British Royal Wedding

When the ushers at St George’s Chapel welcome the 350 guests for what will be the most significant Royal wedding in nearly three decades, they will be extra careful not to stumble over their words.

After all, the two groups of relatives at the nuptials of Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly next month are such polar opposites that one slip of the tongue over the question, “Are you with the bride or groom?” could cause a few raised aristocratic eyebrows.

On one side of the chapel, set in the sumptuous grounds of Windsor Castle, they will seat Peter’s family, who include, of course, his grandmother the Queen, his mother the Princess Royal, and his cousins Princes William and Harry.

To the other, they will direct a decidedly different calibre of guest, in the form of Autumn’s family.

Having just flown in from her native Canada, they will be altogether unfamiliar with the subtle machinations of the Monarchy.

Among those invited on May 17 are her bricklayer brother, hairdresser mother and a wayward uncle who used to run a strip club.

In short, they are a collection of working-class individuals whose attitudes could well have some of their more blue-blooded fellow guests choking on their quails’ eggs if they cross paths at the reception.

Not since Diana tied the knot with Charles in 1981 has a new recruit caused such a stir.

Read entire article at The Daily Mail…

Prince William dropped his trousers and downed pints of bitter as he and brother Harry gave their royal cousin a boozy stag weekend to remember.

The infamous drinking duo joined Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips for a 72-hour bender.

And at one point they were so boozed up that they lost him.

The high jinks began last Friday morning as the stag party boarded a high-speed ferry from Southampton to Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

As passengers looked on amazed, Peter, 30, was forced to swap his clothes for a skin-tight white leotard.Then he was made to kneel down and sup lager from a hosepipe.

Once on the island the group — some also in fancy dress — headed to a cricket pitch for a boozy game.

Then William and Harry arrived to join the fun. Wills, 25, had dashed down from RAF Cranwell, Lincs, where he received his pilot’s wings.

“Harry and William were as good as gold. They drank until the music ended, then left with the police officers who were looking after them.”

Another drinker said: “The guys were having a good night out — dancing, chatting and stitching Peter up.”

At one point, after hours of heavy drinking, William and Harry, 23, were heard panicking because Peter was nowhere to be seen.

Soldier Harry — wearing the baseball cap he had in Afghanistan, bearing the slogan “I do bad things to bad people” — yelled: “Where the f*** is the stag? We’ve lost the f****** stag.”

Peter is due to wed Autumn Kelly, 29, at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 17.

Asked how he was coping with the weekend, he joked: “I’m still alive.”

Harry said as the bash drew to a close: “It’s been an awesome stag do — it will just take us a while to recover.”

Read entire article at The Sun…

Keen to keep his wedding low-key — although a marriage ceremony in front of 350 guests including the Royal Family at Windsor sounds anything but modest — Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips has turned down the chance of a ceremonial presence.

“The Queen offered to have a dozen members of the Gentlemen at Arms on duty as ushers to show guests to their seats at St George’s Chapel,” I am told.

But 30-year-old Phillips, who will marry Canadian-born Autumn Kelly in May, has declined his grandmother’s generous offer.

“Peter and Autumn have told everyone they want to do their own thing. The ushers are standing down.” (via Daily Mail)

In two months they will be man and wife, but already Peter Phillips’s fiancee Autumn Kelly has a taste of what life is going to be like inside the Royal Family.

In the absence of so many of the younger royals, the Canadian-born Autumn brought some much-needed glamour to the line-up of Easter bonnets on parade at St George’s Chapel in chilly Windsor yesterday.

Miss Kelly, 29, who marries the Queen’s grandson at the same chapel in May, has already become a popular figure among her future in-laws.

No doubt in part because she has not courted the attention of the paparazzi who are devoted to recording the love lives of Peter’s cousins William and Harry. However, the couple’s wedding will be anything but low key. Autumn has engaged Chelsea-based designer Sassi Holford to make her dress and the chapel will be filled with more than 350 guests. (via Daily Mail)

Spring seemed very much on Queen Elizabeth’s mind as she chose her outfit for the traditional Easter service at Windsor Castle this Sunday.

As sleet peppered the area, the Queen arrived at the chapel wearing an extremely spring-like light-pink two-piece with matching hat. Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, the 81-year-old monarch led a host of royals to the service.

By his mother’s side was new dad Prince Edward and his wife, the Countess of Wessex. Wrapped up well against the weather, the Queen’s only daughter, the Princess Royal, was joined by her husband, Timothy Lawrence. Celebrating their last Easter as singletons were Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips, and his fiancée, Autumn Kelly. The couple are due to tie the knot on 17 May.
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When the Princess Royal’s son, Peter Phillips, marries his Canadian fiancee, Autumn Kelly, at St George’s chapel in Windsor in May, he will give up any hope of being crowned king of England, Mandrake (The Telegraph) can disclose.

“Peter will renounce his place in the line of succession,” says Canon Ivor Smith-Cameron, a former chaplain to the Queen. “Given that he has slipped down the line after the birth of Prince Edward’s son, I’m sure that he is happy to agree to this.”

Her Majesty’s eldest grandson, who is 11th in line to the throne, has been forced to make the decision because Autumn was baptised a Catholic. It is a provision of the 1701 Act of Settlement, which enshrined the Protestant ascendancy, that monarchs and their heirs are forbidden to become or even marry Catholics.

“My understanding is that although they are marrying in an Anglican church, Miss Kelly will have a Catholic priest present at the wedding,” says Canon Smith-Cameron. “This will ensure that the marriage is recognised by the Catholic Church. I don’t know of any precedents for this in the Royal Family, but there are plenty of precedents for this happening elsewhere, such as in the Guards’ chapel.”

After the couple’s engagement was announced last summer, Autumn’s mother, Kitty, a divorcee, authorised the Church to disclose that her 31-year-old daughter had been baptised a Catholic and was proud of her religion.

Peter, 30, whose father, Capt Mark Phillips, divorced Princess Anne in 1992, will be following the example of Prince Michael of Kent, who renounced his place in the line of succession when he married Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, a Catholic divorcee, in 1978. They married in an intimate civil ceremony in Vienna. (via The Telegraph)

Any wedding with Prince William as best man and Zara Phillips as a bridesmaid is unlikely to remain low-key for long.

So reports at the weekend that the Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, and his Canadian bride, Autumn Kelly, below, had decided to wed in the tiny Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral Castle, surprised many. Now, a friend of the couple has set the record straight.

“They’re actually getting married in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle,” says my source at a party for Glenmorangie whisky. “It can seat up to 800 people, so it’ll be quite a big do. Autumn’s certainly not thinking low key when it comes to the dress, either.

She’s having it made by the Fulham-based designer Sassi Holford, who is creating something completely original which will be called The Autumn.”

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying only: “He is a private individual and we don’t speak on his behalf.” (via The Telegraph)

As she contemplates marriage into Britain’s royal family, 31-year-old Autumn Kelly can rest easy on one score: her future in-laws already seem to regard her as one of their own.

Peter Phillips’ pretty Canadian fiancée certainly seemed at ease during a recent weekend spent at Sandringham, the Windsors’ much-loved Norfolk retreat, as the guest of Peter’s grandmother, the Queen.

Autumn, a management consultant, already looked the part of a member of “the firm” as she stepped out in a smart coat and matching hat to Sunday morning worship at the local church.

One topic guaranteed to have been up for discussion was the young couple’s forthcoming nuptials. No date for the big day has yet been announced, but it’s thought the service will be held at Crathie Kirk in Scotland. The tiny village church near the Queen’s summer home of Balmoral Castle is where Peter’s mother, Princess Anne wed her second husband, Timothy Laurence in 1992. (via Hello Magazine)

The Queen’s eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, has decided to hold his wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly in Scotland, sources claimed yesterday.

He is said to have chosen the tiny Crathie Kirk, near Balmoral Castle. It is the village church where his mother Princess Anne married for the second time 16 years ago after her divorce from his father, Mark.

Some constitutional experts say that unless Peter’s fiancee, a staunch Catholic, renounces her faith, he will lose his place in the line of succession to the Throne – he is 11th although he holds no Royal titles. They claim the Act of Settlement of 1701 still bans the marriage to Catholics of all Royals.

Anne married Timothy Laurence at Crathie Kirk in 1992 after also facing an historical issue. Holding the wedding in the Church of Scotland allowed her to overcome the Church of England’s ban on divorcees remarrying.

The engagement between Peter, 30, and Miss Kelly, 31, a management consultant, was announced in July. However, no mention was made of her religion.
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Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips will marry his Canadian fiancee Autumn Kelly on May 17 next year, the Sunday Express can exclusively reveal.

The Queen has given permission for her eldest grandchild to have the Saturday ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, followed by a reception at Windsor Castle.

Peter, 30, met his bride-to-be at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in June 2003, where he was working for Williams Formula 1.

Autumn, who turns 30 on May 3 next year, exactly two weeks before the wedding, moved to Britain soon afterwards.

The pair split their time between a cottage on Anne’s Gatcombe estate in Gloucestershire and a home in Edinburgh, where Peter works for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Prince William, 25, who is extremely close to his cousin, may be best man while Peter’s sister Zara, 26, who is also very close to Autumn, is expected to be a bridesmaid. (via Sunday Express)