Bless their hearts, everyone in the royalist media has suddenly decided that Peter Phillips & Harriet Sperling’s June 6th wedding will be the royal event of the year. I expected this months ago, and I wondered why these people hadn’t hyped the crap out of this wedding all year. Instead, it’s like the royalists just remembered it was happening. So, yes, Peter and Harriet will marry in the Cotswolds, at some kind of country church. They’re both divorced, but hey, so are the king, queen consort and Peter’s mother. Speaking of Princess Anne, sources claim that the mother of the groom will host the wedding reception at Gatcombe Park. Oh???

Anticipation is in the air as the Royal Family prepares to celebrate the wedding of Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling on 6 June. The couple, who are said to have invited the likes of the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh to their big day, are tying the knot at All Saints Church in Cirencester, leaving royal watchers wondering whether Peter’s mother, Princess Anne, might be hosting the wedding reception.

Indeed, reports in Hello! Magazine have suggested that the Princess Royal will be welcoming the guests to her official residence, Gatcombe Park – a location that holds a ‘special resonance’ for Peter and is near where his soon-to-be bride spent her childhood.

Purchased by Queen Elizabeth II in 1976 for Princess Anne and her then husband, Captain Mark 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, Peter and his sister Zara Phillips, were raised on the estate.

A fitting locale for Peter’s wedding reception, then. And, rumour has it, the big day has yet another royal tie. According to reports, both the ceremony and the following party have been planned by Peregrine Armstrong-Jones, the half-brother of Princess Margaret’s ex-husband, Antony Armstrong-Jones. Peregrine and Peter Phillips know each other well: after all, Peregrine organised Peter’s 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle. The event mastermind, who works under Bentley’s Entertainment, was also responsible for the weddings of Mike and Zara Tindall, Victoria and David Beckham, and the wedding of Hugh Grant to Anna Elisabet Eberstein.

[From Tatler]

They’re saying that Peregrine also planned Peter’s first wedding and wedding reception too. Which is just a reminder of why all of the sycophants within the institution were so mad when Prince Harry and then-Meghan Markle tried to plan their wedding themselves. There are several cottage industries attached to the Windsors, people who only appear when it comes time to plan weddings and birthday parties. It’s extremely weird. As for Anne hosting Peter’s reception… I guess the happy couple wants to save some money. It’s not like Peter and Zara Tindall ever really left Gatcombe either – both of them still live in cottages on the estate. Still, I have concerns about Anne-as-hostess. I guess it’s fine though – my guess is that the wedding is actually going to be on the smaller side, and the reception will probably be even smaller.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Royal Family’s social media.