The wedding of Anne, Princess Royal, and Commander Timothy Laurence, on December 12, 1992, was modest by royal standards and a far cry from the glamorous ceremony when she married Capt. Mark Phillips in 1973. But the ceremony at Craithie Kirk, where the British Royal Family hears mass whenever in residence at nearby Balmoral castle, was what the princess preferred.
By 1989, Princess Anne was already living separately from her first husband Mark Phillips. It was around this time that she was already dating the Queen's equerry, Timothy Laurence. The princess and Phillips' marriage was divorced in April 1992; she married Commander Laurence on December 12 that year.
Only about 30 guests were invited to the private marriage service at Craithie Church. Those in attendance included Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Anne's children by her previous marriage, and her siblings Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. Unlike the Church of England at the time, the Church of Scotland considered marriage to be an ordinance of religion rather than a sacrament. As such, divorced persons under certain circumstances were allowed to get married. Anne's remarriage was the first time for a divorcée princess to remarry since Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Queen Victoria's granddaughter) married Grand Duke Kiril of Russia in 1905.
For her wedding ceremony, Princess Anne wore a white jacket over a "demure, cropped-to-the-knee dress". Her hair was ornamented by a spray of white flowers. Laurence gave her "a cabochon sapphire flanked by three small diamonds on each side" for an engagement ring.
After the marriage service, the wedding party proceeded to Craigowan Lodge, where the private reception was held. Laurence was not given no peerage and the couple likewise did not receive a grace-and-favour residence. Instead they leased a flat in Dolphin Square, London. They now reside between an apartment at St James's Palace and Gatcombe Park.
The wedding was good news for the British Royal Family, who reeled behind a streak of bad luck in 1992, following the separation of the Prince and Princess of Wales and Duke and Duchess of York, as well as the divorce of Princess Anne and Capt. Phillips. The most tragic, though, was when Windsor Castle burned to the ground, prompting Queen Elizabeth II to describe the year as an "annus horribilis".
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