When Princess Beatrice's engagement was announced, fans of the royal family were pumped for yet another royal wedding. It was just last year that Beatrice's sister, Princess Eugenie, had a beautiful, traditional wedding at Windsor Castle. It came just five months after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's extravagant royal wedding. But if you thought Beatrice's wedding would be a three-peat, think again. Sources are revealing that Beatrice isn't looking for a big, showy wedding like those we saw last year.
Mail on Sunday has reported that Beatrice is opting against all of the pomp and circumstance because such a wedding isn't her and fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's taste. However, fans of the royal family are suspecting that a few other issues might be at play. For one, many have objected to British taxpayers' responsibility to pay for royal weddings. A petition to the House of Commons on the matter got 14,000 signatures ahead of Eugenie's wedding last year. There are also some matters of humiliation, from the BBC's refusal to cover Eugenie's nuptials to Prince Andrew's recent sexual assault allegations. Many feel a smaller, less flashy wedding is in better taste.
Princess Beatrice is the latest member of the royal family headed down the aisle. The 31-year-old and fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi announced their engagement last month. Since then, fans of the royal family began eagerly anticipating another over-the-top royal wedding.
It seems those fans won't be getting their wish. A report for Mail on Sunday revealed that Beatrice isn't looking to have the same kind of wedding that her sister, Princess Eugenie, enjoyed last year when she married Jack Brooksbank.
Since Beatrice has dropped to ninth in line to the throne after the birth of Harry and Meghan's son, Archie, she isn't required to have an over-the-top royal wedding. She also didn't need Queen Elizabeth's permission to get engaged.
Beatrice is reportedly eyeing her parents' home, Royal Lodge at Windsor, as the location for her nuptials. She hopes that a more casual atmosphere will make for a quieter wedding that's more fitting to the couple's tastes.
British taxpayers, who came together for a 14,000-person petition to the House of Commons before Eugenie's wedding last year, are surely relieved not to be footing the bill for another extravagant wedding. Eugenie's wedding reportedly cost them upward of £2 million for the security alone. Despite this, people are still curious as to why Beatrice came to this decision.
For one, there's the consideration of Edoardo's son, Christopher Woolf, known as Wolfie. Edoardo shares the 2-year-old with his ex-fiancée, Dara Huang. Some believe that the royal family might not want to draw attention to the situation, although it hasn't been an issue for all parties involved.
As a friend of Beatrice's told Mail on Sunday, "There have been three big Royal weddings there in the past year or so and I’m not sure that’s what Bea wants. Edo has a child, there’s the situation with his ex, and Beatrice might just feel something more low-key might be more fitting."
There's also the matter of the controversy around Prince Andrew. Beatrice's father has been heavily scrutinized for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who was arrested for a number of sex crimes before dying by suicide in his jail cell earlier this year.
Some fans of the royal family believe a big royal wedding would only draw attention to Andrew. The crown certainly wouldn't want to drum up more conversations that link him to the illegal and appalling conduct he's been accused of.
As if Andrew's behavior and relationships haven't caused enough scandals among the royal family throughout the years, there was also an embarrassing matter related to Eugenie's wedding last year that may have contributed to Beatrice's low-key approach.
Prince Andrew reportedly approached the BBC about televising Eugenie's wedding, hoping for the same treatment that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had received just months prior. However, the BBC shut the prince down.
"They turned it down because they don’t think enough people will tune in and that there isn’t enough support for the Yorks," a source revealed to Daily Mail ahead of the nuptials. The source added that "nobody wants to take the risk and spend the money it would cost to put it on air."
While the BBC's rejection of the royal nuptials was embarrassing for the family, the event was televised by ITV. People still felt the event was overshadowed by speculation over Meghan Markle's pregnancy, which was revealed to members of the family that day ahead of the formal announcement a few days later.
Whatever the reason behind Beatrice's decision to do things differently, the fact is that she has the right to make that decision. She's sure to be a beautiful bride who will enjoy a lovely wedding regardless of how many people get to see it for themselves.
