Summer dresses, hats, top hats and tails were the order of the day as the congregation entered the pretty village church, which is equidistant from Gatcombe Park – Princess Anne’s Gloucestershire estate where Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall grew up – and the Sperling family home in South Cerney.
Although it is a royal wedding – the first since Princess Beatrice‘s lockdown nuptials in 2020 – there was little of the pomp and ceremony that marked the celebrations of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, or Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, in 2018. (Or, indeed, Peter’s own first royal wedding to Autumn Kelly in 2008).
Harriet, 45, a devout Christian who has written movingly about her faith, instead wanted the focus to remain on the deep spiritual commitment she and Peter, 48, made to each other.
The Duchess of Edinburgh looked radiant in powder blue
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Following the service, it is understood a reception will be hosted at Gatcombe. Purchased by Queen Elizabeth II in 1976 for Princess Anne and Capt Phillips, the Grade II-listed property dates back to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when the manors of Minchinhampton and Avening were granted to Lord Windsor, though his family would go on to sell the land to Philip Sheppard in 1656. Once home to the annual Festival of British Eventing (declared in 2023 to be ‘unfeasible to run’ by Mark and Peter Phillips), Gatcombe has played a key part in Princess Anne’s royal career. Both her children were raised on the estate.