‘She quickly became a confidante I would text when I was travelling, the friend I would rally around for her tennis matches, and the down-to-earth chick I was able to grab lunch with just a couple weeks ago in Toronto,’ she revealed.
‘We are both the same age, have a penchant for hot sauces, and adore fashion, but what connects us more than those things is perhaps our belief in exceeding expectations, our endless ambition.’
Other friends include her former Suits co-star Sarah Rafferty, actress and musician Janina Gavankar, New York socialite Olivia Palermo, former Suits and Mad Men actress Abigail Spencer, author Lindsay Jill Roth and celebrity pilates instructor Heather Dorak.
Dropping a maid of honour from proceedings isn’t the only tradition that Meghan is likely to shun on the big day.
Meghan looks set to omit the word ‘obey’ from her wedding vows too – and she wouldn’t be the first to do so.
Recent royal tradition has been for royal brides not to pledge to obey their husbands.
The Duchess of Cambridge did not in 2011, and neither did Harry’s mother the Princess of Wales in 1981 when she married the Prince of Wales.
Harry and Meghan will probably choose the Alternative Services: Series One (1966) Book of Common Prayer ceremony, just as William and Kate did.
It allows the bride not to say ‘obey him’ and ‘serve him’ during the religious proceedings, but still retains traditional language.
Kate pledged to ‘love, comfort, honour and keep’ William when they married in Westminster Abbey.
The Queen, her sister Princess Margaret, and daughter the Princess Royal all said they would obey their husbands.
Writing your own wedding vows is seen as something of an American tradition.
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