announced that the Queen would not attend the wedding ceremony, but would attend the church blessing and host the reception afterwards. The reason stated by the palace was the couple wanted to keep the occasion low key. On 4 April, it was announced that the wedding would be postponed 24 hours until 9 April, so that the Prince of Wales could attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II as the representative of the Queen. The postponement also allowed some of the dignitaries who were invited to the funeral to attend the wedding. In keeping with tradition, the Prince of Wales spent the night apart from his bride-to-be at Highgrove House, his country home in Gloucestershire, with his sons Princes William and Harry, while Camilla remained at Clarence House. Wedding and Service of Prayer and Dedication The wedding took place at the Windsor Guildhall at 12.30 pm BST (11:30 UTC) on Saturday 9 April 2005. Crowds had gathered on the streets since dawn ahead of the service. The ceremony was attended by senior members of the royal family apart from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. After the wedding, the couple's witnesses were Prince William of Wales and Tom Parker Bowles, sons of the groom and bride respectively. In keeping with tradition, the couple's wedding rings are crafted from 22 carat Welsh gold from the Clogau St David's mine in Bontddu. The tradition of using Clogau Gold within the wedding rings of the Royal Family dates back to 1923. The design of the wedding rings is by Wartski, a London jeweller that has held the Royal Warrant to the Prince of Wales since 1979. The prince wears his on the small finger of his left hand. The civil wedding was followed by a televised blessing, officially termed a Service of Prayer and Dedication by both the Prince of Wales's office and the press. in the afternoon at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. This was attended by 800 guests and all the senior members of the royal family, including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, and led by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. During this ceremony Charles and Camilla joined the congregation in reading "the strongest act of penitence from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer", widely quoted in press reports of the wedding:We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time,