Princess Eugenie Won’t Copy Meghan & Harry’s Reception Venue For Her Own Royal Wedding
Princess Eugenie will have a very different royal wedding than her cousin Prince Harry did earlier this year. While Eugenie, the daughter of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, will exchange vows with Jack Brooksbank at the royal family’s go-to chapel, St. George’s, her reception venue won’t be at Frogmore House like the other royal couple’s gala was in May.
People has revealed that after Princess Eugenie’s nuptials on Friday, October 12, the reception will be held at Royal Lodge in Windsor. The Royal Lodge will provide a more intimate setting for the wedding reception, and it’s a familiar spot for the bride-to-be. Eugenie’s dad, the Duke of York, currently resides at Royal Lodge, and an insider told People, “Eugenie is local to the area and spent a lot of her life in Windsor.”
Another source told Vanity Fair that Princess Eugenie’s parents have teamed up to help plan their 28-year-old daughter’s reception at the family’s official country residence.
“Sarah and Andrew are helping to organize the evening party. The plan is for a marquee to be set up in the grounds and dancing late into the night. Eugenie and Jack are planning the whole thing but Sarah and Andrew are very involved. Sarah is bringing a very eclectic and exciting guest list to Windsor.”
Royal Lodge was originally built in the late 1600s and was the home of the Queen Mother until her death in 2002. The Yorks took up residence in the property in 2004 after an extensive refurbishing.
Few other details are known about Princess Eugenie’s wedding—the wedding party hasn’t been announced yet— but Good Housekeeping notes that the Friday night wedding date and St. George’s Chapel locale hint at a “lower-key” wedding.
While Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were the most recent royals to say “I do” at St. George’s Chapel, the 14th-century church only holds 800 people. If Princess Eugenie was planning a bigger wedding, she would have probably booked Westminster Abbey, where the popular Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wed in 2011.
While her wedding reception venue won’t mirror either one used for the royal wedding held in May (ahead of the evening reception at Frogmore, a luncheon was held at Windsor Castle), like Meghan and Harry, Eugenie and her groom have extended invitations to the public for their big day. At least 1,200 fans will be chosen to hear a live broadcast of the marriage service and watch the bride and groom leave St. George’s Chapel.
