Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s Lavish Wedding Breakfast Had a Menu With a ‘Deep Meaning’ and Over 20 Wedding Cakes
Princess Diana and Prince Charles‘s wedding on July 29, 1981, was a lavish, over-the-top ceremony and reception mirroring what would come to be known as the decade of excess. A luxurious wedding breakfast for 120 guests celebrated the couple—the “deep meaning” menu reflects the traditions of past royal weddings.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ nuptials were called ‘the stuff of fairytales’ by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, presided over the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral. He gushed about fairytales as he delivered his remarks to the couple before pronouncing them, man and wife.
He shared the following words, via UPI, to the 3500 invited guests who gathered at the cathedral to witness what many called the Wedding of the Century at the time.
“Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made. The prince and princess on their wedding day,” he said.
“Fairytales usually end at this point with ‘they lived happily ever after.’ This may be because fairy stories regard marriage as an anti-climax after the romance of courtship,” he began.
“This is not the Christian view. Our faith sees the wedding day, not as the place of arrival, but where the adventure begins,” Runcie said.
Following their ceremony, Princess Diana and Prince Charles celebrated with a wedding breakfast
After a horse-drawn carriage ride through London, the newly minted Prince and Princess of Wales returned to Buckingham Palace. There, the couple enjoyed an intimate wedding breakfast.
In keeping with tradition, dishes served at Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s lavish bore the names of royal family members.
The Huffington Post reported the menu included the following luxurious items.
Supreme de Volaille Princess de Galles (Princess of Wales chicken supreme) was the main course.
This menu item consisted of a chicken breast stuffed with lamb mousse.
Also offered was Quenelle of brill in lobster sauce. Brill is a type of fish.
The guests enjoyed butter beans, creamed corn, and new potatoes as sides.
Food writer and historian Angela Clutton said the menu reflected Diana’s stature in the royal family despite her youth. (Diana was just 20 when she wed Prince Charles).
“It’s interesting how the menu maintained the tradition of past royal menus. It is in French and has dishes named for the couple,” she told the news outlet.
“The menu choices are more in keeping with royal traditions than other weddings of the time,” Clutton continues.
“But on the other hand, this is a distinctly simpler menu with fewer courses than earlier generations. That was undoubtedly indicative of them taking a more modern approach.”
Prince Charles and Princess Diana served more than 20 wedding cakes
The couple’s official wedding breakfast ended with strawberries and cream.
International Business Times reported that the traditional fruit and cream accompanied more than 20 wedding cakes.
Charles and Diana’s official cake was a 5-foot-tall traditional English fruitcake weighing 225 pounds.
Baked by the Royal Naval Cooking School, the dessert took over 14 weeks to create and decorate with the Prince of Wales’s coat of arms and Spencer family crest.
As for the other cakes, one was a duplicate of the main cake, baked just in case anything happened to the original.
