On Wednesday, Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) and Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) finally got married on the Suits Season 7 finale—just weeks before Markle officially becomes a member of the British royal family by marrying Prince Harry. Shout-out to the actress-turned-philanthropists employers at the USA Network for furnishing the bride-to-be with what essentially amounts to an expensive, professionally lit dress rehearsal!
Some quick Suits context: as the finale approached, Rachel and Mike were offered their dream jobs running a new firm that specializes in class-action cases against major corporations. Theyll have to relocate to Seattle for the gig, so they decide to push their big day up by six weeks and get married before they move. Funny as the timing may be, Markles TV wedding diverged in several important ways from what we can expect during the upcoming real-life royal spectacular—which, to be fair, we will also watch on TV. But you know what I mean. To wit:
• Mike and Rachel were originally supposed to marry in Season 5, but Mike called off the wedding because he was about to spend two years in prison for fraud—namely, for pretending to be a lawyer despite never having attended law school, the central premise of Suits. (Every young couple has been there.) Markle and Harry, meanwhile, are set to wed on May 19, less than six months after their late-November engagement announcement. Efficient!
• The as-yet unnamed Royal Baby III made his grand entrance on April 23—not only elbowing his Uncle Harry one spot down in the line of succession, but stealing a bit of regal thunder from Harry and Markles impending nuptials. There are no tiny princes or princesses for Rachel and Mike to contend with on Suits, although their wedding is restricted to the last 10 minutes of the episode, which is otherwise mostly a backdoor pilot for a Chicago-set Suits spin-off led by Gina Torress character, Jessica Pearson.
• As the captain general of the Royal Marines, Prince Harry is expected to wear his uniform and medals when hes wed. Some of Rachel and Mikes male wedding guests go full black tie in tuxes, but the groom himself wears a fairly ordinary suit. (Because he is a suit! The shows called Suits!) He looks like he rolled in straight from the courthouse, tripped, and fell onto a boutonnière.
• Mike and Rachels wedding is, to be sure, a stylish affair. The pristine white ballroom has been decorated with round bulb string lights (elegant) and leafy green plants (also elegant), the roots of some of which appear to be swaddled in tulle (less elegant, but overall, still nice). Its very Manhattan, or at least very Toronto standing in for Manhattan. But Harry and Markle will wed at St. Georges Chapel—a 14th-century place of worship that is the site of the princes own baptism, Prince Charless wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles, and Henry VIIIs tomb—on the grounds of Windsor Castle. No big deal.
• Rachel and Mike celebrate with somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 to 150 friends and loved ones—a pretty big turnout for an impromptu wedding! Markle and Harry will have a fairly small guest list, by royal standards: theyve invited 600 people to the ceremony, and about 2,600 more to observe from the grounds of Windsor Castle.
• Mike and Rachel have an evening wedding, as one does. But Markle and Harry will wed at exactly 12 P.M. G.M.T., in order to specifically punish Americans by compelling us to wake up unreasonably early on a Saturday.
• The Suits wedding keeps its ceremony and reception in the same space, whereas the royal wedding will host an afternoon reception at St. Georges Hall followed by an evening reception at Frogmore House.
• John Legends “All of Me” plays as Rachel walks down the aisle. Sweet, if a little 2013. Markle and Harrys ceremony music will include performances by the 35-person choir of St. Georges Chapel (founded in 1348, though presumably by different members), the Kingdom Choir gospel group, and 19-year-old prodigy cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, whom Markle personally called in order to ask him to play at the wedding.
• The plans for Harry and Markles receptions remain tightly guarded, though Elton John,Ed Sheeran, and the Spice Girls are all rumored performers. Meanwhile, Rachel and Mike opt for what appears to be a D.J. bobbing his bald head on the outskirts out of the dance floor.
• Rachels wedding dress is gorgeous: a sleeveless V-neck, A-line gown with intricate beading. She wears her hair down with both her makeup and jewelry (a pair of diamond stud earrings) simple, without a veil or, unsurprisingly, a tiara. The royal wedding dress, by contrast, is on top-secret lockdown—no one without level-eight Illuminati snake-person clearance knows anything about it, from the designer to the style. Its the very one she wore (or, well, would have worn) for her canceled Season 5 wedding, with several small modifications, including the addition of a black belt. Designed by Anne Barge, it retails for $6,800. Theres no telling what Markles royal gown will look like, though its worth noting that both Princess Di and Kates fairy-tale wedding dresses featured sleeves and long trains. Markles custom couture could cost anywhere from, at a minimum, $42,000, to 10 times that.
• Mike and Rachels four-tier, pure-white cake is a stunner, if a little stark, decorated with what looks like textured buttercream in a diamond pattern. Harry and Markles lemon elderflower wedding cake will be adorned with fresh flowers.
• Donna Paulsen (played by Sarah Rafferty) and Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) are the only members of Mike and Rachels wedding party on Suits. But we can expect a veritable squad of bridesmaids for Markle—perhaps including friends like stylist Jessica Mulroney, actress Priyanka Chopra, tennis great Serena Williams, and designer Misha Nonoo.Prince George and Princess Charlotte will also have pint-size supporting roles.
• The Archbishop of Canterbury will officiate the royal wedding. Rachel and Mike say their vows in front of a man who may or may not be a rent-a-minister that Donna found on the “Gigs” section of Craigslist.
• Upon her wedding, Markle will likely be named the Duchess of Sussex. Unless Suits Season 8 has some big surprises in store, Rachel remains a non-duchess.
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