Royal Wedding recap: Highlights from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ceremony

Happy royal wedding day everybody! We made it. After months of hanging on to every detail related to the dress, guests, and a litany of small yet highly entertaining logistics the big day has finally arrived. Harry, Prince of Wales, and Meghan Markle are now officially husband and wife, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

If you missed all or part of the wedding because you didn’t get up at 5am to watch the guests start rolling in, then I applaud your self preservation instincts and am jealous of the sleep you got.

I’m also here to fill you in on all the best moments of the ceremony that you might have missed. All in all, it was a lovely day and a beautiful wedding.

The Dress

First things first, the dress. It’s what everyone was most excited to see and Meghan delivered in an elegant Givenchy gown designed by Clare Wight Keller.

Similarly to how the lace in Kate’s wedding dress had special meaning, Meghan’s veil represented all 53 countries of the Commonwealth.

A view of the dress as she walked down the aisle, escorted by Prince Charles.

While not reading too much into things, Meghan does like to highlight people who are groundbreaking or pave their own way in the things she wears and does. So wearing the first female Artistic Director in the history of an esteemed house seems like something she considered and took into account in her decision. Clare Waight Keller knocked it out of the park.

Her tiara was the Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau Tiara, and she accessorized with Cartier earrings and a Cartier tennis bracelet.

Harry thought she looked amazing, complete with lip bite.

The Kiss

The kissing happened! The kissing happened! The best thing you know to expect at the end of a big event, second only to LeBron taking over in the last two minutes of a close playoff game.

The looked so happy throughout the entire ceremony but the first moment they presented themselves to the assembled crowds outside and kissed was a highlight.

Major Guests

Outside of the guests we knew would be at the ceremony, there were also a few major celebrities that surprised people by showing up and looking great. Most notably, Idris Elba and Oprah, who were some of the earliest people to arrive. Oprah! Unfortunately, they weren’t there as a couple. Wouldn’t that have been an announcement.

Oprah’s hat: good.

George and Amal Clooney also looked quite dapper. The BBC noted George was being quite the gentleman by walking slowly so Amal could navigate the Windsor cobbles in her heels.

As a close friend of Diana’s, it was no surprise to see Elton John there. Is this the most low key thing Elton has ever worn? He hasn’t worn a suit this lacking in color or sparkle since 1959. The glasses did add a pop, so he still made sure his personal style was present.

The Sports Guests

Let’s talk about Serena Williams’ fabulous fascinator.

The entire look was so delicate and seasonally perfect, and she looked great. Her continued use of “friend’s wedding” even though it was the day of the wedding and everyone knows she was invited and going was a joyful detail.

There was also David and Victoria Beckham, looking quite sharp. SPORTS!

The Suits Guests

The Suits cast arrived all together, which is an incredible sentence to type in the year of our lord 2018. Meghan’s close friend Priyanka Chopra arrived with former Suits actress Abigail Spencer. Spencer looked like she borrowed her dress from the Timeless costume closet which is in no way a ding. This trio was a highlight of the guest procession.

Gabriel Macht, Sarah Rafferty, and Patrick J. Adams (with wife and noted Pretty Little Liar Troian Bellisario) all came one after the other after that. Rafferty’s sleeves were the size of Big Ben, also not a ding.

Gina Torres might have looked better than them all.

An incredible highlight of the coverage was the BBC having to provide a straight faced account of the plots and cast relationships of Suits. Absolutely wild that this happened at a royal wedding and let’s never forget that.

The Kids

Princess Charlotte won’t be queen but she’s the queen of waving. Best waver. So much enthusiasm and effort here. What an adorable waving moppet.

More weddings should have no bridesmaids or groomsmen, just a gaggle of adorable children wandering around wondering what in the world is going on. Life would be better that way.

The Royals

The queen went with green and Prince Philip looked to be walking well after his hip surgery.

As expected, Camilla wore half a greenhouse on her head. Never change, Camz.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York’s arrival will be analyzed like the Zapruder Tape by royal watchers. She wasn’t invited to Kate and Williams’ wedding in 2011 but her relationship with the crown seems to be softening slowly but surely.

Just a guess, but there were probably a minimum of 29 memos sent to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie telling them to tone things down for this wedding. In 2011 they went all out — especially, notoriously, Beatrice — and they are being reminded of their bold looks all these years later.

For this day, they went low key and classy.

Eug looked like she is prepared to walk out on Don Draper at dinner so that’s clearly a win.

The Sermon

The sermon, given by Bishop Michael Curry, was above and beyond what anyone in the church was probably expected. It was decidedly not “British,” for the better. It touched on the industrial revolution, fire (lots of fire!), the power of love, and Martin Luther King, Jr. If more sermons were like that I’d go to church way more often. I’ll tell ya that.

The best and most traditional passage was probably,

“We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world. Love is the only way.”

The words “we gotta get y’all married” were also said at once point which is truly amazing to comprehend. This is a royal wedding! At Windsor! This is awesome!

There was, however, some shady looks being thrown around by members of the royal family because it wasn’t exactly their usual church experience. It didn’t seem malicious, but it was hilarious to watch them try to process a sermon from a black bishop being delivered in St. George’s Chapel.

The Choir

Karen Gibson and the Kingdom Choir performed “Stand By Me” just before the vows, and if there was a dry eye in the house I didn’t see it.

The Cellist

I came back from a coffee break just in time to have all of the emotions wrung out of me by a 19-year old cellist. Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the first black musician to ever win BBC’s Musician of the Year award. Which he did when he was just 17. He played multiple pieces for the assembled masses and I won’t hesitate to say he may have been the best part of the whole ceremony, non-Harry and Meghan smiling at each other category.

The Brothers

Harry and William made their walk to the chapel and looked gooooood. Are there five things on this earth hotter than a prince in military dress, especially with the hats hiding their bald spots? Is that against the rules to say on his wedding day?

Oh well, it’s done. I stand behind it. Anyway they looked sharp and most importantly Harry wasn’t forced to shave his beard. A true blessing on this special day.

BBC Three’s Tweets

BBC Three was on one during the royal wedding. Their tweets were the best thing going online and they were as sentimental as they were snarky when the time called for it. With everything from Harry’s ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s facial expressions ...

... to subtweeting Donald Trump’s inauguration.

They even made space to throw some jibes at James Corden.

What a roaring success. Congratulations to the happy couple! Now go be royal and amazing together and whatnot.