Peter Phillips, the Queen’s eldest grandchild, became the first royal of his generation to marry yesterday.

In the presence of 300 guests including the woman he calls “Granny”, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry and his girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the 30-year-old son of the Princess Royal exchanged vows with Autumn Kelly, his Canadian fiancée.

The veiled bride made her arrival at St George’s chapel in Windsor at exactly 4pm wearing a bespoke £3,000 strapless ivory dress created by the west London designer Sassi Holford, a tiara lent to her by Princess Anne, now her mother-in-law, and a necklace and earrings given to her by the groom.

The dress, featuring a bodice in beaded Chantilly lace and a two-metre long cathedral train, was complete with lace insets and descending tails. The gown was matched with a petite lace jacket and a silk tulle veil.

Autumn made her way carefully up the limestone steps, which were slick with rain, her train carried aloft by her six bridesmaids in green Vera Wang dresses. One of them was Zara Phillips, soon to be her sister-in-law.

Inside, before guests who included the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of York, his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, and the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the new Mr and Mrs Phillips promised to “love, comfort, honour and keep each other”. Autumn did not specifically offer to “obey” her husband.

By uttering their vows, the couple passed a minor genera-tional milestone for the royal family and in doing so paved the way for other higher profile weddings to come.

Prince William, whose wedding would be the most eagerly awaited of all, was not present at his eldest cousin’s nuptials.

At almost precisely the time that Peter and Autumn were being married in Windsor, William was guest of honour at the marriage of Batian Craig, the brother of his former girlfriend Jecca, in a wildlife park in the foothills of Mount Kenya. William’s girlfriend Kate Middle-ton attended the Phillips’s ceremony in his place.

In keeping with a modern royal wedding, the day was dominated by the spectre of Hello! magazine which was rumoured to have paid for special access to what Buckingham Palace described as a “private” ceremony.

William may appear in a subsequent edition of the glossy magazine if rumours are correct that it has also paid to cover the Craig wedding.

Peter and his fiancée appeared in Hello! over 19 gushing pages earlier this month as part of a deal worth a reported £500,000. In the article Peter described his gratitude to his mother for allowing him and Zara to lead normal lives rather than trade on their royal connections. The contrast between that stance and the taking of the Hello! shilling has reportedly raised eyebrows among courtiers.

Others defended the couple’s decision to “sell” details of their relationship. Sir Michael Parkin-son, for whom 30-year-old Kelly works as a personal assistant, said criticism of the magazine deal was “odd and cynical”. He said Hello! was unlikely to impose itself on the ceremony in an intrusive way. “We’re not talking about the Spice Girls here, you know,” he said.

The wedding was also remarkable for the fact that Autumn, raised a Catholic, had agreed to renounce her faith and join the Church of England. Under the Act of Settement, any future monarch is forbidden from taking the throne if he has married a Catholic. Phillips is 11th in line to the throne.

At around 3pm a steady trickle of guests began to make their way through a small crowd of wellwishers and royal watchers, several bearing Union Jack umbrellas, to the stone-stepped entrance of St George’s chapel.

Peter entered the chapel at around 3pm, accompanied by his best men Ben Goss and Andrew Tucker, schoolfriends from his time at Gordonstoun.

Following Autumn’s entrance on the arm of her father Brian, the wedding began with a musical medley, hymns and then the ceremony itself.

As the couple walked out of the church to be whisked away to the reception in a horse-drawn “Balmoral sociable carriage”, the congregation erupted into applause. Autumn, holding a bouquet and linking arms with her new husband, walked gingerly down the damp steps with the rest of the royal family.

Additional reporting: Rob Crilly and Lewa Downs in Kenya

A hard-working suburban girl

Autumn Kelly’s background makes her a somewhat unlikely candidate to become a royal bride.

She was brought up in a suburb of Montreal, the daughter of Brian, a retired electricity company executive, and Kitty, a hairdresser, who later divorced. One brother works as a bricklayer and another earns his living as a chef.

One uncle has a more eyebrow-raising occupation. For some years Gary Smith, who is married to her father’s sister Jill, owned a strip club, the Platinum Dolls Show Palace. One act was reportedly a disabled pregnant dancer named “the one-armed bandit”. Later the club became a gay bar.

An adept sportswoman, Autumn also did well at school and studied Mandarin and Japanese history at university. While a student she paid her way serving as a barmaid and later worked as an actress and model. After meeting Peter Phillips at the Canadian Grand Prix in 2003, she moved to Britain and for the past year has worked as a PA to Sir Michael Parkinson.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• The bright side of this winter rain
• Story behind the picture: Snow Leopard, 2008
• Times Charity Appeal: The Place2Be