Touching presents Harry and Meghan handed out to their female wedding guests

17 August 2023 , 13:00

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Touching presents Harry and Meghan handed out to their female wedding guests

You might think that the couple getting married in a royal wedding would only be thinking about themselves - what to wear, how to style their hair, and what to say when they're up at the altar being watched by several million people around the world. But Prince Harry and Meghan Markle - the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex - proved their wedding day was not just about them as they made an incredibly sweet gesture to ensure all their guests had just as good a time.

Meghan's former Suits co-star Patrick J Adams - her on-screen husband when she played Rachel Zane in the legal drama - and his wife Troian Bellisario were among the many celebrity guests who showed up at Windsor Castle. And Troian broke the cardinal no-picture-taking rule when she showed a glimpse of the activity behind-the-scenes as the star-studded congregation made their way to the evening reception.

Posting a series of videos to her Instagram, the actress revealed that Harry and Meghan had laid out a pair of soft slippers for every single female guest to wear - just in case the combination of Windsor cobbles and six-inch heels had rendered their feet too sore to party.

"How amazing is this, as these shoes have come off, they have slippers for us. Slippers!" Troian told her followers. "I'm so ready. I'm grabbing these!" As one of the Windsor Castle staff offered her a pair, he asked if she was having a wonderful day. Ahh . Just as Troian did, Meghan's then pal and unofficial wedding planner Jessica Mulroney cheekily broke the strict royal protocol by Instagramming a picture from inside the first reception.

Jessica, the mother of seven-year-old page boy twins John and Brian Mulroney, shared a snap of them lifting up Meghan's five-metre veil as she prepared to enter St George's Chapel to wed her sweetheart. And Serena Williams and her husband Alexis Ohanian were also naughty rule-breakers, having shared several snaps of themselves with baby daughter Alexis Olympia, who wasn't allowed in the actual ceremony, outside in the sun-drenched grounds of the castle.

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Just 200 of the original 2,640 guests invited into Windsor Castle were given special access to the most private part of the day - the evening reception. It was hosted by Prince Charles in Frogmore House and was expected to cost a small fortune as family and close friends glugged free champagne and danced the night away while watching the blissfully happy newlyweds enjoy their first evening together as husband and wife.

Emmeline Saunders