Princess Anne's 'incredibly generous' gesture to daughter-in-law Harriet Phillips that made start of marriage to Peter so 'special'
The Princess Royal helped make the couple's big day even more personal and Harriet thinks it was 'amazing' of her
The Princess Royal is one of the most senior and well-respected members of the Royal Family but she's also arguably the most low-key too. Many of her outfits have been in her collection for decades and she's not bothered about the glamorous side of her job, preferring everyone to focus on the causes and charities she champions.
However, a royal wedding calls for a bit of glitz and Princess Anne helped ensure her son Peter Phillips and his now-wife Harriet had a day to remember. Speaking to Hello! for her first ever interview, the NHS nurse has praised her mother-in-law for being so "generous" and said she helped the couple start their marriage in a "special" way.
"I feel very lucky to be a part of the family. [Princess Anne is] brilliant, really good fun and straight-talking. She's incredibly generous - we had our wedding reception at Gatcombe, and it was amazing and special for Peter and I to have our wedding where he grew up," Harriet said.
Peter and Harriet tied the knot in a private ceremony in All Saints' Church in Gloucestershire on 6th June and then went back to nearby Gatcombe Park for their wedding reception. The main house at Gatcombe has been Anne's home for almost fifty years and her children and their families live in other properties on the estate now.
Being able to celebrate their marriage with all their loved ones in a place with such personal connections clearly meant a lot to the new Mr and Mrs Phillips. At the time reports suggested that the reception was held at Gatcombe but now we have confirmation from the bride and Harriet's remark also seems to hint Anne hosted it.
This is something a lot of royal parents have done over the years, including Queen Elizabeth, who hosted Princess Anne and her ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips' reception at Buckingham Palace in 1973. The Princess Royal's generous gesture helped to officially welcome Harriet to the family and Gatcombe Park would have plenty of space for all their guests, as well as a lot of privacy.
In turn Harriet Phillips chose a wedding tiara that paid subtle homage to her iconic new mother-in-law. Although she didn't wear one of Anne's, the nurse borrowed a style from jeweller Pragnell which included laurel leaves and articulated floral motifs.
These are described on the Pragnell website as "bearing great resemblance to the tiara owned by The Princess Royal, in the official photograph celebrating her fiftieth birthday in 2000". This same tiara was also worn to the coronations of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, so the royal connections came thick and fast.
Harriet would surely have known about these links and no doubt picked this particular piece to honour the Royal Family and Anne more specifically. Her and Peter's wedding was a harmonious blend of non-royal and royal elements and coincidentally it was at Gatcombe that Harriet first met the Princess Royal for the first time.
As you might expect, it was typically unfussy and she described it as "really relaxed" and said that even though there were "always going to be initial nerves", she's a very "calm" person.
"[W]e sat on garden benches having cups of tea. It couldn't have been nicer and was very similar to when Peter met my family," Harriet shared.
