How Prince William and Kate Middleton Paid Tribute to Princess Diana on Their Wedding Day

Each week in April, Vanity Fair will flash back to a different British royal wedding in the lead-up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s May 19 nuptials.

When Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton in 2010, he presented her with his mother’s own engagement ring—a 12-carat Ceylon sapphire surrounded by 14 round diamonds that Princess Diana had picked out from court jeweler Garrard before her own fairy-tale wedding to Prince Charles.

“It was my way of making sure mother didn’t miss out on today and the excitement and the fact that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together,” William told press afterward.

Even though Princess Diana was represented, from that point forward, by the iconic ring sitting on Middleton’s finger, Kate made sure in the following six months to pay tribute to “the inspirational woman” who would have been her mother-in-law. A week before the wedding, as worldwide anticipation reached a fever pitch, Kate reportedly made a special trip with William to Diana’s burial site—venturing 90 minutes’ northwest of London to the 13,000-acre Althorp Estate that has belonged to the Spencer family since the 16th century. The pair reportedly took a boat to lay flowers at Diana’s Oval Island resting place; wandered the princess’s ancestral estate; and walked through the arboretum where William and Harry planted trees as children.

“It was very important for William to take Kate to visit his mum just before their wedding day,” a source told The Mirror at the time. “Diana is still a huge part of her boy’s everyday life and always will be. Even though Kate never met Diana she knows what an incredible woman she was and it is very important to her she can share and understand William’s love and grief for his mum. . . . It is tragic that she won’t be there to see the wedding and that she never got to meet his bride.”

The tributes continued. Though William and Kate married at a different site than Charles and Diana—Charles, an architecture and music buff, had opted for the more handsome, acoustically sound St. Paul’s Cathedral—the bride and groom incorporated other homages. Like Diana, Kate had a small blue bow sewn into her wedding dress for good luck, and antique lace repurposed in the design as her “something old.” (Aside from those touches—plus the white color, long sleeves, and gauzy veil—there were few other similarities between Kate and Diana’s wedding dresses. Kate’s gown—a Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen design, rumored to cost $434,000, was an elegant A-line, with an elaborate bodice appliqué woven with shamrock, roses, and lilies, and a nine-foot train.)

Both Diana and Kate wore drop earrings from their parents—Diana’s earrings featured 50 small diamonds around pear-shaped pearls, which had belonged to her mother, while Kate’s were commissioned by her parents to include elements from the Middleton coat of arms. Both brides also wore a tiara, though Diana wore the Spencer tiara—a diamond floral diadem dating back to the Tudor period. (It has been rumored that Meghan Markle might wear the tiara as a nod to Princess Diana on her wedding day.) Kate, meanwhile, borrowed Queen Elizabeth II’s Cartier Halo Scroll Tiara—which had been gifted to the monarch on her 18th birthday.

Inside Westminster Abbey on the morning of April 29, 2011, there were more nods to Diana. When Prince William arrived at the Abbey, with best man Prince Harry in tow, the first person the groom greeted was Diana’s eldest sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale—“clutching her hands affectionately” in the minutes before the ceremony, according to The Telegraph. The Spencer family—including Diana’s brother Earl Spencer—had been given a front-row pew at the Abbey, and William welcomed them all warmly. Time additionally reported that McCorquodale was wearing the very earrings that Diana wore during her 1981 vows—which had been flown in from a museum where they were on display specifically for the occasion.

The wedding address was delivered by Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London who had served as a trustee of Princess Diana’s will and presided over the princess’s funeral. William and Kate chose the hymn “Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer”—which was the final selection sung at Diana’s funeral. As for the guest list, William made sure to invite Elton John, his late mother’s friend who famously performed at Diana’s funeral—which also took place at Westminster Abbey.

Speaking about the uncanniness of being present at Westminster Abbey for both Diana’s funeral and William’s wedding, Elton John told press, “I can’t imagine at that young age having to walk in the public, following your mother’s coffin. . . . And the next time we’re in the Abbey it’s to see him walking up the aisle with a beautiful woman, the love of his life. I think it’s the most joyous result and I’m sure Diana would be very, very happy about it.”

Elton conceded that he had only met William and Harry twice, but was touched by the symbolic invitation: “I think it’s going to be a very joyous day and I think [Diana] would be very happy with his choice, [Kate] seems such a great girl and they seem so much in love.”

In a nod to Diana’s charitable spirit, William also invited representatives from organizations Diana championed—like Centrepoint, a homelessness charity, and the Royal Marsden Hospital—and asked that, in lieu of gifts, well-wishers make donations to a fund that would be divided between 26 organizations.

The newlyweds departed Westminster Abbey to the sounds of William Walton’s orchestral march “Crown Imperial”—which was similarly played at Charles and Diana’s wedding. As the bells rang a full peal, William and Kate boarded the open-top 1902 State Landau carriage—the same vehicle that transported Charles and Diana back to Buckingham Palace after their own wedding—and took a similar route, waving their way through London’s adoring crowds. Once back at Buckingham Palace, bride and groom made an appearance on the balcony. When the crowd urged William to kiss his bride—just as Charles had done in 1981, in a rare break from royal-wedding tradition—William happily obliged.

Later that evening, when Prince Harry gave his best-man speech at an intimate Buckingham Palace reception, he reportedly told his older brother, “Our mother would be so proud of you.”

Wedding Breakfast

After the wedding, Queen Elizabeth hosted approximately 650 people for a luncheon reception at Buckingham Palace—where she served miniature Yorkshire puddings with beef, Cornish-crab salad on lemon blini bites, and Scottish smoked salmon. In addition to a traditional fruitcake, Prince William had specially requested a chocolate biscuit cake, made from a royal-family recipe. When the couple left, they did so in Prince Charles’s Aston Martin—which Prince Harry had customized with balloons and a “JU5T WED” license plate.

Wedding Gifts

Though Kate and William asked well-wishers for charitable donations, the couple still received traditional gifts—including their cocker spaniel Lupo (a gift from Kate’s brother James Middleton); a tandem bike (from London mayor Boris Johnson); and a cover of Stevie Wonder’s 1972 ballad “You and I” specifically recorded by George Michael for the occasion.

Reception Revelry

The day was capped with an intimate reception at Buckingham Palace, with a three-course meal prepared by Prince Charles’s favorite chef Anton Mosimann: crab layered with fresh langouistine, followed by herb-stuffed Welsh lamb, and a dessert of chocolate mousse, honeycomb ice cream and traditional sherry trifle. Kate had changed into a strapless evening dress with a diamanté sash, and angora-wool bolero, while William had swapped his Irish Guards dress for a tuxedo. Each table was reportedly named after a town or city special to the couple—like St. Andrews, where the couple met.

“Just before midnight,” according to Vanity Fair’s report from Katie Nicholl, “Harry announced, ‘We have a little surprise,’ and led guests through to the Throne Room, which had been transformed into a nightclub complete with mirrored balls, sofas, and cocktails. The bride and groom were the first to take to the dance floor, to a rendition of Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ by Ellie Goulding, whom they had specifically requested for the evening. . . . Then it was time for the real fun to begin. The disco kicked into full swing, and [Kate’s mother] Carole [Middleton], dazzling in a floor-length black chiffon gown, was one of the last ones dancing to her requested song, Jermaine Stewart’s ‘We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off.’ Around 2:30 a.m., guests were asked to make their way to the courtyard for a fireworks display.”