Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: A Triumph of A Royal Wedding

Royal Weddings. It could only exactly happen in fairy tales or movies.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle took the world into their fairytale royal wedding when they tied the knot on May 19 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

The second and youngest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, Prince Harry, 6th in line to British throne as of the moment, brought the world together in a British historic event, his wedding.

The British royal who wed an American actress made America tuned in for 29.2 million viewership in a tabulated tv ratings, and in U.K. for 18 million.

The wedding drew largely a media interest as 79 international networks and 46 U.S. broadcast affiliates for a total of 5,000 accredited members of the media and support staff have been accredited to the Windsor ground to cover the event.

The royal wedding was such a joyous festivities throughout the world. As thousands of people have flocked and lined up around the Windsor town to get a glimpse of the wedding, around 1.9 billion global audience have been estimated by BBC to have tuned in. It made headlines across the world’s media.

While Queen Elizabeth II wedding with Prince Philip in 1947 was broadcast in BBC radio around the world, there have been two televised royal weddings in the British history, Prince Harry’s parents Charles and Diana in July 29, 1981, and almost 30 years later his brother Prince William and Kate Middleton in April 29, 2011.

The Queen’s wedding through radio broadcast barely after World War II had been reported to have an estimated 200 million global audience, Prince Charles and Diana in 1981 for 750 million and Prince William and Kate in 2011 for 2.2 billion. It all proved for British Monarchy royalty appeal, which has been world’s cover for news and entertainments for decades, or perhaps centuries.

Royal engagement news itself can be very compelling. It leads to enormous excitement and endless fascination as media give updates. But the long wait could just worth all of it.

 

On the big day, everything could momentarily stop just to get the first glimpse of the wedding.

Fashion, tradition and history all rolled together on Prince Harry’s wedding. Seeing the royals come one by one from Queen Elizabeth II, to Prince Charles, down to royal guests, the moment could just felt heartstopping.

In 2011, Prince William as second in line to the succession, included most foreign royalties and diplomats to his wedding with Kate at Westminster Abbey with an invited guests of 1,900, Prince Charles and Diana as well in 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral with 3,500 invited guests.

For Prince Harry’s wedding held in smaller capacity with 600 invited guests to the ceremony and done on saturday with no holiday break approved, it was a glittering event as premier celebrities and athletes were seen. Famous faces like George Clooney with his wife Amal Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Victoria and David Beckham and Serena Williams graced the historic event.

Prince Harry’s wedding although regarded as private and not an official state occasion as announced by Kensington Palace, was magical and emotional like all British royal weddings witnessed in history.

Following the ceremony, Prince Harry and his wife ride on a 25 minutes horse-drawn carriage through the Windsor town to greet their well-wishers. And the royal tradition for the carriage ride with its horses and soldiers transporting the newlywed was just captivating, it seemed to bring back the moment to a place and time in a fairy tale.

In this world where reality struck people with chaos and uncertainty, people couldn’t believe there’s a place on earth where royal weddings do happen exactly as they were in fairy tale or movie, in the British kingdom.