--- title: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s Wedding Officiant Has Jokes description: The Archbishop of Canterbury is understandably nervous about the big day—particularly because he’s had a mishap or two in the past. canonical: https://time.com/5205284/meghan-markle-prince-harry-officiant/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-19T14:14:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:28.366Z og:title: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Officiant Has Decent Jokes og:description: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has had a mishap or two in the past og:url: https://time.com/5205284/meghan-markle-prince-harry-officiant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b655796aafb76a/6988f4cfcf40a895d9c4a922/gettyimages-880232960.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Prince Harry Meghan Markle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Officiant Has Decent Jokes twitter:description: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has had a mishap or two in the past twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b655796aafb76a/6988f4cfcf40a895d9c4a922/gettyimages-880232960.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Wedding Officiant Has Some Decent Jokes About the Big Day > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Oliivia Bahou / InStyle](https://time.com/author/instyle/) ## Oliivia Bahou / InStyle Contributor Mar 19, 2018 2:14 PM UTC  Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement at Kensington Palace on Nov. 27, 2017 in London Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement at Kensington Palace on Nov. 27, 2017 in London Chris Jackson—Getty Images by [Oliivia Bahou / InStyle](https://time.com/author/instyle/) ## Oliivia Bahou / InStyle Contributor Mar 19, 2018 2:14 PM UTC Meghan Markle likely has some nerves leading up to her televised wedding day, but there’s another person who might even be more anxious than the bride-to-be: her officiant. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will be marrying the couple on May 19, and he’s understandably nervous about the big day—particularly because he’s had a mishap or two in the past. “Unlike recent weddings I must not drop the ring and I must not forget to get the vows in the right order as I did at the rehearsal for one of my children’s weddings,” he joked in a new interview with [ITV](http://www.itv.com/news/2018-03-16/archbishop-of-canterbury-on-meghan-markles-moving-baptism-and-preparing-for-the-royal-wedding/). Considering the fact that the royal wedding will be broadcast around the globe, the stakes are a little bit higher on this one. > [](https://twitter.com/itvnews/status/974629742832955399) But despite the attention, the Archbishop is calming his nerves by keeping his attention focused on Meghan and Harry. “You just focus on the couple. It’s their day,” he said. “At the heart of it is two people who have fallen in love with each other, who have committed their lives to each other with the most beautiful words and profound thoughts.” Welby already has a strong relationship with the couple, having met with them a number of times leading up to their wedding day, and he was even given the “great privilege” of [baptizing](http://www.instyle.com/news/meghan-markle-baptized-church-of-england) Markle into the Church of England earlier this month. [**_Read More: The First Trailer for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Lifetime Movie Is Here_**](http://www.instyle.com/syndication/lifetime-first-trailer-meghan-markle-prince-harry-tv-movie) “It was very special. It was beautiful, sincere, and very moving,” he said of the private ceremony where he baptized the future royal. Now she’s one step closer to becoming Prince Harry’s wife. _This_ [_article_](http://www.instyle.com/news/meghan-markle-prince-harry-wedding-officiant-dropped-ring) _originally appeared on_ [_InStyle.com_](http://instyle.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5205284/meghan-markle-prince-harry-officiant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5205284/meghan-markle-prince-harry-officiant/"},"headline":"Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Wedding Officiant Has Some Decent Jokes About the Big Day","datePublished":"2018-03-19T14:14:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:28.366Z","description":"The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has had a mishap or two in the past","url":"https://time.com/5205284/meghan-markle-prince-harry-officiant/","keywords":["Newsfeed","royals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b655796aafb76a/6988f4cfcf40a895d9c4a922/gettyimages-880232960.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Oliivia Bahou / InStyle"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt64b655796aafb76a/6988f4cfcf40a895d9c4a922/gettyimages-880232960.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Prince Harry Meghan Markle","caption":"Prince Harry Meghan Markle","creditText":"Chris Jackson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5205284/meghan-markle-prince-harry-officiant/","name":"Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Wedding Officiant Has Some Decent Jokes About the Big Day"}}]}] ```