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Meghan Markle's Friend Janina Gavankar Reveals Sweet Detail of the Royal Wedding Reception

Alexia Fernandez
Updated

Details of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s wedding reception have been kept under tight lock and key, but one close friend of the bride is letting a few details of the lively night slip through.

Janina Gavankar, who attended the royal wedding at St. George’s Chapel, opened up about the magical night to Town & Country, revealing the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex honored their backgrounds by having each table at the reception named for a food that is said differently in America and in the United Kingdom.

“Potato, potato, tomato, tomato, oregano, oregano,” Gavankar said, listing a few examples. “It was so sweet. There were so many nods to the beautiful mashup of two cultures.”

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The actress also revealed what made the guests sitting closest to the bride and groom try to stifle laughs throughout the ceremony.

Janina Gavankar
Janina Gavankar

“One thing that made many of us giggle was that we could hear the wonderful people outside,” she said. “When the vows were happening, they would cheer, and we could hear them. It was a very quiet chapel. We all followed the Queen’s lead.”

She added, “But we could hear everyone cheer and it was so heartwarming. Really, it filled our hearts.”

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

While 600 guests attended the ceremony in the chapel, and thousands more converged at Windsor Castle to catch a glimpse of the newlyweds during their carriage procession, Gavankar said the ceremony was “actually quite small.”

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“There were only a few of us in there,” Gavankar said, referencing the chapel’s quire, where members of the royal family and several Hollywood A-listers were seated.

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“So in many ways, it felt like a small wedding. If you were in the chapel, it felt like a small wedding because we didn’t see Meghan’s massive walk up the church aisle that preceded the [quire],” she said.

“It felt like we were just right there with her, with both of them,” Gavankar added.

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