Queen attends 'society wedding of the year' between Earl Mountbatten's great granddaughter and her entrepreneur fiancé as Prince Charles gives the bride away (in front of her father)

The Prince of Wales gave away Alexandra Knatchbull (left) at the ceremony at Romsey Abbey in Hampshire in place of her father and close family friend Lord Brabourne. Charles accompanied her down the aisle at Romsey Abbey, the 907AD chapel on her family's 6,000-acre estate in Broadlands, Hampshire, where both he and the Queen (right with Prince Philip) spent part of their honeymoons. While Alexandra's choice raised a few eyebrows - with many suspecting her father's ill health may have played a part in her decision - others felt the family's recent history could go some way towards explaining why a bride from one of Britain's most established families chose to break with tradition. In 2010 Norton Knatchbull, the eighth Baron Brabourne, abandoned his 31-year marriage to run away to Nassau in the Bahamas with fashion designer Jeannie Nuttall.