A wedding is the product of countless tiny details, from the shade of the dresses to the people on the guest list.
Read on for the moments you may have missed from the biggest royal wedding of the year – that of Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips and his new wife, Harriet.
The mysterious half-sister left off the guest list
Though there were reports of Peter and Zara Tindall’s half-sister Stephanie Phillips attending the wedding, there is another half-sibling who definitely didn’t get an invitation.
Felicity Tonkin is the little-known daughter of Peter’s father Captain Mark Phillips – the product of an affair he conducted with New Zealand art teacher Heather Tonkin in 1985, while he was still married to Princess Anne. His paternity was confirmed in 1991, and though The Telegraph reported he provided financial support for her upbringing, he is not believed to have been in contact with his daughter.
Now 40 years old, Felicity is based in New Zealand and works as a specialist equine vet, sharing a love of horses with her half-sister Zara, who is an Olympic equestrian. She is married to polo player Tristan Wade.
She has had no contact with the royal family, or her half-siblings Peter and Zara.
At the time of Zara’s marriage to Mike Tindall in 2011, Felicity’s grandmother Dr Shirley Tonkin told the Daily Mail that Felicity would not only not be attending, but that she would not even be watching on TV. “Zara has never been in touch with her – nobody has,” she said.
“She’s very happy leading her own life, so I don’t think they’ll be watching – they didn’t even watch William and Kate’s wedding.”
Captain Mark Phillips and the Princess Royal separated in 1989, both having affairs throughout their marriage. While she moved on with Sir Timothy Laurence in 1992, the Captain moved on with Sandy Pflueger, to whom he was married from 1997 until 2012.
From this marriage, he had another daughter, Stephanie Phillips, who is on much better terms with her royal half-siblings, despite being 20 years younger than Peter and 16 years younger than Zara. She acted as a bridesmaid at her sister Zara’s wedding in 2011, and attended her brother Peter’s first wedding to Autumn Phillips in 2008.
Princess Anne’s blast from the past
The Princess Royal is known for getting the most use possible out of her wardrobe, and her son’s big day was no exception, taking a piece that means a lot to their family and utilising it yet again.
Anne added a pop of colour to her ensemble with a yellow hat featuring a bow, but keen-eyed royal watchers recognised it immediately. It is the very same hat Anne wore to her daughter Zara’s christening. In a video from the occasion, Anne was seen front and centre, cuddling her two children on the joyous occasion, bringing that joy back 44 years later with that same hat.
The royal rule Kate and Camilla skirted
The rules around wearing white or any adjacent colours to a wedding, royal or otherwise, are very clear.
And yet, both Catherine, the Princess of Wales and Queen Camilla seem to have broken this rule, both wearing creamy beige shades, with seemingly no consequence. This is because the rules around a second wedding are much more relaxed than the first one. In fact, they were only following the example of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who decided to wear white to her son Charles’ second wedding to Camilla, who wore a bluish-grey dress.
Bridesmaid’s special connection
As Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling embarked on their new shared life together, they made sure that their daughters were included in the occasion. Helping the bride with her dress the entire day were now step-sisters Isla Phillips, Savannah Phillips, and Georgina Sperling.
Isla and Savannah were born from Peter’s first marriage to his wife Autumn, while Georgina is Harriet’s daughter from her marriage to Antonio St. John Sperling. The three new sisters wore matching Emilia Wickhead ensembles, held matching bouquets and had matching crowns crafted of lily of the valley flowers on their heads.
