18 Tiny Details You Probably Missed About Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Wedding

The groom was “shattered” (in a good way)

William looked his best self on his wedding day—but the truth is he was utterly “shattered” (as the British call being completely exhausted). The future king spent his last night as a bachelor at his father’s residence, Clarence House, but barely slept a wink as crowds of fans were camping just a stone’s throw away to secure their spots for the next day.

“They were singing and cheering all night long, so the excitement of that, the nervousness of me and everyone singing—I slept for about half an hour,” William revealed in the ITV documentary Elizabeth: Queen, Wife, Mother, produced in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.

His brother may have had a bit of a limp

William’s now estranged brother wasn’t much better off. If it appeared that Prince Harry was walking with a bit of a limp, it’s probably because he was. At 3 a.m., just eight hours before the wedding ceremony began, the pair reportedly left Goring Hotel for Clarence House after some pre-wedding drinks.

According to media reports, Harry jumped out of one of the hotel’s balconies and landed badly on his ankle. Ouch. It goes without saying that the incident didn’t stop him from joking about Prince William’s secret nickname at the wedding party later in the day.

Harry wasn’t actually William’s best man

The palace announced Harry as William’s best man, but as it later turned out, the story was made up. “Harry was the fake best man. It seems he acted as a cover for the men that actually shared the role,” Fitzwilliams explains. Harry himself called the act a “bare-faced lie” in his memoire Spare, revealing the subterfuge was intended to give the public what they “expected.” In reality, two guys called James Meade and Thomas van Straubenzee, civilian friends of the groom, were William’s best men.

“Had they been outed … the rabid press would’ve chased them, tracked them, hacked them, investigated them, ruined their families’ lives,” Harry claims in his book. “Both chaps were shy, quiet. They couldn’t handle such an onslaught, and shouldn’t be expected to.” The deal was sealed amicably behind closed doors, he added: “We even had a laugh about it, speculating about the inappropriate things I might’ve said in my speech.”

The groom didn’t get to wear what he wanted

As with everything to do with the royal family, Kate and William’s wedding was perfectly choreographed and in line with strict royal etiquette rules and dress codes. And that included the bride’s and groom’s outfits, which had to get approved by the queen. While William stunned in his bright red Irish Guards Colonel uniform, he would have rather said “I do” in a more subtle suit.

“William wanted to marry in his favorite dark Household Cavalry frock coat, but the queen told him to wear the Irish Guards Colonel one,” Fitzwilliams says. “She had the last word.” The clash left William frustrated, but, as the royal expert says, “the queen made the right choice as the uniform was a better fit for the occasion.” Luckily for Kate, Elizabeth didn’t have any doubts about her Alexander McQueen dress (or her secret second dress).

Kate arrived in a Rolls-Royce that was damaged in a student protest

Kate Middleton decided against riding in the Glass Coach, the royal carriage that has traditionally carried brides to the ceremony, including when Diana wed Charles and the queen said “yes” to Prince Philip. “Her choice was a clear break from tradition,” says Fitzwilliams.

Kate opted for a 1997 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI with, dare we say, an interesting backstory: The year before the wedding, Charles and Camilla had used it to drive to the Royal Variety Performance, an annual televised charity event in London. On the way, the pair ended up in the middle of a student protest, which saw the car splattered with white paint and a window cracked. It goes without saying that everything was fixed well before the royal wedding.

The bride’s earrings paid tribute to her family heritage

Kate’s tiara was as much talked about as her dress. Designed by Cartier, the precious piece, featuring almost 900 diamonds, is known as the “Halo Tiara” or the “Scroll Tiara.” It was loaned to her by none other than Queen Elizabeth, who received it on her 18th birthday from her mother (who received it as a gift from her husband King George VI in 1936).

Equally eye-catching were Kate’s earrings—but their story is much less well known: Kate’s “something new” was a wedding gift from her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and designed by London-based Robinson Pelham to perfectly complement the tiara. The earrings featured acorns and oak leaves, which are part of the Middletons’ family crest. Pelham also designed the earrings for Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton.

Kate’s bouquet included a sweet nod to William

For the ceremony, Kate carried a bouquet of lily-of-the-valley, Sweet William, ivy, myrtle and hyacinth. Yes, you read that right—Sweet William! The nod to her husband-to-be couldn’t have been any cuter. The other flower with special significance—myrtle—has been a royal wedding tradition since the wedding of Princess Vicky (the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert), according to the official website of the royal family.

Myrtle, which represents love, fertility and innocence, has been grown on royal grounds since 1845, when Albert’s grandmother gave Victoria her first myrtle plant. The bouquet wasn’t the only flowery message Kate sent on her big day. “She used a perfume that was similar to Diana’s on her wedding day,” reveals Fitzwilliams.

The celebrity guests had a very early start

The wedding didn’t start until 11 a.m., but that didn’t mean that all the invited politicians and royal and celebrity guests could sleep in. In fact, they were instructed to arrive promptly at 8:15! This included big names such as David and Victoria Beckham and Sir Elton John, though major heads of state had later arrival times. In total, around 1,900 guests filled the abbey. Seats weren’t a free-for-all though, as Fitzwilliams points out.

“There’s a strict protocol in place, so while coming slightly earlier than anyone else might put you in the front row at a regular wedding, this certainly wasn’t the case here,” he says, adding a fun fact about one of the celebrity royal guests: “David Beckham wore his Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal on the wrong lapel, right instead of left.” (The ex-soccer star quickly adjusted it when he noticed.) Considering Beckham was knighted in 2025, it seems safe to say that this little mishap wouldn’t happen to him these days.

Kate got a new (gold) nugget

Following royal tradition, the wedding ring William placed on Kate’s finger during the ceremony had been fashioned from a nugget of Welsh gold. According to reports, it was not, however, made from the same nugget used for the queen’s own wedding band and those of her mother, sister and daughter, as well as Diana. The simple reason: There wasn’t enough left of that nugget to make another ring.

Fitzwilliams says it’s “likely” that the same nugget Kate’s ring was made of will be used again when her daughter Charlotte marries one day (and maybe gets the fancy title Charles reportedly saved for her).

The bride did not vow to obey her husband

The now Princess of Wales did not promise to obey her husband, the Prince of Wales, at their wedding ceremony. Like her late mother-in-law, Diana, who was the first to break the tradition, she dropped the small bit from her vows (Meghan Markle did the same when she wed Harry).

“The idea that a wife should obey her husband is from a past era, so it wasn’t very surprising that Kate decided to not use it,” Fitzwilliams says. “While in reality it really is just a bridal tradition these days and doesn’t mean anything anyway, Kate was well aware that people would pay attention in her case and that it would be seen as a statement in the feminist era.”

Kate and William copied parts of Diana’s wedding playlist

When choosing the songs for their big day, the pair took inspiration from Diana and Charles’s wedding on July 29, 1981. Both couples played Prelude on Rhosymedre by Ralph Vaughan William, along with classic tunes by Edward Elgar. The couple’s first dance post-ceremony was to “Your Song” by Elton John (a close friend of William’s mother), and later during the party Kate and William surprised their guests by lip-syncing and dancing away to a fun song from the musical Grease.

A bright pink wiggly worm crashed the official photos

Three-year-old bridesmaid Eliza Lopes, granddaughter of Queen Camilla, refused to relinquish a bright pink fuzzy worm-like toy on Kate and William’s big day, including when the official wedding photos were taken. Camilla later remarked that she had been “terribly worried” in advance that the wedding would be overwhelming for little Eliza and the other young children. So it was fun-loving Harry to the rescue.

Apparently, he took his stepmother’s concerns to heart and came prepared. When Eliza appeared to be frightened by the roar of the crowds outside Westminster Abbey, he pulled the toy out of his pocket to distract the girl. Trouble is, Eliza liked it so much, she couldn’t be persuaded to put it down for the photos.

An abbey staffer entertained the crowd with (un-royal) cartwheels

Kate’s and William’s wedding got the whole world excited, and it seems one guy working at Westminster Abbey was well among the joyful crowd. “When most of the guests had already left the abbey, one staffer performed several cartwheels on the red carpet,” Fitzwilliams reveals. The man was later identified as Ben Sheward, a verger (similar to an usher) at the ceremony. His impromptu performance went viral thanks to an ITV staffer pointing his camera just the right way at the right moment. Unsurprisingly, the abbey’s press office wasn’t thrilled, insisting “it was after the wedding had long finished.”

The post-ceremony procession hit a SNAFU

Five horse-drawn carriages as well as numerous horses ridden by well-practiced riders accompanied the wedding party to Buckingham Palace for the official reception. But the special occasion didn’t stop one of the horses from getting spooked and throwing its rider to the ground while the Cambridge newlyweds looked on in shock.

To make it even worse, the horse broke free again once the rider, back on his feet, had quickly pulled it to the side, and the horse ran past the wedding carriage. Luckily, while the incident made it on the list of the most bizarre royal wedding mishaps, no one (including the horse) was injured.

There was a surprise fly-by from the Royal Air Force

Prince William was a passionate Royal Air Force helicopter pilot for years, including for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, where he flew rescue missions for two years before stepping down in July 2017. When visiting a RAF base near Oxford in 2025, he called flying his “happy place” and revealed he still flies regularly in his spare time.

So it seems only fitting that the RAF made a surprise appearance at his wedding. “The RAF made a flypast over The Mall when William and Catherine made their way from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House,” Fitzwilliams says. What’s more: “Some of his closest colleagues from his RAF times also received surprise invites to the wedding.”

William drove his father’s car with the handbrake on

After the reception at Buckingham Palace, the bride and groom drove off to the next one at Clarence House in an Aston Martin DB6 belonging to now-King Charles. Unfortunately for the Aston Martin, William, who was at the wheel, forgot to release the handbrake.

The car was Charles’s 21st birthday gift from Elizabeth, so we can imagine he wasn’t too happy when watching the scene. And William was most likely embarrassed when his driving mishap was later revealed by royal photographer Arthur Edwards on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs program. The good news is: No great damage was done.

Guests received wedding invitations from the queen, not the bride and groom

When being invited to a wedding, you’d expect to hear from the happy couple themselves. Not so, though, if you’re attending a royal wedding. Kate and William’s roughly 1,900 guests all received letters from Queen Elizabeth, as is tradition in the royal family. The story goes that before the invites were sent out, the couple were shocked when given a “suggested guest list” full of names they didn’t recognize.

According to reports, the queen told them to “rip it up” and make a new one, with their friends on the very top of the list—though obviously, Kate and William weren’t completely free to choose their wedding crowd. “Considering this was a royal wedding, there were of course a lot of people that had to be invited, including […] politicians and ambassadors,” Fitzwilliams says. “Even if they had wanted to, Kate and William couldn’t have removed them from the list.”

Her Royal Grumpiness (almost) stole the show

Upon arriving at Buckingham Palace, the wedding party gathered on a balcony to greet the public—and stage a kiss. It’s always a memorable moment, but in this case, it was made even more memorable thanks to one of the young bridesmaids, Grace Van Cutsem, who is William’s goddaughter.

Completely unimpressed by the spectacle, the then-3-year-old pulled a face and covered her ears while Kate and William were kissing. The “grumpy flower girl,” as she was nicknamed, now lives a quiet life as a high school girl away from the spotlight.

Why trust us

Reader’s Digest has published hundreds of stories on the British royal family, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the fascinating facets of the monarchy. We regularly cover topics including the latest royal news, the history and meaning behind time-honored traditions, and the everyday quirks of everyone’s favorite family members, from Queen Elizabeth’s daily snack to Prince William’s confessions about his home life. We’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. For this piece on Kate and William’s wedding details, Astrid Hofer tapped her experience as a London-based journalist with more than 20 years of experience covering topics including the British royal family. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.

Sources:

• Royal.uk: “The wedding of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton”

• BBC: “Royal wedding: in numbers”

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• Vanity Fair: “How Kate Middleton and Prince William’s wedding ushered in the modern-day royal media obsession”

• Marie Claire: “Prince William slept for just half an hour the night of his wedding to Kate Middleton”

• British Vogue: “The Story Behind Kate Middleton’s Dazzling Wedding Tiara”

• celebrity.land UK: “Can you spot the unexpected guest in the official royal wedding photos?”

• Telegraph: “Royal wedding: procession rider thrown from horse”

• Guardian: “William’s wedding day blunder: driving father’s prized car with handbrake on”

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