We know where the royal family stayed the night before their weddings, but not many details have been revealed about how they spent the last few hours before saying 'I do' under the watchful eyes of the world.
While Prince William and the late Queen Elizabeth II caved under pre-wedding pressures, Meghan Markle managed to remain very calm and even enjoyed a relaxed breakfast with her mother. From Queen Camilla being bedridden to Princess Eugenie's last-minute planning, see exactly what happened behind closed doors on the morning of their weddings...
Queen Camilla's bedridden illness
© GettyQueen Camilla was sitting in bed at Clarence House eating homemade chicken soup delivered by her friend Lucia Santa Cruz ahead of her wedding to King Charles. The bedridden royal had been suffering from sinusitis and was "really ill, stressed", according to Lucia.
She added that she only managed to muster up the energy at the last minute. Meanwhile, Camilla joked that her illness caused her to suffer a funny fashion faux pas, stating: "I remember coming from here, Clarence House, [to] go to Windsor the day I got married when I probably wasn't firing on all cylinders, quite nervous and, for some unknown reason, I put on a pair of shoes and one had an inch heel and one had a two-inch heel.
"So, I mean talk about hop-a-long and there's nothing I could do," she said, adding the late Queen had " a good sense of humour" about the situation.
Meghan Markle's 'chill' breakfast
© GettyThe Duchess of Sussex's glam squad joined the royal and her mother Doria Ragland at Cliveden House on the morning of her wedding in 2018. Hairstylist Serge Normant explained: "We woke up early, had a little coffee and then just went on." He described it as "the easiest process in the world" and said Meghan was "calm and chatty."
Makeup artist Daniel Martin reiterated that the bride showed no pre-wedding jitters during their "chill morning" which included dining on cereal and fresh fruit. On Good Morning America, Daniel said: "We had breakfast. Guy, her dog, was with us. We were playing around with him. It was a very chill morning."
Princess Kate's luxe accommodation
© GettyThe Princess of Wales stayed at the five-star Goring Hotel in the Royal Apartment, which boasted a four-poster bed, a grand piano and a walk-in shower following a £150,000 makeover. It was reported that the bathroom also had a flat-screen TV so Kate could watch the build-up to the royal wedding from a relaxing bath.
The Palace Papers author Tina Brown also stated Kate had one very specific worry, despite being described as the "world's most unflappable bride" with "no last-minute panics." She wrote: "I am told the bride's only anxiety on the wedding day itself was that her stomach rumbling might be picked up by a hot mic." So it's likely that a hearty breakfast that curbed any hunger pangs was on the cards.
Princess Eugenie's last-minute planning
© GettyAside from getting her hair and makeup done, Princess Eugenie was also finalising some last-minute details just hours before she got married.
Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank had reportedly not decided on which carriage they would ride in but settled on the Scottish State Coach in order to prevent getting wet in the unpredictable British weather.
Queen Elizabeth's fashion mishap
© ITV/ShutterstockQueen Elizabeth II had several wardrobe mishaps on her wedding day in 1947. Not only did she accidentally leave her antique two-strand pearl necklace which her parents gave her as a wedding gift at St. James's Palace – which had to be retrieved on foot thanks to terrible traffic – but she also had to get her diamond tiara fixed after it snapped.
The story goes that the headpiece was whisked off to a court jeweller's workshop to be welded back into place just hours before the late monarch added the finishing touches to her outfit.
Prince William's sleepless night
© Getty ImagesPrince Harry claimed in his book Spare that his brother Prince William struggled to sleep the night before his 2011 wedding with Princess Kate, so turned to rum to calm his nerves.
"I was stunned when I went to pick him up in the morning and saw his haggard face and red eyes; It seemed that he had not slept at all," Harry wrote. During the drive to Westminster Abbey, Harry said that his brother "smelled like alcohol" in what he said was likely the "aftermath of last night’s rum", and offered him a mint to mask the smell.
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