ROYALS

A Complete History of All the Mishaps and Oddities to Befall British Royal Weddings

From Princess Augusta vomiting on her wedding dress while walking down the aisle to Princess Mary mistaking Gandhi’s gift to the Queen for a loincloth.


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The deluge of drama that’s come from Thomas Markle Sr., Meghan Markle‘s father, in the days just before her and Prince Harry‘s royal wedding this Saturday has been enough to make anyone cringe. But let’s not forget that as nutty as the Markles have turned out to be, the Windsors far surpass them—thanks, in part, to Prince Harry himself, whose own past scandals have involved a swastika and nude photos.

Indeed, all things considered, much worse things have gone down in the history of British royal weddings. Sure, the Big Day has yet to come, but it’s hard to believe that the universally adored Markle could ever do anything as egregious as Princess Augusta did in the 1700s, when she vomited on her dress while walking down the aisle. Here, a roundup of other royal-wedding oopsies.

Prince William and Kate Middleton, 2011

  • Prince William reportedly slept just 30 minutes the night before his wedding. “They were singing and cheering all night long,” he later explained, adding that his nervousness didn’t help. (He reportedly looked “absolutely terrified” before the ceremony and took a moment with Prince Harry to compose himself.)
  • Still, that wasn’t the reason that Prince William visibly struggled to fit the wedding ring on Middleton’s finger, as 2 billion people looked on. She’d asked for it a size smaller than usual, seeing as her engagement ring was prone to slipping off of her finger since she’d lost weight.

Kate Middleton and Prince William's kiss on the balcony at Buckingham Palace on their wedding day, featuring bridesmaid Grace van Cutsem.

George Pimentel/Getty Images
  • When it came time for them to kiss on the balcony, a disgruntled 3-year-old bridesmaid, Grace van Cutsem, accidentally stole the show by appearing in the photo’s foreground, scowling and covering her ears with her hands.
  • David Beckham showed up to the abbey in the correct attire of a “morning coat,” except that he affixed his OBE to the wrong lapel. But by the time he and wife Victoria left the ceremony—where they positioned themselves next to a bathroom, as she was then eight months pregnant—it had been switched.

David and Victoria Beckham arriving to Kate Middleton and Prince William's wedding at Westminster Abbey.

Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, 2005

  • Buckingham Palace paid all the expenses for two dabbawallahs, who hand-deliver hot meals across India, to attend the wedding, two years after Prince Charles first met them on a trip to India. (They reportedly gave the couple a sari and an Indian headdress.)
  • According to the BBC, another guest, the comedian Stephen Fry, joked about giving Prince Charles “coffee made from Cambodian weasel vomit,” claiming that he was hard to buy gifts for.

Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones, 1999

  • The Sun published a topless photo of Sophie Rhys-Jones just weeks before her wedding, causing an uproar that eventually led to a public apology from the newspaper.
  • Though the couple established a rule against hats, eschewing tradition in hopes of having a less formal ceremony, Princess Margaret still showed up in a chapeau complete with ostrich feathers. (She was also in a wheelchair at the time, having scalded her feet in the bath a few months prior.)

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, 1981

  • Princess Diana had only met Prince Charles 13 times before their wedding day, which was partially why she cried at a rehearsal two days beforehand—an episode that the BBC captured on camera and then quickly destroyed. (Prince Charles, for his part, reportedly wept the night before the wedding.)
  • Ahead of the ceremony, Princess Diana led her bridesmaids in a rendition of the jingle for an ice cream ad, “Just One Cornetto,” that played on a nearby TV.
  • Once dressed, she traveled to St. Paul’s Cathedral with her father in the Queen’s Class Coach, which ended up being too small to contain her 25-foot train, and as a result, she arrived to the ceremony with a visible number of creases and wrinkles.

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer during their wedding at St Paul's Cathedral.

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  • Diana’s gown also played host to the contents of her perfume bottle, thanks to a mishap with her 20-year-old makeup artist.
  • As if to underline her lack of enthusiasm about the marriage, Diana “mistakenly” reversed Prince Charles’s name while reciting her vows, calling him “Philip Charles.”
  • Once the ceremony came to an end, the youngest of the bridesmaids, five-year-old Clementine Hambro, the great-granddaughter of Winston Churchill, joined the couple in their tears when she tripped and fell in a hallway of Buckingham Palace.

Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips, 1973

  • The couple’s wedding cake was a towering five-foot-six—a height specifically chosen to match up with that of Princess Anne.

The five-foot-six Princess Anne–size cake in question.

Peter King/Getty Images

Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, 1947

  • Before she became the Queen, Princess Elizabeth used her own ration coupons to purchase her wedding dress. (She rejected the hundreds that were offered, as accepting them was forbidden.) Famously thrifty, she also ended up doing her own makeup for the ceremony.
  • Mahatma Gandhi sent the couple a handmade piece of lace, which Queen Mary declared “rather vulgar” after mistaking it for a loincloth.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840

  • A century earlier, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert also received a notable wedding gift: the largest hunk of cheddar cheese ever made. Clocking in at more than 1,200 pounds, its circumference measured over nine feet, thanks to the contributions of 750 cows from Somerset.

King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick, 1795

  • The first time that the then–Prince Regent laid eyes on his future wife, he reportedly retreated from her immediately, telling an earl, “I am not very well, pray get me a glass of brandy.” But since he was hundreds of pounds in debt and badly in need of money, he eventually managed to get over her reportedly overwhelming body odor and imperfect visage. Caroline reacted to the Prince fairly similarly, remarking that he was “very fat” and did not at all resemble the handsome man in his portrait.

25 Intimate Portraits Of the British Royal Family, From King George VI to Young Prince George

The Royal Family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after the coronation of King George VI of England. Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images.

Hulton Deutsch

King George VI with his daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret in the grounds of Windsor Castle in Windsor, England on July 08, 1946. Photo by Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Getty Images.

Lisa Sheridan

Princess Elizabeth working on her studies at a desk in Windsor Castle. Photo by Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa/Getty Images.

Lisa Sheridan

Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones in the grounds of Royal Lodge on the day they announced their engagement. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Hulton Archive

Princess Margaret walks with her husband Earl of Snowdon on a pontoon in the Bahamas. Photo by DALMAS/AFP/Getty Images.

DALMAS

Queen Elizabeth II with a group of local children during her state visit to Mexico, 1975. Photo by Serge Lemoine/Getty Images.

Serge Lemoine

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on safari during their state visit to Zambia, 1979. Photo by Serge Lemoine/Getty Images.

Serge Lemoine

Prince Andrew in the 1980’s. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

Keystone-France

Diana, Princess of Wales with Sarah Ferguson at the Guard’s Polo Club, Windsor, 1983. Photo by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images.

Georges De Keerle

Princess Diana with the Duchess of York during a skiing holiday in Klosters, Switzerland, 1988. Photo by James Andanson/Sygma via Getty Images.

James Andanson

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on the balcony at Buckingham Palace after their marriage ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral, 1981. Photo by MSI/Mirrorpix/Getty Images.

Mirrorpix

Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales together during their honeymoon in Balmoral, Scotland, 1981. Photo by Serge Lemoine/Getty Images.

Serge Lemoine

Princess Diana, Princess of Wales poses in a bikini while on holiday in the South of France. Photo by Anwar Hussein/WireImage.

Anwar Hussein

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York inspecting The Guard Of Honour at R.A.F. Gaton in Berlin, Germany, 1989. Photo by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images.

Georges De Keerle

Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson on a boat during their visit to Venice, Italy in 1989. Photo by Georges De Keerle/Getty Images.

Georges De Keerle

The Princess Of Wales with her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry on a chairlift during a ski holiday in Lech, Austria. Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images.

Tim Graham

Prince of Wales on the slopes in Klosters, Switzerland, where he is on a skiing holiday with his sons Princes William and Harry. Photo by Tim Ockenden – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images.

Tim Ockenden – PA Images

Princess Diana arriving at the Serpentine Gallery, London, in a gown by Christina Stambolian, 1994. Photo by Jayne Fincher/Getty Images.

Princess Diana Archive

The Duchess of York attends a charity premiere of ‘A Little Princess’ in London, with her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, 1996. Photo by Dave Benett/Getty Images.

Dave Benett

Kanye West shares a joke with Prince Harry and Prince William at Wembley Arena in London, 2007. Photo by CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images.

CARL DE SOUZA

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge drive from Buckingham Palace in a decorated sports car on April 29, 2011 after their wedding ceremony in London, England. Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

Jeff J Mitchell

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge watch a rodeo demonstration at a Government Reception at the BMO Centre on July 7, 2011 in Calgary, Canada. Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

Chris Jackson

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie attend the 8th annual charity: ball Gala at the Duggal Greenhouse on December 16, 2013 in New York City. Photo by Michael Stewart/WireImage.

Michael Stewart

Catherine, Duchess of Cambride and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge ride in an open-air jeep on safari around the National Park at Kaziranga National Park on April 13, 2016 in Guwahati, India. Photo by Samir Hussein/Pool/WireImage.

Samir Hussein
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Prince Frederick and Princess Augusta, 1736

  • Princess Augusta was just 17 when she arrived to London to marry Prince Frederick—a ceremony in which she vomited not only on her own wedding dress, but also that of her soon-to-be mother-in-law. Her nerves were largely due to the fact that she didn’t speak any English, which also meant that the ceremony had to be translated into her ear, including the lines that she had to repeat phonetically.

Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, 1328

  • Legend has it that snow poured in to Edward III’s winter ceremony, which he and his wife-to-be held in the York Minster while it was still being constructed and without a roof over the nave.

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