Prince Charles And Princess Diana: Inside Their 'Fairytale Wedding' Forty Years Ago Today

Jul 29, 2021

On July 29, 1981, Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, making this year the 40th anniversary. Despite their union not lasting, their wedding went down in history and is still remembered today — there's a reason it's called the "wedding of the century." The couple's wedding was truly a perfect fairytale moment, although it sadly didn't give them a fairytale ending. 

Diana was just 20 years old when she married Charles, who was 32. Although they had known each other for a few years, Diana revealed later that the couple had only met 13 times prior to their engagement announcement. A large wedding by any standard, 3,500 attendees fit into St. Paul's Cathedral that day, while a televised home audience watched on around the world. The couple had a beautiful, traditional ceremony and there were even events held around the Commonwealth so everyone could join in on the romantic festivities.

From her stunning wedding dress that recently went on display at Kensington Palace, to the beautiful ring she wore — which has since been passed down to Diana's daughter-in-law Kate Middleton — Diana was the epitome of elegance and grace on her special day. Her wedding dress featured the longest train in royal history and truly introduced her to the world as a princess.

Although it was televised and seen by millions of people across the world, there are still some surprising facts about the wedding, some of which came out long after the fact. In honor of the 40th anniversary of Charles and Diana's wedding, let's take a look back at the big day, including facts that you may not know.

Although Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding appeared very traditional, there were in fact quite a few aspects that either broke from tradition or set new records at the time. Notably, Diana was the first bride of a British heir without a royal title in over 300 years. However, she wasn't a commoner by any means, as she came from a noble family — her parents were Viscount and Viscountess Althorp.

The chosen location, St. Paul's Cathedral, also broke from tradition, as a royal wedding hadn't taken place there since 1501. Westminster Abbey had been the site for royal weddings in the last few centuries but since it could only host 2,200 guests, Charles and Diana opted for the much larger St. Paul's Cathedral, which had room for 3,500 people.

Furthermore, the couple's vows went against tradition when they omitted the word "obey." The omission was growing in popularity for weddings at the time but nevertheless, it was unprecedented for a royal wedding. The move made international headlines and was apparently Diana's idea, while Charles fully supported her.

In total, it's believed that around 750 million people across 74 countries tuned in to the royal wedding around the world, while 600,000 people lined the streets of London. The BBC described this as "marking a highpoint in the popularity of the royal family." However, Charles and Diana's ceremony wasn't the first one to be broadcast live on TV. Over two decades earlier, Princess Margaret's 1960 wedding to her first husband Antony Armstrong-Jones was televised, raking in an estimated 300 million viewers.

The wedding looked picture perfect and a large part of that came from the fact that Diana was a beaming bride who truly looked like a princess. Her iconic wedding dress, which was designed by Elizabeth and David Emanuel, also set a record for having the longest train, which measured 25 feet, of any royal wedding dress. David told Today just this year that it was intentionally designed to be dramatic in order to make Diana "look like a fairytale princess." The dress went on to influence wedding gown trends in the 1980s. 

Clearly establishing a close relationship with the designers, who also designed other garments for Diana, the design duo even surprised the princess on her big day by revealing they'd sewn a diamond-studded horseshoe into the waistband of her gown for good luck. David revealed to Hello! last year:

"We only told her on the wedding day. She didn't know about the horseshoe for good luck, she was very touched. She was traditional."

For such a large wedding, there needed to be enough cake to celebrate, and the big day certainly didn't disappoint. A total of 27 cakes were made, including a duplicate of the 5-foot-tall main cake in case an accident were to occur. Thirty-three years after the wedding, one slice of the cake sold at auction for around $1,375, still in the original box that it was given to guests in.

Charles and Diana's wedding might have been perfect but a fairytale wedding doesn't come without a hefty price tag, especially one for which a huge amount of security had to be taken into account. According to Business Insider, the wedding cost a whopping $48 million, which comes to $110 million when accounting for inflation.

Do you remember Charles and Diana's fairytale wedding when it happened? Did you know all of these details? Pass this article on to those you know in honor of the 40th anniversary.