Princess Diana Wedding Pictures

Princess Diana Wedding Dress

Designers David and Elizabeth Emanuel were selected to produce the wedding dress for Lady Diana Spencer, soon to be known as Princess Diana. It was made of silk taffeta and featured embroidery, lace, sequins and pearls—10,000 pearls.

The dress had a 25 foot train, large puffy sleeves and lace at the neckline.

Princess Diana Wedding Cake

The official cake for the wedding dinner was made by the Naval Armed Forces, appropriate for the wedding of Prince Charles, a naval commander.

The official cake was one of 27 at the wedding dinner.

Princess Diana Enters Church

For her wedding to Prince Charles on July 29, 1981, Lady Diana Spencer entered St. Paul's Cathedral with her father, John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer.

Charles had proposed to Diana at Buckingham Palace at a private dinner for two, and they did not make the engagement public and official for a few weeks, until February 24, 1981.

Princess Diana's Wedding Procession

Diana and her father walked down the aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral for her wedding to Charles, Prince of Wales, in a traditional Anglican ceremony.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverence Robert Runcie, presided over the wedding, assisted by the Very Reverend Alan Webster, Dean of the cathedral.

About 750 million people watched the television broadcast of the wedding, and more than 250 million heard it on radio.

Diana's Wedding - St. Paul's Cathedral

Diana, proceeding down the aisle of St. Paul's Cathedral with her father, passed wedding guests including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her husband, Denis Thatcher.

There were 3,500 people in the congregation at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Diana and Charles Married at St. Paul's

Diana and Charles during the wedding ceremony, with members of the family at the side. Diana mildly flubbed her husband's names, reversing the first two.

Visible: Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Princess Anne, Captain Mark Phillips, Princess Margaret and Viscount Linley.

Prince Charles and Lady Diana Wedding

Prince Charles and his bride Diana shared some private words during their wedding ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral in London, July 29, 1981.

They omitted "obey" from the bride's wedding vows, a custom increasingly common in the general public but somewhat controversial in a royal wedding. (Queen Victoria promised to obey her bridegroom, Prince Albert, in their ceremony.)

Diana and Charles Married

Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales, left St. Paul's Cathedral after their marriage ceremony.

Three thousand five hundred guests viewed the wedding from inside St. Paul's. Often, royal weddings had been held at Westminster Abbey, but St. Paul's seated more people.

Diana With Charles After Wedding

Charles and Diana at the door of St. Paul's Cathedral after their traditional wedding service. Charles wore his full dress naval commander uniform.

Diana and Charles on Their Wedding Day

The Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, left St. Paul's Cathedral after their July 29, 1981, wedding ceremony.

Prince Charles Marries Lady Diana Spencer

Charles and Diana left the wedding ceremony in a carriage.

There were about two million people lining the route to try to see the couple, in addition to the billion who watched or listened to the broadcast of the service and festivities.

In 2011, when Prince William, son of Charles and Diana, was married, he and his bride rode in the same carriage as William's parents used in their 1981 wedding.

Diana and Charles on the Balcony

After their wedding ceremony, Diana and Charles went to Buckingham Palace for a dinner with 120 guests. Then they appeared with members of their families on the balcony to greet the gathered crowd.

On the balcony were, among others, Charles' mother Queen Elizabeth II, her mother the Queen Mother Elizabeth and Charles' father Prince Philip.

The tradition of the royal wedding party appearing on the Buckingham Palace balcony after the ceremony began with Charles' ancestress, Queen Victoria, and was continued by Charles' parents, Elizabeth and Philip on the balcony, and by Charles' son and his new bride in 2011, William and Catherine on the balcony.

The Balcony Kiss

In a crowd-pleaser, Prince Charles kissed his bride, the new Princess of Wales, Diana.

After having two children together, Prince William and Prince Henry, and after much public scandal around their obviously-unhappy marriage, Charles and Diana formally separated in 1992 and divorced on August 28, 1996.

Charles and Diana's wedding kiss on the balcony began a tradition which was repeated by Charles and Diana's son, William, when he married his bride, Catherine Middleton, in 2011: Balcony Kiss, William and Catherine

Princess Diana and Her Wedding Dress

In this formal portrait, Diana, Princess of Wales, is shown in her somewhat-controversial wedding dress, designed by David and Elizabeth Emanual.

More wedding photos: Royal Weddings from Victoria to Elizabeth II