15 Things You Never Knew About Royal Weddings

While it’s a given that a royal wedding costs a pretty penny, you may not know that the bulk of the cost goes to security. When Prince William married Kate Middleton, the royals spent a whopping $32 million on security for the event, and just $2 million on everything else.

For Will and Kate’s wedding, the couple sent save-the-dates by fax, and Queen Elizabeth II sent invitations to other European royalty in the same fashion. Apparently, Buckingham Palace staff members believe this to be the most efficient way of transmitting information—even with the advent of email and social media.

Before Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840, wearing white as a bride was somewhat taboo, and colours were considered more appropriate. The long-reigning monarch was the first royal bride to set the trend in motion with her satin gown, and today the convention is the norm for most weddings.

Before a royal couple—any royal sixth or closer in line to the throne, to be specific—can marry, they must get permission from the Queen. The monarch gave her blessing to Prince Charles when he married Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005, even though they had both been married before.

While most brides will choose their best friends, sisters or cousins to stand next to them at the altar, royal brides traditionally choose younger girls to be their bridesmaids. Kate’s bridesmaids ranged in age from three to eight (not including 27-year-old Pippa), and Diana’s maids ranged from five to 17.

Up until 1919 when Princess Patricia of Connaught held her wedding there, Westminster Abbey wasn’t the first choice for royal weddings. Previously, most royal weddings were held at the Chapel Royal at St. James Palace, which was much too small for Kate and Will’s massive ceremony—it only seats 100!

Forget chocolate or vanilla—fruitcake is the traditional choice for any British royal wedding. At their reception, Prince Charles and Diana served a fruitcake with cream cheese frosting, while Kate and Will served one with walnuts, raisins and oranges—in addition to a more traditional (and enormous!) eight-tiered wedding cake.

The laws and expectations surrounding marriage in the royal family have loosened quite a bit over the years. However, in the now-repealed 1772 Royal Marriages Act, royal family members weren’t supposed to marry Catholics, commoners, or anyone who had been divorced—and if they did, their heirs were considered illegitimate.

At any British royal wedding, a sea of colourful hats will no doubt be on display among the guests. Wearing a headpiece to royal weddings is a well-known custom, and it can be considered a faux-pas to go hat-less, like Samantha Cameron, the British Prime Minister’s wife, did in 2011.

Traditionally, royal family members have been advised against eating shellfish because of the high risk of illness. Like many other royal customs, this rule has become more of a guideline, but there’s still a slim chance of seeing oysters on the menu at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s May affair.

In 1840, Queen Victoria included myrtle, or “the herb of love,” in her bouquet, and soon after, planted a myrtle bush in her garden. Since then, each royal bride has taken a sprig off the bush to put in her bouquet, including Kate, whose flowers also featured lily-of-the-valley and hyacinth.

As a thank you, pieces of the royal wedding cake are saved, then mailed out to guests later. In fact, slices of royal wedding cake do well at auction—a slice from Princess Diana’s wedding recently sold for $1,350, while a slice from Kate and Will’s wedding went for $4,160.

It’s tradition that British royalty recite vows from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. However, Princess Diana was the first to break tradition when she left out the word “obey” from her vows, and Kate Middleton later followed suit in 2011, putting a much more modern spin on things instead.

Since the mother of Queen Elizabeth II married in 1923, every royal bride’s wedding band has contained gold from a nugget sourced in Dolgellau, North Wales. This kind of gold is one of the most valuable in the world, but this still couldn’t persuade Will to don a wedding band.

Traditionally, British royal men don military uniforms on their big day (remember Will’s dashing red outfit back in 2011?). For Prince Harry’s hotly anticipated nuptials to Meghan Markle, he will no doubt wear a military uniform as he served in the British army for years, eventually achieving the title of Captain.