Peek Inside the Historic Frogmore House, Harry and Meghan's Reception Venue

We’ve been treated to plenty of tantalizing details about the upcoming royal wedding as May 19 continues to draw closer. With less than two months to go, we now know that a lemon and elderflower wedding cake will be served at the reception (intended to convey “the bright flavours of spring”, per Kensington Palace) and that the couple has specified a dress code of uniform, morning coat or lounge suit, or day dress with hat.

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the historic setting of Frogmore House, where the evening reception for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—who at that point will be husband and wife—will be held.

The couple are to marry in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle at 12 p.m. GMT, and later that day Queen Elizabeth II will host a lunchtime reception for the 600 or so wedding guests in the grand St George’s Hall. (See Prince Harry and Meghan’s beautiful invitations!)

But it’s at Frogmore House’s more intimate reception that evening, hosted by Prince Charles for about 200 of Harry and Meghan’s closest friends and family, at which the newlyweds will truly be able to relax and enjoy themselves.

Frogmore House is about half a mile south of Windsor Castle, and is a beautiful Grade-I listed country estate that dates from the 17^th century. It has been a royal residence ever since it was bought by King George III for his wife Queen Charlotte, who used it as a country retreat in which she and her daughters could pursue their pastimes such as painting and needlework.

Charlotte had a particular interest in the craft of botany, and during her lifetime oversaw the creation of woods, lakes, glades, follies and bridges in the land surrounding Frogmore House, which had previously consisted only of flat marshland.

Since then, the extensive grounds have become one of the estate’s most notable aspects. They are home to more than 4,000 trees and shrubs, as well as the 13^th-century-Italian-style mausoleum where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are laid to rest.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive for their official enagement portraits in the gardens of Frogmore House.

These grounds are already a significant part of Harry and Meghan’s history. It was here, on a sunny winter’s day, that they posed for their official engagement photographs not long after November’s announcement that they were to be married. The photographs were noted for an intimacy not usually portrayed in royal snaps—but the love and tenderness that existed between Victoria and Albert is well documented, so perhaps the gardens of Frogmore House was the perfect place in which Harry and Meghan felt they could reveal this aspect of their relationship.

As for the reception, you could not ask for a more elegant setting than the residence’s interior. We can only imagine the light of a hundred candles dancing on the 18^th-century murals depicting scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid in the Staircase Hall, or the garlands of painted flowers in the Mary Moser Room.

(The Print Collector/Getty Images)

Then there’s the enigmatic Black Museum, which Queen Mary decorated with black papier-mâché furniture (err, perhaps the reception will only see Harry and Meghan ducking in here for a moment’s brief respite) and the Britannia Room, which commemorates the interior of the Royal Yacht Britannia after it was decommissioned in 1997. It was this yacht, as it happens, on which Prince Charles and Princess Diana took off on their honeymoon tour of the Mediterranean in 1981.

Sadly, we’re unlikely to get a real glimpse into Harry and Meghan’s evening reception, as this event will be a much more private affair than the day’s earlier celebrations. Still, at least now we can form a picture of where the happy couple will be as their wedding day draws to a close.

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