LONDON, April 4 -- Prince Charles's wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles has been postponed a day to avoid conflicting with the funeral of Pope John Paul II.
The wedding will now be held Saturday in Windsor, west of London, Buckingham Palace announced Monday.
Charles will represent Queen Elizabeth II at the funeral, the palace said.
Paddy Harverson, the official spokesman for the prince's Clarence House office, said Charles felt that switching the date was "absolutely the right thing to do."
Charles and Parker Bowles made the decision to move the wedding after he cut short his Swiss skiing holiday Monday. Charles returned to London where he and his fiancee attended an afternoon memorial service for the pope at Westminster Cathedral. Parker Bowles will not accompany the prince to the pope's funeral.
The couple's major ceremonial occasion, a service of blessing, had been set for Friday. They plan to marry in a civil ceremony in the town hall at Windsor, followed by the blessing in the chapel of Windsor Castle and a reception in the royal residence.
Charles's office did not immediately announce the time of Saturday's wedding. But royal watchers speculated it would be in the morning so as not to disrupt plans of other couples scheduled to marry at the Windsor town hall on Saturday afternoon.
