From where to sit and to what to wear, those invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding will need to be up to speed on royal wedding etiquette if they want to avoid any potential protocol blunders.
Former royal editor Duncan Larcombe witnessed the dos and don’ts of a royal nuptials when he attended Prince William and Kate Middleton‘s wedding in 2011. “This wedding is going to feel very very different from William and Kate’s,” he told Cosmopolitan UK. “I think Harry and Meghan will stamp their trademark all over their wedding and we might be surprised at how ‘unroyal’ it really is. Harry is the ‘people’s prince’ rather than the future king.”
However, guests will still need to be aware of the appropriate decorum before setting foot inside St George’s Chapel on 19 May. Here are some of the rules they will be expected to follow.
1. Mobile phones are allowed – but they must be switched off
In the church, guests will be allowed to take their mobile phones in, but they will have to have them on silent. “Under no circumstances are they allowed to use them,” Larcombe stressed. It’s likely that the guests who try to take a sneaky photo of the Queen will be caught, with the ushers and chapel staff on standby to “have discreet words” with people if they start using their camera phones.