Wedding bells are on the horizon for the Royal Family once again, as Princess Anne’s son, Peter Phillips, is set to wed his partner and NHS nurse Harriet Sperling this summer. But, while we’ve become accustomed to televised nuptials and fairytale splendour, this next wedding is likely to be a more intimate affair.
According to the official announcement, the wedding between Peter and Harriet will take place this coming June, but there will be a number of key differences and changes to the guestlist compared with royal nuptials of the past. While The Prince and Princess of Wales married in the grand setting of Westminster Abbey, and Prince Harry and Meghan did the same at Windsor, Peter’s ceremony will be taking place in a village location. All Saints Church in Kemble, Cirencester has been chosen as the place, and the quaint church is the ideal setting for what is expected to be an intimate ceremony away from the spotlight.
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Peter and Harriet will be married this June.
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The Prince and Princess of Wales married in a grand, television ceremony inside Westminster Abbey. Peter and Harriet are planning a more intimate day.
The wedding is scheduled for Saturday 6 June and, while the service will not be televised, we expect it to be extensively covered in the press, with photographers keen to snap the first photographs of the bride and best-dressed guests. The official statement stressed that the wedding will be a distinctly ‘private ceremony’ and that ‘both families have been informed jointly of the wedding date by invitation.’ We’re therefore expecting there will be an extremely tight guest-list.
While the full list of exactly who will be attending is yet to be announced, there will be one notable absence since the last royal wedding – Queen Elizabeth II. This will be the first without the late Queen, and the first since King Charles’ Coronation, marking a key difference in royal landscape since Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in 2020.
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Queen Elizabeth II at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan in 2018.
The King and Queen Camilla as well as The Princess of Wales are expected to be offered an invite, not least because all four were included by name in the announcement. As the most senior royals, they were told directly of the news before it was made public. ‘Their Majesties The King and Queen, The Prince and Princess of Wales have also been informed of the announcement,’ the statement read. However, if the couple wish to keep the event especially small, it may be that some of the family decide to celebrate from afar to avoid too much fanfare.
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Peter and Harriet chatting with The King and Queen at Ascot in 2024.
It is safe to assume that Princess Anne, however, will attend alongside her former husband and Peter’s father, Captain Mark Phillips, and the pair must be overjoyed for their son by the happy news. Peter’s sister Zara Tindall and husband Mike are also expected to attend with their children, Mia, Lena and Lucas, who are close to Peter’s own. Peter’s two daughters (from his previous marriage to Autumn Kelly) Savannah and Isla are now 14 and 15 years old, and are presumed to be bridesmaids on the big day, alongside bride Harriet’s 13-year-old daughter, Georgina.
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From left: Zara Tindall and husband Mike, Harriet and Peter Phillips.
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Savannah and Isla Phillips.
Given that Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are reported not be attending the official Easter lunch this year, it may be that they are also not on the guest-list for the upcoming wedding. Their parents Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are unlikely to be invited.
Dan Mullan
Princess Anne in full dress at King Charles’ Coronation.
While at formal events it is traditional for those with a military background to wear official uniforms, we don’t expect that Princess Anne (as mother of the groom) will choose to follow suit. However, at her brother’s Coronation back in 2023, she did wear full regalia and join the occasion on horseback.
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