The wedding was the first royal ceremony carried out in private in over 230 years. The ceremony took place in front of close family and an “inner circle” of friends only.
The wedding was initially planned for May of this year, but the pandemic put paid to that.
Rumors suggested that the wedding was planned for next year, but did the Prince Andrew scandal play a part in it happening now, and in secret?
Dario Mapelli Mozzi, a cousin once removed of the groom, told the Daily Mail:
We heard it was postponed to next year, but that was clearly to keep it secret. Maybe they did it now to be sure that the Queen could be there. Or perhaps because of the problems with her father, they didn’t want to go overboard with publicity in case anyone criticized them.
Initially, the wedding between Princess Beatrice and Edo was scheduled for the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, with a reception in the Buckingham Palace gardens. Instead of the 150 guest extravaganza, the couple settled for a small, private affair with only 15 guests in attendance.
However, as well as allowing Prince Andrew to walk his daughter down the aisle without the media’s glare, the timing of the event also allowed for attendance by both the Queen and Prince Philip, which was incredibly important to Princess Beatrice.
There was also a feeling that a smaller, private wedding would not remove any media attention from the knighthood ceremony for Captain Tom in recognition of the $40 million he raised for the NHS.
As the media frenzy regarding the friendship between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein has continued over the past month or so, it’s easy to forget that besides Andrew, there is also his family who are dealing with the issue.
One family friend speaking to the Daily Mail commented:
Those children have been so devastated by it all, so it was really nice to have this wedding away from the public eye. They were all there, and Sarah kept the show on the road. Very, very few people were given any information about it.
One has to hope that the small, intimate wedding was indeed through choice and not foisted upon the Princess by the situation surrounding Prince Andrew.
Personally, I would rather have a smaller wedding which only involved the people who were important to me and my future husband, so perhaps even though it wasn’t what she dreamt of, Princess Beatrice may have enjoyed a smaller, more private ceremony more than she ever imagined she would.