Date 14 November 1973 | ||
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Location | ||
The wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips took place on Wednesday, 14 November 1973 at Westminster Abbey in London. Anne, Princess Royal is the only daughter and second child of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, while Mark Phillips is a skilled horseman and equestrian.
Contents
Engagement
Princess Anne and Mark Phillips met at the Munich Olympics in 1972 where he won an equestrian gold medal. Princess Anne had been a keen fan of horses for most of her life and they bonded over that. She was BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1971.
Their engagement was announced in May 1973.
The wedding
The wedding day, which was on the twenty-fifth birthday of her older brother, Charles, Prince of Wales was declared a bank holiday and a global estimated audience of 500 million watched the Westminster Abbey ceremony, with large crowds lining the streets on the wedding day. Princess Anne was accompanied to the ceremony in the Glass State Coach by her father, the Duke of Edinburgh.
The service was a traditional royal wedding conducted by Donald Coggan, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The couple then returned to Buckingham Palace for the traditional balcony appearance before going on their honeymoon on board the Royal Yacht Britannia, traveling the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Clothing
Anne wore an embroidered Tudor-style wedding dress, with a high collar and mediaeval-influenced sleeves. The dress was high-necked and high-waisted. Mark Phillips wore the full dress uniform of his regiment, the Queen's Dragoon Guards.
Best man, bridesmaid and page boy
Capt. Eric Grounds served as the groom's best man. Princess Anne's bridesmaid was her nine-year-old cousin, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, the daughter of Princess Margaret, while her page boy was her nine-year-old brother, Prince Edward.
Guests
The Royal family that attended the wedding included: