NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA – 1983: Princess Diana And Prince Charles watch an official event during their first royal Australian tour 1983 IN Newcastle, Austrlia. (Photo by Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)
The Wedding of the Century
An estimated 750 million people across the globe watched the union of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer on television, but the group invited to the ceremony itself was much more select.
3,500 guests may be bigger than any wedding us mere plebs will ever attend in real life, but you would have felt dignified indeed to bear witness to this marriage at St. Paul’s Cathedral among all the royals and heads of state in attendance.
It no doubt would have been titillating to witness in real-time the couple’s omission of the promise to “obey,” which they requested be removed from the vows. If you had been at this wedding in the flesh, you also would have witnessed Diana switching the order of Charles’ name (“Phillip Charles Arthur George” rather than “Charles Phillip Arthur George”). Charles also offered Diana “thy goods” in his vows instead of “my worldly goods.” What’s yours is mine, I guess.
Of course, despite the fairytale quality of this wedding, undoubtedly one of the most famous real-life weddings in history, we all know how things turned out for Diana and Charles. The wedding occurred on July 29, 1981; the couple were divorced in August 1996, just a year before Diana’s tragic death.
Few weddings have been followed by as much tragedy as the Wedding of the Century, but it retains its place as one of the biggest weddings in world history even still.