Preparations for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding were so thorough that they even had a lawyer at Westminster Abbey in case someone spoke up to object to them being married.
The revelation by the then Dean of Westminster, Dr John Hall, is one of a dozens of new details about the couple’s courtship, engagement and marriage included in a special edition of the Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine today to celebrate the couple’s tenth wedding anniversary this month.
It was Dr Hall who during the service had to utter the words: ‘If any man can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.’
He said: ‘One of my colleagues said, “You really do need to have a lawyer handy just in case”, so we did.
‘Even though we knew it was all going to be fine, we did actually have a lawyer waiting in the wings.’
Preparations for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding were so thorough that they even had a lawyer at Westminster Abbey in case someone spoke up to object to them being married
The dean admits he was so nervous that he kept the Queen and other senior royals standing chatting at the back of the abbey having forgotten that he was supposed to give a cue for the music to start and for Her Majesty to move down through the abbey.
Other fascinating new detail includes how the BBC had to battle to get two of the stunning trees that Kate had ordered to decorate the abbey moved at the last moment because they were obstructing two of their remote cameras.
Ed Stourton, the only broadcaster in the abbey for the wedding, also recalls his sheer terror when he thought he might have to describe the bride’s dress to the world.
And when William and Kate went for a tasting with star chef Anton Mosimann, who had previously held two Michelin stars and who was in charge of their wedding banquet, Kate dared suggest an improvement to one of his recipes. He admitted she was right and offered her a part-time job if she ever needed one.
Wedding cake maker Fiona Cairns, tasked with producing their eight-tier creation, reveals she was so terrified about its safety that she needed help from the boys in blue
Wedding cake maker Fiona Cairns, tasked with producing their eight-tier creation, reveals she was so terrified about its safety that she needed help from the boys in blue.
Police night patrols were arranged around her bakery to protect it – and one night she got a call at 1.30am over fears someone was trying to break in, but it turned out to be a group of children playing.
And even when the cake was safely taken to Buckingham Palace, a door had to be taken off its hinges so it could be installed.
The magazine also features never before seen pictures of Prince William at his graduation and from the raunchy catwalk show where Kate first caught his eye.
William’s friends at St Andrews University remember him making sure he got a table right by the models’ runway, where his beautiful classmate was due to sashay down in a see-through dress.
And they reveal how William would pass the time playing noughts and crosses during lectures, and got his bodyguards agitated when he set off an alarm during a party.
When William and Kate went for a tasting with star chef Anton Mosimann (pictured), who had previously held two Michelin stars and who was in charge of their wedding banquet, Kate dared suggest an improvement to one of his recipes
Weekend magazine also features unseen outtakes from Kate’s first major royal appearance, her engagement interview with Tom Bradby on ITV. ‘I’m not very good at this,’ she laughs in one. ‘You are, you are!’ William replies, supporting her.
The couple walked down the aisle on April 29, 2011, before flying away for a mystery mini honeymoon the following day.
Except it wasn’t that much of a mystery at all, the Mail can reveal.
According to sources involved in the wedding organisation, the couple actually flew straight back to their cottage in north Wales for just 36 hours of down time before newlywed William resumed work as an RAF Search and Rescue pilot based on Anglesey. Mystery has always surrounded the location where the couple spent the first few days of their married life, after royal spokesmen declined to say where they were heading.
The secrecy sparked a nationwide guessing game, with alleged sightings of the couple everywhere from the Isles of Scilly to north-east Scotland. But no one ever tracked them down. For their actual honeymoon, William took Kate away to a £4,000-a-night villa in the Seychelles.
