Princess Mary's best friend Amber Petty on what it's like to be a royal bridesmaid

Princess Mary’s best friend Amber Petty has shared a candid account of what it was like to be a bridesmaid in her royal wedding - and the "grief" of knowing their friendship would be forever changed.
 
When Hobart real estate agent Mary Donaldson wed Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in 2004, Petty was one of three bridesmaids who found themselves in the spotlight of the world’s media.
 
Speaking to News Corp’s Stellar magazine, the former columnist and radio host admits it was an intimidating experience that left her feeling "empty" for a while afterwards.

Petty explains that while she’d hoped to be asked to be part of Mary’s wedding, she was initially worried that royal protocol wouldn’t allow it as she wasn’t a family member. 

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However, five months out from Mary and Frederik’s nuptials - held at Copenhagen Cathedral - Petty had the honour of being asked to join the bridal party.

Arriving in the Danish capital two weeks before the wedding, Petty describes feeling like “a lost bogan extra in a beautiful European film” amid the royal preparations.

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“People may imagine that big royal events go like clockwork. They do not,” she told the Daily Mail in 2017.

“There was a moment of panic when, as the bride’s veil was being fitted, her tiara broke. An aide was bundled into a taxi and sent hurrying to the jeweller’s.”