Date of Wedding of Charles and Diana
That’s the big day. July 29, 1981. A Wednesday, if you can believe it. Who gets married on a Wednesday? Apparently, future kings do.
Why a Wednesday? It wasn’t just to mess with people’s work schedules, I promise. Turns out, it was chosen by the royal astrologers—yes, that’s a real job—who said it was the most cosmically favorable day. Which, in hindsight, is a bit like trusting a weather forecast that says “sunny” before a hurricane.
Still, 700 million people around the world sat down to watch. That’s more than the population of Europe at the time. Everyone stopped. Even my granny, who usually only watched the news for the horse racing results, had her telly on full blast.
The Dress, The Carriage, The Kiss—Oh My!
The day started with a carriage ride through London that took forever. Poor Diana’s dress, with its 25-foot train, barely fit inside. I bet she was praying, “Please don’t let this wrinkle, please don’t let this wrinkle.”
And that dress! Ivory silk taffeta, hand-embroidered with pearls and sequins. It looked like a cloud made of meringue had a baby with a museum piece. Diana was so young—just 20 years old—and she looked like a dream walking down that aisle. A very nervous dream.
Speaking of nerves, Charles got a bit tongue-tied during the vows. He called Diana by all her names, but there was that famous pause. You know the one. He said, “I, Charles Philip Arthur George, take thee…” and then a long silence. Everyone held their breath. Was he memorizing his own name?
Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Wedding in Photos
The Not-So-Fairytale Bits (But Fun to Laugh About)
Let’s be honest: the wedding was a masterpiece of spectacle, but the marriage? Well, we all know how that story goes. The couple barely knew each other. Diana later said they’d met 13 times before the engagement. I’ve had more serious conversations with my barista.
But on that day, no one cared about that. People lined the streets, waving Union Jacks and crying happy tears. There was confetti everywhere. The royal family waved from the balcony, and Charles and Diana did that famous kiss—the one that wasn’t even planned! They just went for it, and the crowd went bonkers.
Even the cake was a showstopper. A five-foot-tall fruitcake that weighed over 200 pounds. That thing could survive a nuclear blast. I bet there’s still a slice somewhere in a museum, preserved in royal Tupperware.