Here's a very special wedding gift which Meghan Markle's dad will get from the Royal family
Even though the relationship that Meghan Markle and her father, Thomas Markle, share is not the best one, he might be ready to receive a gift for her wedding.
So far, neither Meghan, whose wedding with Prince Harry is set to take place on May 19, 2018, nor Harry has said anything about it, but the tradition suggests that Thomas will get a family coat of arms.
According to People, that present is given to the father of the bride-to-be just a couple of days before the royal wedding takes place. The design is customized with colors and symbols that represent the family.
Kensington Palace and the College of Arms have not commented on the coat of arms either, but it is a tradition that the Royal family is not willing to break.
One of the most recent and famous coats of arms that the father of a Royal bride received was given to Michael Middleton, the father of Duchess Kate Middleton, just over a week before the ceremony.
That one featured three acorns, which represented the family’s three children — Kate, Pippa and James — and a gold stripe across the middle in honor of Kate’s mother, Carole, whose maiden name is Goldsmith.
Two years later, Prince William and Kate got their own conjugal coat of arms, which featured a gold lion and a white unicorn on both sides of it and a small gold lion on top.
The same is expected to happen with Harry and Meghan, which means that they would get their coat of arms a few years after the wedding.
Thomas Woodcock, the Garter Principal King of Arms of the College of Arms, said that heraldry is the oldest, most visual, and most strictly regulated form of identity in Europe as it gives a clue of people’s surroundings and history.
‘Every Coat of Arms has been designed to identify a person, school or organization, and is to last forever.’
Thomas Woodcock, People, March 27, 2018.