As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle prepare to walk down the aisle tomorrow, here is everything you need to know about the Jewish connections to their modern-day fairy tale.
- Royal weddings have typically taken place during the week, but the couple broke tradition by scheduling their big day for Shabbat. But as it is not a state wedding, communal leaders such as the Chief Rabbi were not invited.
- Ms Markle’s Jewish friend, Misha Nonoo, acted as the shadchan — introducing the couple in 2016.
Ms Nonoo, who was born in Bahrain to an Iraqi father and English mother, was rai
sed in London and educated in Paris. The New York-based fashion designer, who counts Emma Watson and Cate Blanchett among her fans, was named on Forbes magazine’s exclusive “30 Under 30” list.
Her aunt is Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, the first female Bahraini ambassador to the United States and the first Jewish ambassador to any Arab country.
- Ms Markle was previously married to Jewish film producer Trevor Engelson.
The couple wed in 2010 but split up in 2013 citing “irreconcilable differences”.
Long Island-born Mr Engelson and Ms Markle took part in a “traditional Jewish chair dance” at their untraditional wedding in Jamaica, it was reported at the time.
In a 2013 interview, Meghan revealed her first kiss was as a teenager with Joshua Silverstein. Now 37, Mr Silverstein, the son of a Jewish father and African-American mother, is a Los Angeles-based stand-up comedian and actor.
- A number of synagogues across the country have organised special royal wedding kiddushim.
Radlett United Synagogue, in Hertfordshire, will pray the rain holds off because it also announced plans for a street party immediately after Rabbi Jonathan Hughes’s Shabbat service.
- The Nicky Alliance Centre in Manchester held a royal wedding party during an art class on Monday. Because the big day falls on Shabbat, Union Jack-clad organisers said they decided to “celebrate a few days early”.
- Jewish pupils played the leading parts in a “mock royal wedding” at Annemount Nursery and Pre-Prep School in North London.
Max Pollard took the role of Prince Harry and was “married” to Giorgietta Ungar as the radiant Ms Markle by Rev Alan Walker, the vicar of St Jude’s Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb.
- Forman and Field, the online retail arm of East End salmon smokehouse H Forman and Son has created the “Harry’s Fillet”, a “marriage of a ginger and wasabi with a royal fillet, symbolically joined together by a rose coloured wedding ring of beetroot cure salmon”.
- SodaStream, the Israeli carbonated drinks firm, released a series of bottles designed to resemble wedding hats and fascinators in honour of the royal nuptials.