Why William And Kate Almost Didn’t Take Their Most Iconic Wedding Photograph
In April 2011, Kate wed Prince William in a spectacular ceremony at Westminster Abbey. And today, the couple are celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary!
Ahead of their anniversary, Hugo Burnand, their royal wedding photographer, reveals to T&C what it was really like to document history!
Hugo Bernand took a stunning wedding photograph of the newlyweds sitting with all their adorable children bridesmaids and pageboys in Buckingham Palace’s Throne Room. However, he has revealed that the photo almost wasn’t taken due to the strict schedule he had to follow on the day.
Hugo and bride Kate had discussed the photo previously. However, they had a tight schedule to stick to on the big day.
Burnand told Town and Country magazine: “The prep also involved meticulous time-keeping. We did dress rehearsals with stopwatches using endless staff from Buckingham Palace to fill in as family members, so we knew we had just enough time. The Fly Past was at 1:30 p.m. and we couldn’t over run, even by a minute.”
The photographer also brought his mother to help him organise the youngsters. And the lady came with a lot of jelly beans to get them to behave.
He would tell the children they could have a jelly bean if they did what was needed for each picture.
But by the end of the shoot, they were all out of the sweet treats with one more picture to take.
He said: “There was one picture I really wanted to take, but we were only allowed to take this picture if we had achieved everything else.”
And they managed to take it in just three minutes after the other shots. The portrait ended up being the photographer’s favourite wedding photograph of the day.
He said: “We finished with three minutes to spare so I asked Catherine if we could do the shot we had talked about previously. And she turned to William and said, ‘What do you think?’ And he said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
But without any jelly beans to bride the kids, Hugo simply told them to do whatever they felt was the right thing to do.
Pointing at Kate’s hand touching William’s knee in the photo, Mr Burnand added: “That was a very spontaneous picture. That little detail there and William leaning in there, all these things were not directed, but a result of a good relationship with everyone.”