Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding the order of service in full

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding the order of service in full

The Marriage of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales with Ms Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel Windsor Castle Saturday, 19 May, 2018 at 12 Noon

The following Pastoral Introduction is taken from Common Worship:

A wedding is one of life's great moments, a time of solemn commitment as well as good wishes, feasting and joy. St John tells us how Jesus shared in such an occasion at Cana, and gave there a sign of new beginnings as he turned water into wine.

Marriage is intended by God to be a creative relationship, as his blessing enables husband and wife to love and support each other in good times and in bad, and to share in the care and upbringing of children. For Christians, marriage is also an invitation to share life together in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

It is based upon a solemn, public and life-long covenant between a man and a woman, declared and celebrated in the presence of God and before witnesses.

On this their wedding day the bride and bridegroom face each other, make their promises and receive God's blessing. You are witnesses of the marriage, and express your support by your presence and your prayers. Your support does not end today: the couple will value continued encouragement in the days and years ahead of them

St George's Chapel

Set in the Lower Ward of Windsor Castle, St George's Chapel is a building of rare beauty, begun in 1475 by King Edward IV.

The Chapel, built in the striking English Perpendicular Gothic style of the period, was intended both to be a new and fitting home for the College of St George and the Order of the Garter (founded over a century previously in 1348), and to be a Royal Chapel in which the Sovereign and the Royal Family might worship God and to which they might come on various occasions-some solemn, and many, like today's wedding or the Garter Service next month, celebratory-to receive God's blessing and to hear prayer offered in God's presence.

The Opus Dei, or daily round of prayer, is offered by the members of the College who live in the precincts of the Chapel and whose duty it is to pray morning and evening for the Sovereign and the Companions of the Order of the Garter.

There are twenty-three services each week, all of which are open to members of the public.

Perhaps the Chapel's most striking feature is the vaulted stone roof of very wide span, held up only by the light and graceful walls and the external flying buttresses.

Most of the coloured bosses on the roof of the Chapel bear the badges and arms of King Henry VII and those of his servants who helped to build part of the Chapel, finished in 1528.

The boss in the roof over the Organ Screen bears the arms of King Henry VIII, who is buried in a vault beneath the Quire of the Chapel

The great coloured glass West Window is one of the finest in England and is said to be the third largest in the country; in seventy-five lights, the vast majority of which date from between 1503 and 1509, it depicts a host of warrior saints, archbishops and kings and, in the bottom right hand corner, with hammer in hand the likeness of William Vertue the mason and architect responsible for the building of the Nave and Quire Vault.

Those seated in the Quire of the Chapel are able to see one of the Chapel's greatest treasures, the carved oak stalls dating from between 1478 and 1485.

Each stall is a work of art and a triumph of craftsmanship, each unique in its detail.