She will enter alone and exit a fully fledged royal. As a tumultuous week culminates at the altar for Meghan Markle, she will walk up the historic nave of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, accompanied by 10 bridesmaids and pageboys. Only once she reaches the quire will she take the final few steps, accompanied not by her father but by her future father-in-law.
Last-minute adjustments to Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry now mean that the father of the groom, Prince Charles, will, unusually, give away his future daughter-in-law to his own son.
The changes, made after her father, Thomas Markle Sr, pulled out due to ill health, were too late for the official Order of Service for guests. These had already been printed with his name. He will be thousands of miles away in Mexico as his daughter pledges her love to the sixth-in-line to the British throne before 600 guests and a global TV audience of many millions.
She will not promise to obey, and the groom will wear a wedding ring. The couple have sought to fuse the traditional and the contemporary in their choices, which will see the soul classic Stand by Me, and the African-American church favourite This Little Light of Mine, performed by a gospel choir, as well as the rousing Welsh rugby anthem Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer, also known as Bread of Heaven.
In keeping with tradition, she and Harry were spending the night before their nuptials apart. The bride was staying with her mother, Doria Ragland, 61, at the Cliveden House Hotel, near Taplow. Arriving at her hotel, she smiled for photographers. Asked how she was feeling, Markle replied: “Wonderful, thank you”. The groom and best man, Prince William, were at the Coworth Park Hotel in Ascot. Before retiring to their hotel, the princes spent some time meeting an enthusiastic cheering crowd outside Windsor Castle in the early evening sunshine.
Earlier, Harry and Markle left their Kensington Palace home for the last time as an unmarried couple and headed to Windsor Castle for afternoon tea with the Queen. Ragland, a yoga teacher and social worker who flew in on Wednesday, was introduced to the monarch for the first time.
Alarm clocks were being set on both sides of the Atlantic. A 100,000 crowd is expected to turn out to line the route in Windsor, which the couple will travel by horse and carriage, and people have been warned to set off early because of train queues, road closures and security checks before the noon service. On Markle’s native US west coast, the service begins at 4am Pacific Daylight Time.
The couple have chosen the marriage service from Common Worship (2000), so modern words will be used rather than “thee” or “thou”. Using their full names, Henry Charles Albert David and Rachel Meghan, they will pledge themselves “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part”.
Lady Jane Fellowes, the sister of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, will deliver a reading from the Song of Solomon, stressing the strength and power of love.
Kensington Palace said the couple had thought carefully about the music and hymns, which includes English Baroque composer William Boyce’s Symphony no 1 in B flat major. They turned to Charles for advice on orchestral choices to be played before the service, which will include Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Greensleeves and Elgar’s Chanson de Matin. The National Anthem will be played at the end.
Confirmation of Charles’s enhanced role in the service was announced in a statement which read: “Ms Meghan Markle has asked His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to accompany her down the aisle of the Quire of St George’s Chapel on her wedding day. The Prince of Wales is pleased to be able to welcome Ms Markle to the Royal Family in this way.”
Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Philip, 96, who has been recuperating following a hip operation, would be attending.
Markle Sr, 73, a retired TV lighting director, reportedly underwent a heart procedure on Wednesday. The will-he-wont-he drama over whether he would attend the wedding dominated the headlines until it was confirmed on Thursday that he would not be present. Markle was understood to be disappointed and concerned for his wellbeing, but determined that his absence would not impact on the enjoyment of her wedding day.
As die-hard fans camped out near the castle, buckets of flowers and foliage were being transported inside the 15th-century chapel on Friday. Floral designer Philippa Craddock’s brief was “seasonal, sustainable and locally sourced”. The church will be filled with beech, birch and hornbeam, as well as wild flowers, white roses, peonies and foxgloves.
The town’s streets were crowded and its hotels full as a huge international media presence descended to set up camp. A large security operation saw police manning barricades outside the castle, sniffer dogs and snipers on the roofs of high-street buildings.
Claire Ptak was putting the finishing touches to the layered lemon and elderflower wedding cake. The sponge sandwich, which will be decorated with elderflower Swiss meringue buttercream and fresh flowers, contains 200 Amalfi lemons and 10 bottles of Sandringham elderflower cordial. In a “slight shift from tradition” it will be put together as “an installation”, promising to be more work of art than traditional wedding tier.