After so many months of speculation over whether Meghan Markle would be invited to Pippa Middleton's wedding as Prince Harry's guest, and then all sorts of theories about how and why, we at last have an answer. One that may make you swoon. It turns out, following the ceremony Prince Harry drove 50 miles back to London to pick up his girlfriend and bring her to the reception, according to People.
Before the grand wedding took place, most guessed that the Suits actress would be accompanying her royal BF to the reception but not the ceremony. This may have been to uphold some fancy etiquette notions, or because a bride's gotta do something to keep that guest list down and girlfriends of brothers-in-law are not most people's top priorities. It's also smart optics — Middleton wouldn't want to be upstaged by a prince and a TV star, but she also wouldn't want to look mean or exclude some of her other friends' plus-ones.
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Here's the romantic part of this scenario. Markle could have hung out in some hotel room in Engfield while Harry went off to the wedding ceremony, which sounds rather lonely and Cinderella-like. She also could have stayed in London (as she did) and driven herself to the party, meeting Harry there. Instead, Harry took that time between ceremony and reception to get her — literally driving out of his way — so they could arrive together. That's some lovely symbolism, isn't it? If people were already going to tease those two at the reception about their impending engagement, this did the trick.
Markle and her prince took a little bit of the pressure off of themselves by making sure this wasn't their first official public appearance together. Markle watched Harry and his brother play in a charity polo match on May 7 and attended a FOH (friend of Harry) wedding in Jamaica. On our wish list for the next big step in their relationship: Can they please attend an event where more than just the paparazzi can photograph them side-by-side?