Royal wedding 2018: the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The day has finally come and the hashtags have already switched over from #RoyalBabyWatch to #RoyalBaby. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have officially welcomed not only the first British American baby born into the royal family, but the first biracial baby in modern history for the royal family too.

Similar to when former President Barack Obama was elected as the first black and first biracial president, these are all symbols of change. The multiracial demographic reflects one of the fastest-growing groups in the US and in the UK. The fact that there is now a biracial child in the British royal family perfectly highlights the diversity influencing our entire world.

Meghan Markle’s makeup at the royal wedding has been described by the beauty and lifestyle press as “refreshingly simple,” “chill-bride makeup,” and “natural beauty.”

Her freckles were on full display, evident under a hint of blush and what looked to be the sheerest layer of foundation. (Markle has said in multiple interviews that she hates when makeup artists or photo retouchers hide them.) Her eyeshadow was obvious but not overwhelming, with a slight smokey finish. It was all framed by a messy bun left that way purposely by celebrity hairstylist Serge Normant. It was Meghan, only better. Her natural beauty was enhanced but not exaggerated. She could have worn the same look to a meeting with Suits producers.

The ratings are in, and they are golden: Nearly 30 million Americans watched Saturday’s royal wedding on broadcast television alone, Deadline reports.

The royal wedding began at 7 am Eastern Time/4 am Pacific time, but nevertheless, 29.2 million people in the US watched Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say their vows in front of a collection of Harry’s royal connections and Markle’s Hollywood pals.

Much has been written about every aspect of Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle. Her modern Givenchy dress, her mother’s natural hair, the presence of a gospel choir, have all received columns (and screen inches).

But one of the most striking elements of the royal wedding was also among the most unexpected: the fiery, impassioned, and theologically-charged sermon of American Episcopalian bishop Michael Curry.

Today, millions of viewers tuned in to watch the royal wedding between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Among the highlights of the event: the reveal of Markle’s wedding dress, a speech by Bishop Michael Curry that brought the black American church into the ceremony, and the performance of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” by Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir.

For many, “Stand By Me” is a love song. For many others, its lyrics are deeply political. Megan McCluskey at Time explains, “Considering the history behind ‘Stand By Me,’ the predominantly black Kingdom Choir performing the song at Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry seems to be symbolic of this transition” into a more modern, inclusive royal family. It was a significant musical choice as Markle, a mixed race woman, took her place in a historically white, powerful monarchy.

The dress that everyone will remember most vividly from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding at Windsor Castle is, of course, the restrained Givenchy gown that Markle wore to the ceremony. (The lesson: You don’t need lace, embellishment, or frothy ruffles to make an impact, though a 16-plus-foot veil and a tiara borrowed from the queen don’t hurt.) This being a royal wedding, however, the bride wore a second dress to the evening reception, this time created by the British designer Stella McCartney.

The royal family’s website confirmed on Saturday afternoon that McCartney, rumored to be Markle’s pick for her wedding day, created the custom gown. Like Markle’s dress from the morning, it’s a minimalist look. But unlike the three-quarter-sleeved Givenchy look, McCartney’s creation is better suited for a party, with its high neck and exposed shoulders.

Meghan Markle just became one of the first mixed-race members of the British royal family, and the royal wedding has not been not shy about making that point. Halfway through the ceremony, just before a gospel choir sang “Stand by Me,” Bishop Michael Curry — a black American Episcopal from Chicago — gave an address on the redemptive power of love that quoted liberally from the black spiritual tradition.

Curry began and ended his address by quoting Martin Luther King Jr., and spent time on the legacy of slavery in between. And his speaking style was notably looser and freer than the rest of the speeches in the ceremony: He was speaking in the rhythm of black American preachers.

If you want to know what wedding dress styles are about to surge in popularity, look no further than Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal wedding at Windsor Castle. On Saturday, May 19, the new Duchess of Sussex walked down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel wearing a minimalist gown with three-quarter sleeves and a boat neck. It was designed by Clare Waight Keller for Givenchy.

Markle wore Queen Mary’s diamond bandeau tiara, on loan from the queen. The lace detailing on her five-meter veil, also designed by Waight Keller, is a nod to the 53 Commonwealth countries.

In just a few days, the royal wedding will be here. American actress Meghan Markle will marry Prince Harry of the British royal family, and there are a few things we can be sure of: The dress will be white, the hats will be elaborate, and commentators will use the phrase “real-life fairy tale” multiple times.

But for everything we know for sure, there are a million questions, big and small, that remain unanswered. So to help you prepare for the royal wedding, Vox has compiled a list of the 14 most pressing questions surrounding the event, which we have answered as best we can. Here’s everything you need to know before the vows.

On Saturday, the royal wedding will commence, and Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will say their vows at Windsor Castle. If you’re like the 23 million Americans who watched the last royal wedding (Kate and William in 2011), you’re psyched to bust out your tea and scones and watch the elaborate gowns and tiny hats on parade.

Luckily, you have plenty of options for watching the festivities, which will air in one format or another on TV, streaming online, and in movie theaters(!). The ceremony will be available pretty much anywhere you care to look for it, as long as you keep the time difference in mind.

When someone is invited to a wedding, they’ll need to dress for the occasion. But at a British royal wedding, there’s an important addition to their wardrobe that literally stands out above the crowd: the hats and fascinators adorning guests’ heads.

Fancy hats, like the fascinator Princess Beatrice wore to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 wedding, are a must at royal weddings. They are part tradition and part fashion show. As hat styles and other headdress accessories have come and gone in style throughout British history, hats have remained an essential part of the uniform for royal weddings, horse races, and other high-society events.

Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle are set to be married this Saturday at noon GMT (so 7 am Eastern and 4 am Pacific in the US) at Windsor Castle some 21 miles west of London.

Many US networks, including ABC, BBC America, CBS, CNN, E!, Fox News, HBO, NBC, PBS, and TLC, will air the ceremony live, with some coverage beginning two or three hours earlier, and a number of outlets, including the New York Times and PBS, are live-streaming on YouTube:

Prince William got married seven years ago, on a Friday in spring. I was living in England at the time, and every shopfront in Oxford was filled with bunting and Union Jacks, pink heart-shaped frames filled with photographs of “Will and Kate”: the happiest couple in the nation. Kate — sleek, svelte, gazelle-limbed — was on every magazine cover.

Like everybody else in England, I celebrated. I went to the historic Blenheim Palace, a few miles outside Oxford, and watched a horseback jousting reenactment, a falconry demonstration. I went to the pub. I drank noxiously strong Old Rosie cider until I threw up. I cried.

For most people, getting engaged is the beginning of a long and chaotic road to the altar. From finding a dress to choosing a cake, brides and grooms often have a to-do list that could rival the Lord of the Rings franchise. But while most people are planning a wedding for 100, sometimes 200 people, imagine planning a wedding where the whole world is invited — that’s the scale of a royal wedding.

On May 19, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will tie the knot at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Such an event, though much smaller than the 2011 wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William, takes months of rapid planning. While many things are rooted in tradition, modern royals are rewriting some of the rules.

Controversial American actress Meghan Markle is getting married to Britain’s Prince Harry, in the direct line of succession line to the British throne, and I am so excited, just like a lot of Americans. When the news of the couple’s engagement was first announced, ecstatic think pieces flooded the internet.

Teen Vogue, ever woke, declared the news “a step toward upending global white supremacy.”

When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement in November 2017, Jasmine Guillory was delighted. “I’ve had so much fun with this relationship ever since they announced that they were dating,” said the author of the book The Wedding Date, about a romance between a black woman and a white man who convinces her to be his date to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding.

Guillory, who is black, sees the upcoming royal wedding — and the entry of a biracial woman into the royal family — as a ray of sunshine in a dark time for people of color. “Every day there’s something else that, if you pay attention to the news as a black woman, as a person of color in America, can make you feel beaten down,” she said. “It is just nice to have something fun and full of love out there in the world that is just about a black woman being happy.”

The engagement of Britain’s Prince Harry to actress Meghan Markle is raising eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic for a particularly British set of reasons: She’s a biracial woman who will be the first American divorcée to marry into the royal family in nearly 81 years.

Harry, the 33-year-old second son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, quietly proposed to Markle earlier this month. The royal family announced that Markle will become a British citizen before she marries Harry during a May 19, 2018 ceremony in Windsor Castle. The young couple will live in Nottingham Cottage, part of London’s Kensington Palace.