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By FAY SCHLESINGER
Visit: Kate Middleton leaving Westminster Abbey last night flanked by courtiers and church officialsPrince William and Kate Middleton are to marry at Westminster Abbey, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Our exclusive picture shows Kate, 28, paying a secret visit last night to the historic church that witnessed Princess Diana’s funeral.
The bride-to-be emerged alongside William’s closest aides. The Abbey closed early to allow her to carry out the private visit.
With the entourage of officials and security officers fussing around her, Miss Middleton was beginning to look every inch a member of the Royal Family.
Her fiancé could not be with her because he was travelling back to his RAF base in North Wales.
So yesterday the royal couple hammered out many of the details for the ceremony with senior courtiers.
The photographs emerged as it became increasingly clear Prince Charles will foot the bill for the wedding reception and parts of the ceremony next year.
It also became increasingly likely that the wedding will take place in March.
Both date and venue are expected to be officially confirmed today or tomorrow once it has been cleared with the Queen.
The decision to have the wedding at the Abbey shows that William has put aside painful memories of walking with his younger brother Harry behind the cortege of their mother, past vast crowds of weeping mourners and into the Abbey to say a final farewell to Diana in 1997.
The building is steeped in the nation’s royal past. It has been the choice for Coronations since 1066 and is also the final resting place for 17 monarchs.
Happy: Prince William and Kate Middleton announce their engagement at St James's PalaceBoth Prince William’s grandmother and great-grandmother were married there.
Choosing the Abbey adds to the poignancy of William giving Kate his mother’s sapphire wedding ring to include Diana in the ‘excitement’ of his proposal. Senior royal sources confirmed the couple are ‘not seriously considering any other options’.
A senior royal source said: ‘Kate knows St Paul’s fairly well but she wasn’t familiar with Westminster Abbey. So she wanted to get a feel for the place. Now that she has, the two of them will make a final decision.
‘They are very close to that already, but want to discuss further with both their families.’
Sir Stephen Lamport, who is now Receiver General of the Abbey and responsible for organising major events there, was at Kate’s side. He was private secretary and treasurer to Prince Charles until 2002. Kate was also accompanied by William’s private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton and his personal secretary Helen Asprey.
It is also the first time she had been seen with her personal protection officers – part of the security detail now assigned to her as the fiancée of a member of the Royal Family.
The move by Charles to pay for the wedding is designed to allay mounting criticism of the cost of the nuptials. The Queen and the Middleton family are also likely to contribute. However, the security bill, which is estimated at £20million, will be footed by the taxpayer.
The wedding could take place as soon as March, in line with other recent royal engagements that have tended to last five months or less.Tom Bradby, a broadcaster and close friend of the couple, also suggested this was their preferred month. Other sources said that the desire for a sunny, summer wedding may mean William’s preference is over-ruled.
Kate emerged into darkness just before 7pm. She chose the same white coat that she wore to watch her RAF officer boyfriend receive his wings more than two years ago.
Earlier this year, the Mail revealed that royal aides made ‘discreet overtures’ to Abbey staff, with a view to holding a royal wedding there.
A St James’s Palace spokesman said: ‘Miss Middleton paid a private visit to Westminster Abbey to consider the options and meet key staff there.’
Bittersweet memories of a mournful dayBy Louise Eccles
As a boy of 15 he walked to Westminster Abbey behind his mother’s coffin for her September 1997 funeral, watched by millions of mourners in Britain and around the world.
So the choice of the Abbey for his wedding to Kate Middleton will inevitably provoke bittersweet memories of the death of Princess Diana for Prince William.
But, steeped in more than 1,000 years of history, the Abbey is arguably the natural choice for the couple.
1997: William, second left, follows his mother's coffin with Earl Spencer, Harry and CharlesThe stunning Gothic church is large enough to accommodate 2,000 guests and has been at the forefront of major royal ceremonies for generations.
Benedictine monks first came to the site in the 10th century. It has been the choice of church for coronations since 1066 – Queen Elizabeth II’s in 1953 was the 39th such ceremony.
It is also the final resting place for 17 monarchs.
Tradition: Westminster Abbey has a strong link with royaltyBoth Prince William’s grandmother and great-grandmother were married at the Abbey, which stands beside the Houses of Parliament in central London.
The Queen married Prince Philip of Greece at the Abbey as a 21-year-old princess on November 20, 1947, providing a much-needed boost to the nation’s morale in the tough post-war years. Millions listened to the ceremony on the wireless.
Five years after she married, the princess became Queen on the death of her father George VI and was crowned at the Abbey on June 2, 1953.
The Queen Mother, then Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, had married the Duke of York – later George VI – there on April 26, 1923.
The funeral of the Queen Mother, who died aged 101, was held at Westminster Abbey in 2002.
The Queen and Prince Philip have attended thanksgiving services at the Abbey to commemorate their Silver and Golden wedding anniversaries, while in 1986, Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson there
Westminster Abbey’s official name is The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster.
Unusually, it is a ‘Royal Peculiar’, meaning it is under the jurisdiction of the Crown and not a diocese.
This was an extremely important privilege in the Middle Ages as it gave the Abbey full control over its finances and it soon became one of the wealthiest churches in the country.
source: dailymail
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