Prince William and Kate Middleton share a timeless love tale. The two originally met while studying at St. Andrews University, and after becoming friends, they fell in love. Prince William proposed romantically during a vacation to Kenya, and their wedding at Westminster Abbey was really fitting for a future monarch.
The planning for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding took months. Every detail had to be perfect, and of course, Kate Middleton’s wedding dress dominated the conversation.
While Prince William and Kate Middleton were involved in the planning, they had little control over certain aspects. For example, the future king was believed to have been refused his desire to wear a different uniform from the one he was wearing. He was also apparently “unhappy” about one crucial detail: the guest list.
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s decision to attend St Andrews University in Scotland changed their lives forever, as it was there that they first met.
William had developed feelings for Kate, then 19, who had recently transferred from Marlborough College.
Prince William & Kate Middleton
In 2002, he paid roughly £200 for a front-row seat at a charity fashion show featuring Kate.
Kate walked the runway in the now-legendary see-through dress, revealing her underwear underneath. By that moment, William felt she was no longer merely a friend, but someone he had feelings for.
At first, the two were great friends. In the fall of 2002, they moved into an off-campus apartment at 13A Hope Street with friends Fergus Boyd and Olivia Bleasdale. However, it was not guaranteed that William would be allowed to move into the off-campus flat with Kate.
Charlotte Smith, the landlady, recalled in 2023 that when William was scheduled to move in, the flat had a strict no-boys policy.
“We’d had an unfortunate experience with some boys in the flat once before and we were determined not to have young men there again. Broken furniture, broken windows – there was a lot of damage, so that put us off really. I said to this young lady we’d really rather not have more boys and she said, ‘What if I were to tell you that it was Prince William?’” Smith told the Daily Mail.
Smith’s husband convinced her that the future king might live in the flat. It turned out that Prince William and Kate Middleton were “ideal tenants.”
“We arranged to meet Kate Middleton, Fergus and Olivia before they moved in but we thought we’d better not ask to see Prince William because we thought his credit rating must be quite good. But he insisted on meeting us,” she continued.
Prince William tried to impress Kate with “fancy dinners”
The now-Prince and Princess of Wales paid about £400 per month at Hope Street.
In their engagement video, Prince William elaborated on their time in university: “We moved in together as friends because we were living together, we lived with a couple of others as well, it just sort of blossomed from there really,” William said. “We just saw more of each other, hung out a bit more and did stuff.”
So, was William romantic? He mentioned that he had made dinner for Kate. It was disclosed that “he would always come with a bit of angst and a bit of anger if something had gone wrong,” as well as that she “would have to wander in and save something that was going.”
“When I was trying to impress Kate, I was trying to cook these amazing fancy dinners, and what would happen was I would burn something, something would overspill, something would catch on fire and she would be sitting in the background trying to help, and basically taking control of the whole situation, so I was quite glad she was there at the time,” Prince William recalled.
On October 20, 2010, Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton while on vacation in Kenya. According to reports, the prince had been carrying a ring in his suitcase for three weeks and had never removed it. Kate had anticipated the possibility that William may propose, but it came as a “total sh0ck.”
“It was very romantic,” Kate said. “There’s a true romantic in there.”
The ring was remarkable and suited for a future queen because it belonged to William’s mother, Princess Diana.
How Kate Middleton revealed her engagement to Prince William for her siblings
The proposal surprised not just Kate, but also her family. The now-Princess of Wales decided to share the exciting news with her siblings, James and Pippa, in the Old Boot pub near their parents’ home in Bucklebury, England.
“We sit in a corner, chattering quietly. Catherine whispers the news and says it will become public in the next day or so,” James wrote in his memoir Meet Ella: The Dog Who Saved My Life, per Us Weekly. “Pippa and I want to be visibly excited, but we have to tamp down our emotions so no one suspects a thing,” he added.
“We make a quiet acknowledgment that we’ll always be there for each other, look out for one another, support each other:”
Prince William decided to forego the long-standing tradition of asking the bride’s father for permission to marry his daughter. He was “torn” over the decision and concerned about the potential of rejecting it.
On April 29, 2011, William and Kate married at Westminster Abbey in London. The wedding had been meticulously planned, but Prince William was still concerned about a few details coming up to the big day.
The royal costumes are typically a hot topic at royal weddings, and Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding was no exception.
Prince William – uniform for the wedding
Kate Middleton chose a beautiful Alexander McQueen gown, and before the wedding, Buckingham Palace confirmed what William will wear:
“Prince William has chosen to wear the uniform of Colonel of the Irish Guards on his Wedding Day. Prince William, who is commissioned in all three Armed Services, and who has served actively with the Army (The Household Cavalry Regiment) and with the Royal Air Force (Search and Rescue Force), chose to wear the uniform of his senior honorary appointment in the Army.”
“Prince William will wear an Irish Guards Mounted Officer’s uniform in Guard of Honour Order with a Forage Cap. The Prince will wear a gold and crimson sash, and gold sword slings, both of which are worn in the presence of a Member of the Royal Family. The Prince will not wear a sword. The Prince will wear the Garter Sash with the Wings of the Royal Air Force, the Garter Star, and the Golden Jubilee Medal.”
The statement continued, “The tunic, in Guards’ Red, features the Irish Guards’ distinctive arrangement of buttons in groups of four. The buttons feature the Harp of Ireland surmounted by the Crown Imperial. The arrangement of buttons on the uniform denotes the Irish Guards’ position in the Order of Battle as the Fourth Regiment of Foot Guards.”
“The Insignia of the Irish Guards on the Forage Cap is the eight-pointed Star of the Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick and features the Regiment’s motto ‘Quis Separabit?’ (‘Who shall separate us?’).”
Prince William proudly wore his uniform, but it wasn’t what he desired. In fact, Queen Elizabeth II declined his major request.
Queen Elizabeth II denied William his uniform wish
In the BBC documentary Royal Wedding: A Day to Remember, royal expert Nikkhah stated that Prince William wanted to wear his Household Cavalry military outfit. But Queen Elizabeth had another plan in mind.
“The military is everything to William and to Harry. The Queen said, ‘No, you’re wearing your Irish Guards. You are the new Colonel of the Irish Guards.’ That’s the one thing he didn’t get his way on, and he deferred to Granny,” Nikkhah said.
In his book Spare, Prince Harry also stated that his brother was not allowed to wear his Household Cavalry military outfit.
“He’d asked Granny if he could wear his Household Cavalry kit and she’d turned him down. As the Heir, he must wear the Number One Ceremonial, she decreed,” Harry wrote.
“Willy was glum at having so little say in what he wore to get married, at having his autonomy taken from him on such an occasion. He’d told me several times that he felt frustrated.”
“I assured him that he looked bloody smart in the Harp of Ireland, with the Crown Imperial and the forage cap with the regimental motto: ‘Quis Separabit? Who shall separate us?’ It didn’t seem to make an impression.”
It’s no secret that Prince William wished to wear another outfit. The future king earlier told journalist Robert Hardman of the Daily Mail that he “wanted to decide what to wear for the wedding,” but “knew perfectly well that it was for the best.”
“You just do as you’re told!” Prince William reportedly said.
Prince William was ‘unhappy’ with wedding guest list
Queen Elizabeth II may have denied William’s request for disulfiram, but when her grandson and future king expressed concern about the guest list, she caved.
As one might expect, the guest list for that type of royal wedding was pretty unique. It featured a diverse group of celebrities, including Sir Elton John, David Beckham, and Rowan Atkinson, politicians, dignitaries, acquaintances of William and Kate from their university days, and even the landlord of The Old Boot Inn, the Middleton family’s local pub in their hometown.
But, despite the fact that many of their closest friends and relatives were present, something felt off. On the BBC program, Roya Nikkhah revealed that William was upset about the guest list because there were so many people he didn’t know.
“When the guest list was drawn up [William] was very bemused and had a conversation with the Queen to say ‘I don’t know any of these people’. He wasn’t very happy about it. The Queen just said to him, rip that list up and start where you want to start from and invite who you want – and that’s what they did,” Nikkhah explained.
John Haley, the landlord of The Old Boot Inn, said, “It was great that Kate and William were allowed to invite all their own friends. Friends from the village, from uni, friends that she grew up with. She invited me, I’ve known her 15 years or so. It was fabulous.”
Prince William & Kate Middleton “brought the house down” with wedding reception surprise
Of course, the wedding was a huge success, and royal admirers around the world congratulated the newlyweds. Meanwhile, several attendees were surprised at the post-nuptial event.
“They stood holding hands in the middle of the dance floor, grinning,” Robert Jobson writes in his book, Catherine, The Princess of Wales: The Biography.
“Then, suddenly, the opening bars of the song, You’re the One That I Want from the musical Grease came booming out. William and Catherine then began dancing around, pointing at each other, and mouthing the words with the style of the lead characters Danny and Sandy. It brought the house down.”
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