Royal wedding

Mounted police hold the crowds back along the Mall in the run-up to the royal wedding on July 29 1981. The summer haze and overwhelming surge of human traffic conspire to give the picture a dream-like, Impressionistic quality; the last gasp of Empire, played out in the noon-day sun. Photograph: Terry Fincher/Getty

Diana in isolation, posed against a black backdrop in a wedding dress designed by Elizabeth Emanuel. But the wide-angle lens breaks us out of the frame, taking in the upholstered walls and the gold-edged skirting-board and subtly highlighting the stage-management behind the fairtyale. Photograph: PA

At the altar in a ceremony that watched by an estimated television audience of one billion. That epic train presumably extends clear out of the doors and all the way to Ludgate Hill. Photograph: Getty

The deed is done. Diana and Charles exit St Paul's to face the music after exchanging their wedding vows. Photograph: PA

The newlyweds pucker up for the masses on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. It might not be history's most impulsive - or even most passionate - kiss, but it was to become the defining image of the day. Diana closes in for the kill with a graceful arch of the neck. Charles, by contrast, looks ambushed and ill-at-ease. Photograph: Bettman/Corbis

Marking the day with a commemorative stamp, the Royal Mail opted to pass over the balcony kiss in favour of this rather more stiff and formal affair. Freudian analysts could have a field day decoding the significance of Charles's body-less mother, watching over the happy couple from the top right-hand corner. Photograph: AP