The Prince's Secret (Prince Harry Fanfic)

Part 91 - The Royal Non-Wedding, Part 1

Samantha

Friday the 25th of May dawned clear and sunny. I knew this, of course, because I was awake before dawn, peeking out of a bedroom window at Windsor Castle.

It was, finally, the day of what I privately called the Royal Spectacle and some of the press were jokingly calling the Royal Non-Wedding. Whatever you wanted to call it, it was going to be a big deal. Not nearly as big a deal as Will and Catherine's real wedding, or Charles and Diana's "Wedding of the Century," but a big enough deal that it would be broadcast on TV and the internet, and people were already lining up outside to watch the important people arrive and then depart afterwards to the reception.

I was never one of those little girls who dreamed about weddings or played dress-up as a bride with old lace curtains. I was not the type to practice writing "Mrs. Current Boyfriend's Name" all over my notebooks as a teenager either. But I had, over the years, tucked two things into the back of my mind that I wanted, were I ever to get married someday. Number One, I wanted to design and make my own wedding dress, mostly because Number Two was that I wanted to ride horseback from the wedding to the reception, and I had to have a dress that would accommodate that feat.

These two ideas would probably have made for a quirky wedding and gotten a few laughs had I married anyone other than His Royal Highness Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. With anyone else I could have gotten married in a barn and had all the guests sit on hay bales. But now that I was having a public ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, with millions of eyes watching, my requests for the ceremony were met with reactions that ranged from surprise to horror.

"I don't care about flowers and musical selections or what's going on the menu for the luncheon," I said stormily one afternoon at Windsor. "In fact, I don't really care about any of it. You can arrange this ceremony any way you please and I will show up and do my part as expected. But I will make my own dress, and Harry and I are riding horseback from the chapel. And I'm tired of arguing about it."

The Queen had selected a number of women with fancy titles or fancy dresses or both to help with the arrangements. They brought samples and brochures and lists of Important Things that must be done and Important People that should be invited, and I just didn't really care about any of it. Harry and I were already married. I was ready to get on with our lives, and this felt like it was holding us back.

In the end it was Eugenie, who was busily planning her own big royal wedding for the fall, who helped us iron out the compromises that made the fusty ladies happy.

"So the dress and the horses are the two sticking points?" she asked over a cup of tea in her sunny dining room.

"Yes. They just won't let me—"

Eugenie had heard my grumbling for weeks and she cut me off with a smile. "Which is more important to you?" she asked. "If you can only have one, which one would it be?"

I wanted them both, but I saw her point. "The horses."

"Ok. What are their complaints about the dress?"

"That I will make something totally unsuitable, and they don't think I have the skill to make something nice enough for the wedding. Which is total bullshit—you wear my coats! You know I can do it."

She nodded. "I know. But they don't, and you're trying to make them happy. How about this...can you find a designer to work with? Someone they will approve of, who will work with your ideas and designs to make a dress that will make the ladies happy? That way you can have the dress you want, and the ladies will feel better because it will be made by someone they see as a professional. Besides," Eugenie said, "it's always good to promote the work of English designers, especially if you can find one that is not one of the big names. I bet if you look around you can find someone who is willing to make pretty much exactly what you want, and put their stamp on it. That's a win all around, I say. And you won't have to worry about the time it will take to sew the thing yourself."