Some 600 guests will attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding – with 200 joining them to party at an evening reception in Frogmore House.
Harry’s father the Prince of Wales is hosting the celebration on the night of May 19, as Kensington Palace unveiled details of the couple’s traditional invitations.
The invites – on thick white card gilded along the edge – feature printed italic writing and are issued under Charles’s name and bear his heraldic feathers embossed in gold at the top.
Standing about half a mile south of Windsor Castle in Windsor Home Park, Frogmore House has been a Royal Residence since 1792.
Frogmore House is where Harry and Ms Markle posed for their official engagement photos.
Frogmore House in Berkshire (PA)
The location of the venue – away from the Castle – will offer the pair privacy as they celebrate with friends and family.
The invitations also reveal that the dress code for guests attending the nuptials is Uniform, Morning Coat or Lounge Suit, or Day Dress with Hat.
Harry, a former solder who is now Captain General of Royal Marines, may therefore be in uniform for the ceremony.
The invitations read: “His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales KG KT requests the pleasure of the company of……. at the marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle on Saturday 19th May, 2018 at 12 Noon followed by a reception at Windsor Castle.
Invitations for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in May, after they have been printed at the workshop of Barnard and Westwood in London (Victoria Jones/PA)
The 600 guests will attend the nuptials in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and also have been invited to the lunchtime reception at St George’s Hall, which is being given by The Queen.
American bride-to-be Ms Markle worked as a calligrapher while trying to pay bills as she auditioned for acting roles.
But the names of invited guests were added later by a calligraphy printer, the palace said.
Invitations for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, after they have been printed (Victoria Jones/PA)
Ms Markle wrote correspondence for Dolce & Gabbana and wedding invitations for clients such as singer Robin Thicke.
She has credited handwriting classes at school for her craft.
On her my lifestyle website The Tig, former Suits star Ms Markle described herself as “a firm believer in handwritten notes”.
The invitations, posted this week, have been produced by Barnard & Westwood, which holds a Royal Warrant for Printing & Bookbinding.
Lottie Small using the die stamping press at the workshop of Barnard and Westwood in London, who are printing the invitations for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding (Victoria Jones/PA)
The invites are die-stamped in gold and then burnished with the text also die-stamped.
The edges of the invitation are bevelled, then gilded.
The invitations are similar to the ones sent out for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011 – although these were in a different font and were issued with the Queen’s royal cypher.
A member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office at Buckingham Palace in London, inserts the invitations into envelopes, for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (John Stillwell/PA)
They featured the words ‘The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by the Queen to invite….”