The Sweet and (Sort of) Relatable Ways Royal Couples Have Met

Back in the days when the pool of potential royal mates was much smaller, it was common for the young princes and princesses to know their future spouses from a young age. Eight-year-old Princess Elizabeth and 13-year-old Prince Philip both attended the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece (Philip's cousin) and the Duke of Kent (Elizabeth's uncle) in 1934, but it wasn't until they met properly five years later that they struck up a rapport.

When King George VI visited Dartmouth College in 1939, Prince Philip (standing second from right) was a young cadet, and he was enlisted to entertain Elizabeth (third from left) and her sister, Margaret. The princesses' nanny, Marion Crawford, later revealed in her memoirs that Elizabeth and Philip knelt beside each other playing with a train set before he said, "Let's go to the tennis courts and have some real fun jumping the nets." The 13-year-old princess remarked to her nanny, "How good he is . . . how high he can jump."

Anne met her second husband when he worked as an equerry to the queen in the 1980s and while her first marriage was ending. Their relationship was brought to the public's attention when letters written from Timothy to Anne were stolen in 1989. They married three years later.

Edward and Sophie apparently first met in 1987 while she was working as a press officer at Capital Radio and he was dating one of her friends. They crossed paths again at a charity tennis match in 1993, and their romance started then. No doubt mindful of his three older siblings' speedy courtships that all ended in divorce, Edward waited six years before getting married.

These two met early in their first year at St. Andrews University in 2001, and Kate recounted to William in their engagement interview, "Well, I actually think I went bright red when I met you and sort of scuttled off, feeling very shy." She added, "Actually, William wasn't there for quite a bit of the time initially. He wasn't there for Freshers Week, so it did take a bit of time for us to get to know each other, but we did become very close friends from quite early on." William revealed, "We were friends for over a year first, and it just sort of blossomed from then on."

Ten years and two breakups later, they were married, and they will celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary in 2018.

William and Harry's cousin Peter met his future wife at the suitably luxe 2003 Montreal Grand Prix, when Peter was working for BMW and Autumn was an event organizer. They later spoke about their initial meeting, and Peter recalled the moment he first laid eyes on Autumn as she stood next to one of her girlfriends. "I had to ask one of my colleagues what she was called. He asked me which of the two girls I meant, and when I said. 'The really good-looking one,' he told me she was Megan."

When Peter then approached Autumn and called her by the wrong name, he said he wished "the ground would open and swallow me whole." Meanwhile, Autumn revealed, "When Peter smiled at me, I thought, 'Okayyyy! I'll definitely meet you at the party.'" They married five years later.

Zara has her cousin Prince Harry to thank for fixing her up with her now husband. Harry was already friends with rugby player Mike Tindall, and they were all in Sydney, Australia, in 2003 for the Rugby World Cup. Mike had been dropped from the squad and was drowning his sorrows in the Manly Wharf Bar when Harry acted as Cupid and introduced him to Zara. After being together for eight years, they married in 2011.

The couple of seven years were first introduced by mutual friends when they were skiing at the Swiss resort of Verbier. There were rumors that they got engaged last year when Eugenie was seen with a ring on the third finger of her left hand, but with still no announcement, it looks like wedding bells are not in the couple's immediate future.

Mystery still surrounds who acted as royal matchmaker for these two, but the couple were set up on a blind date in the Spring of 2016 by one of their mutual friends. Harry revealed in their engagement interview that for him it was love at first sight. The pair knew they had a future together after just two dates and booked a five-day vacation to Botswana. Eighteen globetrotting months later, they announced their engagement.