Your trusted source

A private collection of behind-the-scenes photographs from the royal wedding of Charles and Diana is due to go on sale at auction, 34 years after the images were captured, according to the Guardian.

The 12 candid photos are from the wedding reception, held at Buckingham Palace on 29 July 1981, following the ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The photographs – seven black and white, five in colour – originate from the collection of an assistant to the English photographer Patrick Lichfield, later Lord Lichfield, according to auctioneers.

Six of the larger photos depict Diana wearing her wedding dress with members of her family and wedding party, including the Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Princess Margaret and Prince Andrew.

Some of the images show the bride holding the five-year-old Clementine Hambro, her youngest bridesmaid, while another shows the royal couple on the Buckingham Palace balcony overlooking the crowds gathered on the Mall below.

The set, due to go under the hammer in the US in September, is accompanied by a detailed letter of provenance identifying the subjects in each photograph and offering further specifics from the assistant to Lichfield, the only photographer allowed to take informal images of the royal family and their guests when they returned to Buckingham Palace.

The Remarkable Rarities live auction event from RR Auction is scheduled to be held in Boston, Massachusetts, on 24 September 2015. Auction spokesman Bobby Livingston said: “These never-before-seen photographs capture the candid and unrehearsed moments of the fairytale wedding.”