The Church of England was against her second marriage. So how did Princess Anne chart a very practical route to happiness on this day?

Long known as a straightforward, practical kind of woman, Princess Anne found a very practical solution when things got tricky in her second marriage.

Anne was already divorced from her first husband, Captain Mark Philips, when she agreed to marry Timothy Laurence.

But the Church of England did not allow divorced women to remarry. So on this day, December 12, 1992, Anne and Timothy Laurence were married in a small ceremony north of the border at the Scottish Presbyterian Church.

It was a far cry from the splendor of Princess Anne’s 1973 wedding to Mark Philips in Westminster Abbey, the first royal wedding to reach a large television audience – and in colour!

It was less than a month after her absolute decision that Princess Royal and Tim Laurence married at Crathie Kirk, Balmoral.

Sir Tim first reached the heart of royal life in 1986, when he was appointed as the Queen’s Equerry – an official assistant to the royal family.

The couple slowly fell in love and three years later Timothy proposed to Anne with a cabochon sapphire and diamond ring. It was a simple but unique design, perfectly suited to the no-nonsense royal.

The ceremony involved just 30 guests, including her parents, the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, her children Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew.

The wedding also happened to take place just days after Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their legal separation.

For the big day, Princess Anne opted for the traditional wedding dress and instead wore a high-neck dress and a white jacket.

She accessorized the look with black shoes and carried a small bunch of heather for her bouquet, matching the flowers in her hair, styled with her signature beehive.

Sir Timothy was wearing his naval uniform.

Traditional Scottish bagpipes played as the newlyweds left the church for their post-ceremony celebration at Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral estate.

After making the leap from royal servant to royal wife, Sir Tim has now been at the heart of the world’s most famous family for more than 30 years.

As well as accompanying the Queen to engagements, Sir Tim also escorted other royals, such as Princess Diana and the Duchess of York, to locations and events.

His discretion and calm competence quickly won the trust of other royals, with the late Queen and Prince Philip said to have been great admirers.

A connection between the Princess and her future husband was first noticed when Anne invited him to become a trustee of her charity: The Princess Royal’s Charity Trust in 1988.

By this time, her relationship, Mark Philips, had hit the rocks and things seemed to escalate when the existence of a series of letters written by Sir Tim to Anne became public knowledge.

The letters had been stolen from Anne’s briefcase and delivered to The Sun. Instead of publishing them, the newspaper handed them over to the police.

Almost overnight, he went from an unknown member of the Queen’s staff to a potential love interest of the married Princess Royal. The naval officer believed that the saga would spell the end of his career.

It was less than forty years ago that King George VI’s married Equerry, Peter Townsend, had seen his own career come to a virtual standstill when it emerged that he and Princess Margaret were in love.

However, times had changed.

Within days of the letter’s publication, the Queen showed her support for Sir Tim by having him at her side at public meetings.

However, it was said that Prince Philip had been less forgiving and had been angry that a servant of the Queen had acted this way with his married daughter.

But that didn’t stop Sir Tim’s romance with Anne from blossoming as her marriage to Phillips ended.

The couple announced their separation at the end of August 1989 and in April 1992 the Palace announced that Anne had filed for divorce.

Anne and Sir Tim went public with their romance in May 1992, a fortnight after her divorce was finalized. The couple took to the floor together at the Royal Caledonian Ball in London for a series of dances.

Their wedding later that year provided a happy ending to what the Queen had described as her ‘annus horribilis’.

Princess Anne and Sir Timothy now live together at the Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire.

Anne’s two children from her first marriage, Peter Philips and Zara Tindall, also live on the estate with their respective partners and children.