Wedding, or royal headache?

Any wedding is a tough task to organise but the April nuptials of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are proving to be a larger headache than normal for his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

The courting divorcees had to scrap an initial plan to tie the knot at Windsor Castle, one of the queen's official residences just outside London, after it was discovered that the venue had no licence to hold a civil ceremony.

Licensing the palace for a civil wedding was deemed to be too much trouble -- it would have also made the venue "regularly available", for three years, to other British couples who want to marry there -- so the pair opted for Windsor's much smaller town hall down the road.

The new venue, the Guildhall, is a handsome late 17th-century building in the centre of Windsor, which will offer royal-watchers the chance to glimpse the couple before and after they say their vows on April 8 -- wrecking any hopes of keeping the marriage a totally private affair.

In addition, 56-year-old Charles will likely have to re-think his wedding invitation list, which was reported to comprise of some 700 names, as the largest room in the Guildhall can only hold 100 people.

He also may have to welcome mere commoners after his office acknowledged that the event must be open to the public free of charge.

"Yes, that is our understanding, that according to the law, members of the public will have to be allowed to the civil ceremony," said a spokeswoman at Clarence House, the heir to the throne's London residence. She said: "There are a lot of security implications with this wedding."