Charles and Camilla were married in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall on 9 April 2005
King Charles III and the Queen celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on 9th April 2025, marking decades of courtship. The couple, who first met at a Windsor polo match in 1970, announced their engagement in February 2005 and married on 9 April that year.
The wedding was held at Windsor Guildhall, making the future King the first member of the British Royal Family to marry in a civil ceremony. Due to the fact that both the bride and groom had previously divorced, it was deemed appropriate that the ceremony should be kept strictly legal, and the nuptials were held accordingly. Charles had previously been married to Diana, Princess of Wales, from 1981 to 1996, while Camilla had been married to Andrew Parker Bowles from 1973 to 1995.
Planning for the event was not without its hiccups, as Robert Hardman reflects upon in the June 2025 issue of Tatler. He reveals, ‘After the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April came the news that the Vatican had scheduled the funeral for the day of the wedding. As heir, the prince would be expected in Rome, as would the Archbishop of Canterbury – who was also due to preside over the blessing at Charles and Camilla’s wedding.
‘So the wedding was postponed for 24 hours, with the prince and his bride squeezed into a morning slot at the Guildhall between three other couples.’
It wasn’t the only slightly non-traditional element to the day. Camilla did not wear a tiara for the service as the couple were not marrying in a church. Instead, she opted for a white hat by designer Philip Treacy for the official ceremony and for the blessings she wore a headpiece constructed of dramatic gold feathers. The bride chose two outfits for the day, both designed by Anna Valentine and Antonia Robinson. For the service she wore a cream silk dress, followed by a pale blue chiffon gown with a long-sleeved, gold-embroidered coat over the top.
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh did not attend the ceremony but were present for the blessings and photographs at Windsor Castle. The official photographs were taken by Hugo Burnand, a favourite royal photographer.
The rest of the immediate Royal Family were in attendance, including Charles’s sons by his first marriage, Prince William and Prince Harry, and Camilla’s children, Tom and Laura Parker Bowles. Other notable guests included Joanna Lumley, Richard E. Grant, Edward Fox, Jilly Cooper, Valentino Garavani and of course, a plethora of foreign royals.
As the celebrations drew to a close, with Princes William and Harry chasing the shaving foam-adorned wedding car across the Quadrangle. Hardman sought the wise words of Comptroller Lt-Col Sir Malcolm Ross: ‘We have celebrated the start of something very, very remarkable,’ he reflected, ‘and those who were here today will never forget it.’
The newlyweds honeymooned at Birkhall House, a royal seat Charles had inherited from his grandmother, the Queen Mother, after her death in 2002. Situated in the grounds of the Balmoral estate, the couple’s first days of married life were no doubt spent out on the windy Scottish moors and in the cosy confines of the royal residence.
At the time of their wedding in 2005, it was stated that Camilla would be styled as Princess Consort on her husband’s accession to the throne. Yet in 2022, ahead of her Platinum Jubilee, the late Queen expressed her wish for Camilla to be styled as Queen Consort, denoting her status as a fully embraced member of the royal fold. Buckingham Palace later confirmed that the ‘Consort’ title would be dropped after the coronation, with King Charles’s wife instead being titled Queen Camilla.
