• The royal family spends Christmas at the Queen's estate in Norfolk.
• They have a black-tie dinner Christmas Eve, then exchange gifts at teatime and attend church on Christmas Day.
• The Queen gifts 1,500 Christmas puddings to her staff and security forces.

Christmas is around the corner, and Buckingham Palace is already gearing up for another festive season.

The British royal family has many traditions dating back centuries — particularly around the holidays. With Kate Middleton's pregnancy and Prince Harry's engagement to Meghan Markle, their Christmas is sure to be merrier than ever.

Here's how the royal family celebrates Christmas.

Before Christmas, members of the royal family send out cards to extended family, friends, and British politicians.

The royal family traditionally spends the holiday at Sandringham House, the Queen's estate in Norfolk.

Fiancés aren't usually allowed to join the festivities, but Prince Harry reportedly asked the Queen to make an exception for Meghan Markle this year.

You can read about other times Markle has broken royal protocol here.

• The royal family is known for sticking to their traditions, but that doesn't mean Queen Elizabeth can't make a few exceptions every now and then. 
• Queen Elizabeth breaks royal tradition on Christmas day to enjoy a glass of whiskey with the senior chef on duty. 
• This is the only time the chef goes into the dining room to enjoy a drink with the royal family. 

The British monarchy is notorious for its stickler attitude when it comes to royal protocol—and Queen Elizabeth is no exception. Her Majesty is also a woman who values routine; for example, she only carries cash one day a week and eats the same thing for breakfast every day. When she gets in a festive mood, however, she’s reportedly willing to make one small departure from tradition.

Christmas Day is a busy time in Sandringham House, where the royal family and their staff spend Christmas. But the rules are briefly set aside during Christmas lunch, when the Queen pauses her festivities to give one of her staff members a touching Yuletide gift.

After the meat has been carved, the most senior chef spends a moment with Her Majesty in the dining room—a place exclusively reserved for the royal family, former royal chef Darren McGrady revealed. That’s not the only time the royal family has broken their own protocol, either.

“Right before the Christmas buffet, the senior chef on duty goes into the dining room and carves the rib roast or turkey or ham and once he’s done, Her Majesty presents the chef with a glass of whiskey and they toast,” McGrady told the Mirror. “That’s the only time the chef goes into the dining room and has a glass of whiskey with the royal family. It’s one of the chef’s favorite traditions.”

No surprises there! We recommend snapping a few selfies, too. To join in on this year’s festivities at Sandringham House—in spirit, at least—steal the royal family’s favorite holiday traditions for yourself.

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• Commoners don't have to bow or curtsy to members of the royal family, but royals have to amongst themselves.
• There's an Order of Precedence that dictates who must bow or curtsy to whom.
• Meghan Markle would curtsy to Kate Middleton because she's married to the future king, as well as to "blood princesses" like Beatrice and Eugenie.
• If Prince Harry is with Markle, though, the blood princesses curtsy to her.

It's not just commoners who have to know the correct way to greet a member of the royal family— royals follow a certain protocol as well.

According to the royal family's official website, "There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms."

They may be optional for peasants like us, but these traditional forms — namely, bows and curtsies — are obligatory for members of the royal family.

As a soon-to-be royal, Meghan Markle will have to learn this protocol and curtsy to some of her future relatives.

For example, members of the royal family bow or curtsy to the queen if they're seeing her for the first time that day.

Markle would curtsy to the queen, of course, as well as Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla. Her future brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, would also warrant a curtsy because of William's position as a future king.

When Kate Middleton married Prince William, the queen updated the Order of Precedence and dictated that Middleton should curtsy to "blood princesses"— Princesses Anne, Alexandra, Beatrice, and Eugenie, according to The Telegraph. Because they were born into the royal family and Middleton married into it, they outrank her.

There's one exception: If Prince William is present, that elevates Middleton's ranking and reverses the order, requiring the "blood princesses" to curtsy to her.

These rules will likely apply to Markle, as well.

Markle is marrying into the royal family, so she would curtsy to princesses born into it unless she is with Prince Harry, in which case they would curtsy to her.

Then again, Markle has already shown that she's paving her own way when it comes to stodgy royal protocol. We'll see if she keeps to the "traditional forms" or makes them her own.

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• Queen Elizabeth gifts about 1,500 Christmas puddings to the palace staff.
• She also gives them gift cards.
• Her father and grandfather used to do the same.

Queen Elizabeth has a lot of people on her Christmas shopping list. So to make things easy, she gets them all the same thing.

According to the royal family's official website, the queen pays for 1,500 Christmas puddings to be distributed to her staff in the palaces, including the Court Post Office and the palace police force. Each one comes with a note signed by her and Prince Phillip.

In total, there are about 550 people on that list, which means that each staff member gets three puddings to share with their friends or families.

The pudding tradition began with the queen's grandfather, King George VI. Harrod's used to supply the treats, but the queen switched to more inexpensive Tesco puddings in 1999 and donated her Harrod's loyalty card points to a homeless shelter, according to Express.

In addition to Christmas pudding, royal biographer Brian Hoey wrote on WalesOnline that staff receive gift cards ranging from £28 to £35 (about $37 to $46) depending on how long they've worked at the palace. Staff who have been there for less than a year don't qualify for either item and have to wait until next year to receive them.

After all of the gifts are distributed, the queen enjoys a pudding herself at the royal Christmas celebrations in Sandringham.

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• The royal family opens presents on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day.
• They're known for getting each other cheap gag gifts.
• Prince Harry once reportedly got the queen a shower cap that said "Ain't life a b****" and she loved it.

Christmas with the British royal family involves a black-tie dinner, a church service on Christmas day... and hilarious gag gifts.

The royal family opens presents together at teatime on Christmas Eve at the queen's estate in Sandringham, and they've been known to give each other some ridiculous items over the years.

The quirky tradition makes sense seeing as the royal family has access to everything they could ever want or need. Why bother trying to pick out something tasteful that no one has any use for when you can get something cheap that makes everyone laugh?

At Princess Diana's first Christmas with the royal family, she reportedly wasn't in on the joke and bought everyone cashmere sweaters and mohair scarves to general amusement. 

According to royal biographer Brian Hoey, Prince Harry reportedly gave the queen a shower cap in 2013 that said "Ain't life a b****"— and she loved it.

He also wrote that Princess Anne once got Prince Charles a leather toilet seat that he loves so much he brings it with him while traveling.

And back before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got engaged, Kate Middleton gave him a grow-your-own-girlfriend kit, Katie Nicholl wrote in "Kate: The Future Queen."

So if you're stuck trying to think of what to get someone on your list this year, go for an inexpensive present that will make them chuckle and tell them that's how the royals do it.

The British royal family has some other quirky Christmas traditions, including gifting over 1,500 Christmas puddings to palace staff and dressing up in black tie attire for an intimate family dinner.

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• The Queen of England is constantly traveling, and while her every need is generally taken care of, there's no way to control jet lag.
•  The Queen relies on a bit of barley sugar in the form of candy to get her through all of her traveling. 
• Barley sugar travel sweets only cost about $10, making it an affordable way to combat jet lag. 

Being the Queen of England is hard work. While you may think Queen Elizabeth II, who is 91 years old, can just sit back, relax and enjoy her golden years then you’ve got another thing coming.

The Queen has a wildly packed social calendar, which includes plenty of traveling. Though to her long-haul travel is simply old hat.

According to the Independent, the Queen’s longest trip ever was in 1953 when she traversed more than 44,000-miles across the Commonwealth. Then, she also took along 12 tons of luggage, though we are sure she didn’t carry it all herself.

And the Queen, the Independent reported, is never late to the airport thanks to the fact that her team sends a royal standards ahead of her majesty along with a Travelling Yeoman, who makes a test run to the airport to see just how long the trip will take.

Although her every need is taken care of, right down to her outfits being pre-selected and packed for her, there is one thing her staff cannot control: Jet lag.

But as a lifelong traveler, the Queen has come up with her own jet lag remedy that we all can use. According to the Independent, the Queen relies on a bit of barley sugar in the form of candy to get her through the time differences. She also apparently takes a few unspecified homeopathic remedies.

So could barley sugar really work?

“Carrying out your daily habits like eating and sleeping in line with your new destination's time zone - both en-route and on arrival - helps re-synchronize our body clock to our new environment,” Dr. Nick Knight, specialist interest in lifestyle medicine, told The Telegraph. “What the Queen is doing by having barley sugar is essentially using her body’s sugar metabolic pathways to help adjust her body clock.”

He compared it to adjusting your meals to times that match your destination before you leave. Which, it so happens, has some research behind it.

If you'd like to try Queen’s trick, you can pick up a tin of Simpkins Barley Sugar Travel Sweets for about $10 on Amazon.

And if that doesn't work, consider a few suggestions on how to avoid jet lag from a pilot.

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• Meghan Markle made her first appearance with the rest of the royals on Christmas Day.
• She visited the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Sandringham, Norfolk.
• The Queen spends every year at Sandringham with her family.

Meghan Markle has joined the British royals on their best-known Christmas tradition — a festive church service which the whole family attends.

Markle, arm in arm with fiancé Prince Harry, was photographed outside the Church of St Mary Magdalene, just outside the Queen's estate in Sandringham, Norfolk, where she always spends Christmas.

She walked with Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Also in the party were Prince Charles, who will become Markle's father-in-law when she and Harry marry in May 2018.

It is her first public appearance with other senior royals, and she posed with photographs with the whole group, including the Queen.

Previous generations of princes did not bring their fiancées with them to Sandringham until after they were married, but that precedent was broken this year with Markle's arrival.

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• A photo of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was on display in the Queen's annual Christmas address along with photos of Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and others.
• The Queen also mentioned how she and Prince Phillip are looking forward to welcoming new members into the royal family next year.
• The royal family seems to be thrilled for the happy couple.

In a break from royal protocol, Meghan Markle just spent her first Christmas with her fiance Prince Harry and the rest of the royal family at Sandringham — a privilege usually reserved for spouses.

But that's not the only indicator that Markle is starting to taking her place among the royals.

In the Queen's annual Christmas broadcast, a photo of the Prince Harry and Markle was shown alongside photos of other royals, and the Queen mentioned that she and Prince Phillip look forward to welcoming new members into their family next year.

The broadcast begins with a wide shot of a cozy room in Buckingham Palace decorated for Christmas, including a Christmas tree and garland on the mantle, with the Queen seated at a desk. Photos of the royal family are displayed throughout the room: Prince George and Princess Charlotte, Prince Charles and Camilla, and the Queen and Prince Phillip in their youth and in the present day. 

In the far left corner, another photo can be spotted of Prince Harry and Markle.

In her annual Christmas address, the Queen also alluded to Markle joining the family in the coming year.

"I don't know that anyone had invented the term platinum for a 70th wedding anniversary when I was born. You weren't expected to be around that long," the Queen said in her speech. "Even Prince Phillip has decided it's time to slow down a little, having, as he economically put it, 'done his bit.' But I know his support and unique sense of humor will remain as strong as ever as we enjoy spending time this Christmas with our family and look forward to welcoming new members into it next year."

Prince Harry and Markle's photo being included among members of the royal family and the Queen subtly mentioning their engagement seems to indicate that the royals are thrilled for the happy couple and have embraced Markle as one of their own.

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• Buckingham Palace posted a job listing in December for a new catering chef.
• The position is full-time and pays about $28,000 a year — and even less if you decide to live on-site.
• The chef will prepare food for receptions, state dinners, and staff lunches at Buckingham Palace and other royal residences.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is in search of a new "Demi Chef de Partie" at Buckingham Palace.

Also known as a line cook or station chef in restaurants in the US, the position requires working with a team of staff to prepare large meals at a fast pace, often for catered events.

According to the job listing, Buckingham Palace is offering a salary of about $28,000 a year, plus an employer pension contribution of 15%, daily meals, and 33 vacation days a year. 

That's about $5,000 more than the average salary of a line cook at a restaurant in the US — or $8,300 more than a fast food worker at McDonald's — but the listing says the annual pay will be adjusted if the chef decides to live on-site, though it's not clear by how much. 

While the salary may seem low, what the position lacks in monetary compensation it will likely make up for in experience. 

The listing says an extensive background working as a chef "isn't essential," but qualified candidates will have spent time in a "premier kitchen or volume catering." The new chef will prepare food for receptions, state dinners, and staff lunches at Buckingham Palace and other royal residences.

Ultimately, the Queen is looking for someone with strong communication skills, a passion for food, an eagerness to learn new skills, a clear ability to meet deadlines, and great attention to detail.

That's understandable, considering the Queen is famously particular about her food — no garlic, lots of dark chocolate, and very little red meat, according to an interview with a former Buckingham Palace chef in Town & Country Magazine. 

The public application for the Demi Chef de Partie closed on January 1, but Buckingham Palace is still looking to hire two palace assistants and a handful of seasonal workers for next summer.

With a personal fortune over $500 million, it's unlikely the Queen will ever skimp on staff.

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• According to royal protocol, women must wear hats to all official occasions.
• Hats are part of the "social fabric" of special occasions in British society.
• Women rarely showed their hair in public until the 1950s, and the royal family often maintains old traditions.

For the women of the royal family, no formal look is complete without a hat to top it off.

Royal protocol dictates that women must wear hats to all official occasions. It's a stipulation that dates back to before the 1950s, when women rarely showed their hair in public, according to the BBC.

Times have obviously changed since then — Kate Middleton's hair, for one, seems to always look flawless. But the royal family is often responsible for preserving traditions that have faded out of style in every other context, like curtsying, to set them apart from everyone else.

"There has to be a slight differentiation between the royal family and us regular folk," royal expert Victoria Arbiter told INSIDER. "Not in an arrogant way, but what's the point in the royal family if they are just like us?"

Designer $4,000 fascinators like those Kate Middleton has worn may be out of most commoners' budgets, but wearing hats for fancy occasions isn't exclusive to royals. Hilary Alexander, fashion director at The Daily Telegraph, told ABC News that hats are also "part of the social fabric" of posh events in British society.

"When it comes to a special occasion in British society, the special occasion is not complete without a hat," Alexander said.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's upcoming wedding on April 29 will certainly be full of memorable looks from head to toe, though all eyes will be on the happy couple.

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Queen Elizabeth II can often be spotted in vibrant coats and matching hats. Wearing hats to formal occasions is part of royal protocol, but wearing bright colors is a specialty of the Queen's for a reason. According to her daughter-in-law Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, her penchant for vivid outfits is more than just a fashion statement.

"She needs to stand out for people to be able to say 'I saw the Queen'," she said in the Smithsonian Channel documentary "The Queen at 90.""Don't forget that when she turns up somewhere, the crowds are two, three, four, 10, 15 deep, and someone wants to be able to say they saw a bit of the Queen's hat as she went past."

Here are some of Her Majesty's most dazzling looks that can be spotted from afar.

The Queen wears neon colors to stand out.

Her matching hats make a statement, too.

She wore a festive bright orange to church on Christmas Day this past year.

• Official royal wedding portraits are usually taken in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace.
• Royals also pose for casual pictures outdoors while vacationing or visiting family.
• Here are 20 royal portraits from the 1930s until the present.

Members of the royal family surely have many talents, but if there's one skill they've mastered, it's posing for pictures. Wherever they go, professional photographers and enthusiastic fans with iPhones alike clamor to snap a photo of their every move (though royals aren't allowed to take selfies with members of the public).

From official portraits in Buckingham Palace to informal photocalls while they're on vacation, here are 20 portraits of the royal family from the 1930s until the present.

1936: Britain's Queen Elizabeth, center, poses with her two daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, in the garden of the Royal Lodge at Windsor, England.

1944: Princess Elizabeth celebrates her 18th birthday in the English countryside.

1947: Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Phillip on their wedding day.

• Queen Elizabeth's$550 million networth is primarily from real estate and the government. 
• However, she has made extra money — $9.4 million — by running her horses in races.
• The Queen has long been a lover of horses—she had her first riding lesson when she was just 3 years old.

Queen Elizabeth II is already worth about $550 million, making her the wealthiest monarch in Europe. Most of her net worth comes from property like Balmoral Castle and government money, but one of her hobbies also brings in a pretty penny.

The Queen is a proud lover of horses, but she doesn’t just settle on riding occasionally or watching horse races passively from the stands. She likes to get in on the action, putting her own horses up in competition. Between 1988 and 2017, Her Majesty’s horses ran in 2,815 races and won 451 of those, meaning those thoroughbreds win about 16 percent of the time. With those wins, she raked in more than £6.7 million ($9.4 million), and she’s now claimed a spot as the 11th most successful owner of horses racing on a flat course. Not too shabby! One of her best years was 2016, when her horses earned £557,650 ($784,050). Horses aren’t Queen Elizabeth’s only unique pets—find out why Her Majesty owns so many swans and dolphins.

Her Majesty doesn’t just leave the breeding and training up to her staff, but visits the breeding grounds once a year to keep an eye on her thoroughbreds, Harper’s Bazaar reports. She even takes time every morning to read the Racing Post, a daily newspaper that lists horse racing results and previews.

The Queen had her first riding lesson at just three years old, and she and her sister, Princess Margaret, received their own ponies when she was four—and Her Majesty’s love of everything equine hasn’t dwindled. At 91 years old, Queen Elizabeth can still be seen riding her beloved horses. That said, the money she makes off them is definitely a perk. 

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• Netflix released a new "The Crown" featurette about the Kennedys visiting Buckingham Palace in 1961.
• Jackie Kennedy was called "the Queen of America" by the press.
• In "The Crown,"Queen Elizabeth seems less than thrilled about it.
• The featurette intersperses real footage of their visit with clips from the show's portrayal of events.
• Watch the full video below.

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• On Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth and Anna Wintour sat next to each other at Richard Quinn's London Fashion Week runway show.
• It was the Queen's first time at Fashion Week.
• She attended to give Richard Quinn the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.
• The pictures are iconic and people love them.

On Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth and Anna Wintour sat next to each other at Richard Quinn's London Fashion Week runway show — and the pictures are truly amazing.

In some, they both looked very serious.

In others, the monarch and the fashion editor appeared to share a laugh.

And, of course, they also admired the designer clothing.

The Queen made her first appearance at Fashion Week to honor designer Richard Quinn with the first-ever Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, the AP reported.

According to the Royal Family's Twitter account, the award will be given to a different rising British fashion designer who "shows talent and originality, whilst demonstrating value to the community and/or sustainable policies."

People can't get over the pictures from the fashion show.

"The Queen is sitting next to Anna Wintour at London Fashion Week and all I can say is !!!!" the Daily Mail's Hannah Furness wrote.

People are trying to speculate what the women talked about.

"What I wouldn’t give to have heard her conversations between The Queen and Anna Wintour," Hello! magazine's Laura Benjamin wrote.

Some Twitter users can't get over the fact that Wintour left her sunglasses on while she sat next to the Queen of England at a fashion show that was held inside.

"Anna Wintour is so savage. Sitting next to the Queen and still wearing those sunglasses,"@Shallowdeep wrote.

And although there have been a lot of strange moments during Fashion Week, this is by far the most iconic one yet.

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• Prominent evangelical Christian and Southern Baptist minister Billy Graham has counseled presidents over the years, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.

• Graham got along with some presidents more than others.

• The influential minister was particularly close with Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.

For many, Billy Graham was truly "America's Pastor."

He was certainly one of the most influential American evangelical Christians of the 20th century. He died February 21, 2018 at the age of 99.

The Southern Baptist minister earned this renown thanks to his highly influential preaching. He held massive rallies, and broadcast his sermons using a variety of media, including television, radio, and, eventually, webcasts. His religious zeal and embrace of mass media allowed him to shoot to international prominence in the late 1940s.

Given Graham's fame, it's not surprising that appeared to be a regular presence in the White House over the years. But his circle of connections wasn't limited to the United States. He met with heads of state and prominent individuals from around the world — even Queen Elizabeth II.

During his life, Graham broke boundaries, advocating for Civil Rights, befriending Martin Luther King Jr., and desegregating his "crusades." He also stirred controversy. When taped conversations between Graham and President Richard Nixon were released in 2002 and 2009, it was revealed the minister had made anti-Semitic statements.

Throughout his career, however, Graham exerted influence on the White House and beyond.

Here's a look at his history of rubbing shoulders with some of the most influential people in the world:

SEE ALSO: Evangelist Billy Graham dies at age 99, who went from sermonizing in a swamp to personally preaching to 210 million people worldwide

In 1950, 31-year-old Graham met with Harry Truman to talk about combatting communism in North Korea. But this first presidential encounter didn't end well. Graham shared details of the conversation with the press, and Truman severed their fledgling relationship.

Source: Christian History Institute, "Billy Graham, God's Ambassador: A Celebration of His Life and Ministry"

But Graham got his second chance with Dwight Eisenhower, whom he helped craft an inaugural prayer. During the 1957 Little Rock Crisis, when African American students were prevented from attending Little Rock Central High School, Graham reportedly urged the president to intervene. In later years, the preacher and the president prayed together before the latter's death in 1968.

Source: Politico, Charlotte Observer

Graham didn't just stick to American leaders. In 1955, he met Queen Elizabeth II — an event depicted on the Netflix show "The Crown." He delivered a sermon for her in the royal family's chapel on Easter Sunday. "She is unquestionably one of the best-informed people on world affairs I have ever met," he later wrote in his book "Just As I Am." In 2001, he was given an honorary knighthood.

Source: Telegraph, The Washington Post, "Just As I Am,"The Telegraph

The royal family's most recent Christmas card immediately sparked discussion when it was released last year. Not just about whether Kate Middleton's blue dress and was a sneaky hint about the gender of her third child— but also about Princess Charlotte's uncanny resemblance to her great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. 

The similarities don't end with the Queen, as Charlotte also bears a resemblance to other members of the royal family, such as her mother Kate Middleton and late grandmother Princess Diana. From her facial features to her adorably stylish outfits — here are 15 times Princess Charlotte looked just like her royal relatives.

Perhaps more than anyone else in the royal family, Charlotte most closely resembles Queen Elizabeth II.

The internet was quick to notice when the royal family's 2017 Christmas card was revealed.

Charlotte has always had an uncanny resemblance to the Queen, even when she was a baby.

As babies, they both had the same button nose and wide smile.

Charlotte's resemblance to Queen Elizabeth II is especially noticeable when it comes to her eyes.

The two have the same round, deep-set eyes.

Tea

Cereal

Scrambled eggs

• When you're the Queen of England, the laws of the land don't always apply to you.
• Queen Elizabeth isn't required to pay taxes but she has done so anyway since 1992.
• The Queen is also legally allowed to eat swan, but everyone else in Britain is prohibited from doing so.

She doesn't need a passport

She doesn't need to pay taxes (but she does anyways)

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• Queen Elizabeth recently gave her formal consent for Prince Harry to marry Meghan Markle.
• Some people reportedly wondered whether the Queen had subtly snubbed Markle by using only her name in the official declaration.
• In comparison, the Queen referred to Harry as her "most dearly beloved grandson."
• But according to royal expert and CNN commentator Victoria Arbiter, the wording in such official documents must strictly adhere to custom.
• Markle was referred to only by name because she is not a citizen of a Commonwealth Realm where the Queen is head of state, Arbiter explained to INSIDER.
• Per royal protocol, the Queen will release another declaration soon, and that one will likely include some kind adjectives for Markle.

Queen Elizabeth recently gave her formal consent for Prince Harry to marry Meghan Markle, but her decree spawned some speculation about her true feelings toward the "Suits" star.

People reportedly think that the Queen snubbed Markle in a subtle way.

On Wednesday, the Queen officially consented to Harry and Markle's upcoming wedding during a Privy Council meeting at Buckingham Palace. In her declaration, the Queen referred to Harry as her "most dearly beloved grandson" but did not preface Markle's name with any adjectives. Instead, the actress is simply referred to by her full name: Rachel Meghan Markle.

After news of the declaration broke on Thursday, some people reportedly wondered whether the Queen had subtly snubbed Markle by using only her name.

But that's definitely not the case — and there are several reasons why.

As Hello! explained, the British monarch is required to give her formal blessing to the first six people in line for the throne — Harry is currently fifth — when they wish to marry.

According to royal expert and CNN commentator Victoria Arbiter, the wording in such official documents must strictly adhere to custom and protocol. "In a nutshell, the lack of adjectives before Meghan's name was because she is not a citizen of a Commonwealth Realm where the Queen is head of state," Arbiter explained to INSIDER in an email.

Not to mention, when the Queen gave her formal consent for Prince William to marry Kate Middleton in 2011, her declaration looked almost identical to the one from Wednesday. In that decree, which you can read in full here, the Queen also called William "my most dearly beloved grandson" while only referring to the Duchess of Cambridge by her full name: Catherine Elizabeth Middleton.

"At no point would the Queen use such an opportunity to slight Meghan," Arbiter told INSIDER. "[She] has indicated her approval of Meghan in a number of different ways," Arbiter added. "There is no scandal here."

The Queen will release another declaration soon, and that one will likely include some kind adjectives for Markle.

About a week before Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding in 2011, the Queen released an official Instrument of Consent for the couple, as seen below. In that decree, as Elle pointed out, the Queen added a few flourishes before her granddaughter-in-law's name, describing the Duchess of Cambridge as "our trusty and well-beloved Catherine Elizabeth Middleton"

Per royal protocol, it's likely that Prince Harry and Markle can expect to receive a similarly personalized note — although they may have to wait a little longer. The two are set to marry on May 19 at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, so their Instrument of Consent may not come until early that month.

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