Why the Queen sits next to the bride in royal wedding photos

Interesting...

When you're a member of the royal family, there are a lot of rules to follow. While some royals have broken protocol, there are some rules that cannot be broken. The Queen, for example, insists on banning this from Buckingham Palace.

And there's one tradition that you may have noticed the Queen abides by during every royal wedding photoshoot. She is always sat next to the bride, and while it may seem like a coincidence there's actually a reason to the seating arrangement.

Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston married last year, and many noted that in the official pictures the Queen was sat next to her first cousin once removed - despite not being immediate family.

So why did Queen Elizabeth II sit so close to Lady Gabriella Windsor? Apparently, it's because she outranks everyone and therefore is entitled to the best seat.

When Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2018, the Queen sat next to her granddaughter while mother-of-the-bride, Sarah Ferguson, stood three places away from her daughter.

At Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding earlier that same year, the Queen sat at the front next to the bride and groom, and the monarch also sat up front and centre in Prince William and Kate Middleton's official wedding photos back in 2011.

Just another of the Queen Elizabeth privileges, alongside having her own poet and an ATM machine in her house.

She's also the first to know when a member of the royal family gives birth.

Prince William ensured that she was in the know as soon as each of his three children were born, and it is believed that she gives her blessing when it comes to naming the little ones before it is announced to the public.