Princess Mary’s best friend reveals what it’s really like to be a royal bridesmaid
Bridesmaid and best friend of Princess Mary, Amber Petty, has shared a candid account of what it was like to a part of a royal wedding.
The former columnist and radio host told Stellar magazine that while going through the intimidating experience, she experienced “grief” knowing their friendship would never be the same again.
“I didn’t realise it at the time, but I was grieving the loss of a friendship that was never going to be the way it was,” she said.
“It did feel like all anyone wanted to talk about was ‘the fairytale’, which wasn’t how my heart was processing it for me.”
Amber was one of the three bridesmaids who found themselves in the media’s spotlight when Mary Donaldson married Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in 2004.
Amber Petty (left) with Princess Mary's sisters at the royal wedding
Amber confessed that she’d hoped she would be a part of Mary’s special day, but she was worried royal protocol wouldn’t allow it as she was not a relative.
“That would have broken my heart a little. It would have been further proof I was losing a person I loved to a very unexpected life event,” she said.
“I think every girl who loves her best friend would understand this feeling.”
But five months before the royal wedding, Amber’s dream came true and she was asked to join the bridal party.
Two weeks before the big day, Amber arrived in the Danish capital and felt like “a lost bogan extra in a beautiful European film” while the last-minute wedding preparations were finalised.
“My fear was always of making a fool of myself by not greeting certain royals and dignitaries in the correct way … I felt very much like a fish out of water,” she said.
Amber describes her experience of the wedding itself as “uncomfortable” due to all the cameras and reporters.
While honest accounts of being a royal bridesmaid are rare, earlier this year, Princess Diana’s bridesmaid India Hicks spoke about the morning of the wedding.
In an interview with E!, India recalled the “mayhem” of the morning of Princess Diana’s wedding to Prince Charles in 1981.
“Diana had her tiara on as she was getting ready and there was a little fuzzy TV and the Cornetto ice cream advertisement came on and we all just stopped and sang along,” she said.
“I remember Diana getting to the bottom of this huge sweeping staircase in Clarence House and she paused and said, ‘I'd like a glass of water’ … she hadn't seemed nervous before then.”
India, who was 13 years old at the time of the royal wedding, also recalled a memory with the King of Tonga’s wife.
“I remember my shoes pinching, they were a size too small, and I remember the King of Tonga's wife passing sweeties across to me," she told E!.
India’s mother, Lady Pamela Hicks (formerly Mountbatten) had been one of Queen Elizabeth’s bridesmaids when she married Prince Philip.
Lady Pamela previously confessed that there had been some mishaps while the Queen was getting ready before the wedding.
“People may imagine that big royal events go like clockwork. They do not,” she told the Daily Mail in 2017.
“There was a moment of panic when, as the bride’s veil was being fitted, her tiara broke. An aide was bundled into a taxi and sent hurrying to the jeweller’s.”
On top of that, then-Princess Elizbeth’s bouquet was missing when she was supposed to leave for Westminster Abbey.
“It had been popped in a cupboard to remain fresh – and forgotten,” Lady Pamela, who was 18 at the time, recalled. “Yet throughout all this mayhem, the bride was totally unflustered. As ever.”