Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer

The wedding of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to the Lady Diana Spencer took place on 29 July 1981 and was the highlight of the social season and one of the most watched television events of the era, with an international audience o 750 million viewers.

Robert Runcie, the then Archbishop of Canterbury,  called it “the stuff of which Fairy tales are made”.

Background
The Prince of Wales had been receiving increasingly negative press about the fact that he remained single into his thirties.

The fiancée
The Prince finally settled on Diana Frances Spencer, a 19-year-old aristocrat who worked as a kindergarten attendant. She was slightly plump, virginal, attractive but not glamourous, shy and understated, and immediately captured the hearts of the nation. Schoolgirls all over the world adopted the “Lady Di” bobbed hairstyle with its characteristic fringe.

The wedding dress
The wedding gown, designed by the Emmanuels, was a closely-guarded secret. Upon its release, it was instantly copied internationally and made the fortune of the designers.

The venues
The marriage was celebrated at St Paul’s Cathedral, rather than Westminster Abbey, the traditional venue for royal weddings, because St Paul’s has a greater seating capacity. Thousands lined the route Diana’s carriage took, to wave and cheer.