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Flashback: Prince William and Kate strike a similar pose to Prince Charles and Princess Diana's kiss on the balcony in 1981
At last! Prince William and his new bride Catherine seal their love with a kiss on the Palace balcony
All smiles: Prince William and Kate kissed twice on the balcony of Buckingham Palace - to the delight of the gathered crowds
You couldn’t see her, but Diana was everywhere at the wedding. William wore her familiar smile. Kate reluctantly removed the iconic engagement ring that once belonged to her to accommodate the wedding band. Harry brought his mother’s sense of fun.
And it could so easily have been Diana pricking the pomposity of the moment when William said to Kate and his father-in-law Michael Middleton, as they stood together at the High Altar: ‘Just a small family affair.’
Even Carole Middleton couldn’t help bringing something of Diana into Westminster Abbey yesterday — her elegant, pale-blue outfit made by Catherine Walker, the French-born designer who died last year and who, more than any other couturier, was identified with the Princess of Wales.
Sealed with a kiss: Diana and Charles on their wedding day in 1981 and, 30 years on, Kate and William follow suit
Indeed, Diana’s influence — her taste, her style and the way she brought up her two sons to live in the real world — was threaded through everything that two billion people watched yesterday.
Indeed, as the pictures on these pages show, there were so many images that produced striking parallels with Diana’s 1981 wedding. No area escaped her memory, not even the wonderful music. The opening hymn Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer was one of her great favourites.
The royal wave: Charles and Diana salute the crowd after their nuptials
Same difference: William and Kate were in the same state landau yesterday as they greeted thousands lining the streets
It was the hymn that closed the service at her funeral in 1997, also held in Westminster Abbey, and was played at the Guards’ Chapel memorial service in 2007 to mark the 10th anniversary of her death. Even the bridal procession music sounded eerily familiar — you may remember it was the Anthem at Diana and Charles’s wedding in 1981.
But the most significant element of Diana’s legacy yesterday was that William was marrying for love.
It’s what his mother always dreamed of as a girl, writing to her former nanny Mary Clarke when she was nine that she would ‘only’ marry a man she loved. When her own dreams of happiness died, she made sure they were transplanted in her sons. This was the crucial factor that allowed the future King to conduct the longest courtship in recent royal history — at his own pace and with the girl of his choice.
Fathers of the brides: Diana being led up the aisle by the late Earl Spencer, left, and Kate's father Michael Middleton doing the honours
It was certainly the ghost of Diana that moved William yesterday as he murmured ‘You look beautiful — you are beautiful’ to Kate at the altar as they prepared to take their vows. For their part, the Spencers, Diana’s family, were somewhat muted and seemed relieved when Harry exchanged a few cheery words with his uncle Charles, who was sitting with Diana’s sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes.
The last time the Spencer clan and the Windsors were all together in Westminster Abbey was for Diana’s funeral, almost 14 years ago. Who could forget what happened next?
Elegant: Kate's train wasn't as long as Diana's, but it echoed its timeless style
Similar: Kate smiled at her maid-of-honour sister Philippa as she holds her train
Charles Spencer’s searing vow from the pulpit during his reading that Diana’s ‘blood family’ would continue the ‘imaginative way’ she had been bringing up William and Harry (astonishingly applauded inside the Abbey and outside by crowds listening to the service on loudspeakers).
The episode hugely embarrassed the Windsors and split the two families for years. Yesterday, however, they were dutifully united and behaving as though it had never happened. That, after all, is what Diana would have wished. But astute observers of such grand royal occasions may have noticed an unexpected configuration of the seating arrangements.
Although close relatives of William, the Spencers were not seated — as tradition demands — on the groom’s side of the Abbey where the royal family sat, but opposite them on the bride’s side, behind the Middletons.
Single poster: 14 years ago Kensington Palace was knee deep in Diana tributes. Yesterday there was only one
So just what was going through Diana’s brother’s mind as William made his vows? Looking at the fine young man who is his nephew, he was bound to feel a flow of ‘blood family’ pride.
B ut William’s obvious comfort in the real world — away from royal privilege and protocol — has little to do with his uncle Charles and, as was crystal clear yesterday, everything to do with the values instilled in him by Diana.
Which leads us to ask a major question: without Diana’s teachings and influence, would Prince William yesterday have married a girl whose mother was born and lived her early life in a council flat in Southall, Middlesex?
There were nights when Diana took William to see the homeless on the Thames Embankment and drug addicts in the East End of London.
Memorably, she warned him not to believe that everyone ‘drives a Range Rover and takes several foreign holidays a year’. There were Palace traditionalists who saw her attitude and philosophy as nothing less than a threat to the monarchy.
In the Abbey yesterday, as Kate showed just what a wonderful ambassador she will be for the Royal Family, it was clear that Diana’s was the ultimate triumph.
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