Welcome To The Firm

By Michele Orecklin

By the time Queen Elizabeth's youngest son took a bride last Saturday, all the allusions to fairy-tale princesses and royal happily-ever-afters had been used and then discredited by her other children. Conveniently, this wedding and this couple, EDWARD WINDSOR and SOPHIE RHYS-JONES, appear to be different.

With her own public relations firm, Sophie, 34, is more mature than either the naive Diana or the coltish Fergie when they married into the family. And Edward, 35, has launched a career as a television producer.

On an overcast afternoon he was greeted by 8,000 cheering locals outside and 550 invited guests inside St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, which despite its vaulted grandeur was chosen for its relative intimacy, in keeping with the couple's wish for a low-key affair.

Onlookers applauded when Sophie arrived with her father, a former tire salesman. Considerably less crinolined than the dresses of Diana and Sarah, Sophie's fitted silk-organza-and-crepe gown nevertheless boasted 325,000 cut-glass and pearl beads and a formidable train. Her veil was affixed with a diamond tiara borrowed from the Queen.

The conundrum of what to wear on their own heads had bedeviled the wedding's female invitees, as Sophie had asked them to remain hatless. While the Queen Mother, 98, ignored the edict, others adorned their hair with feathers.

Though they deviated from regal norms in many ways, the couple recited centuries-old vows and consented to a carriage ride through Windsor before returning to the castle for a buffet-dinner reception. In the end, the couple bowed to tradition--but not too deeply.