There's a Really Key Difference Between William and Kate’s Wedding Invite and Harry and Meghan’s
You don’t have to be one of the 600 lucky guests who will be receiving one of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding invitations in the mail to notice there are a few differences between their invitations and those sent ahead of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 nuptials.
While there are a few discrepancies, the biggest difference might be that one of the invitations was a request and the other was a command, of sort.
On William and Kate’s wedding invitation, the Queen commanded the Lord Chamberlin to invite the chosen guests, whereas Harry and Meghan’s invitation is less formal — or rather, more typical of a wedding invitation — as noted by a social media user.
In Harry and Meghan’s invitation, Prince Charles merely requests the presence of the invited guests at the festive occasion.
As the Twitter user pointed out, this difference might have something to do with the fact that William is significantly higher in the line of succession than his younger brother. While William is third in line behind his father, Harry is soon-to-be sixth in line, after the birth of William and Kate’s third child. Despite the formal invitation, William and Kate’s wedding was not technically considered a state function.
Other noticeable differences between the invitations are that William and Kate’s were sent on behalf of the Queen (and therefore were accompanied by the reigning monarch’s crest), whereas Harry and Meghan’s came from Prince Charles and carried the feathered badge of the Prince of Wales.
And there’s one other important detail to point out. On the invitations, Meghan is referred to as “Ms.” while Kate was referred to as “Miss” on her royal wedding invitation. Some have speculated that since Meghan is divorced, she is referred to as a Ms. versus a Miss. However, there is no actual etiquette that requires divorced women to be referred to as “Ms.” — in fact they are usually referred to by their former married name in formal etiquette — but many professional adult women prefer to go by then more neutral “Ms.” So, the “Ms.” may simply be Markle’s personal preference.
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Around 600 people have been invited to the service and the luncheon, which will be hosted by the Queen at St. George’s Hall at Windsor Castle.
Following the ceremony, around 200 guests will attend a private reception later that evening given by Prince Charles at Frogmore House on the castle grounds, which is the same location where the couple took their stunning engagement photos.
Harry, 33, and Meghan, 36, announced their engagement in November. While there’s still no word on who will be in the bridal party, or who will take the coveted role of best man, most insiders believe Harry will turn to his brother William, reciprocating the honor that Harry carried out for his brother when he wed Princess Kate in 2011.
