Updated 14.07 GMT

It has emerged that Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly have accepted around £500,000 ($1m) for a 20-page spread in Hello! magazine in advance of their wedding at Windsor next week. The decision is said to have caused “consternation” among Palace officials.

Peter Phillips and his bride-to-be Canadian Autumn Kelly

A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment last night, but a “senior Royal source” is reported as saying, “This has not gone down well. Peter has always managed to stay out of the limelight by claiming that he is a private person. This rides a coach and horses through that.”

Now we hear that William and Kate will miss the wedding because they are going on holiday for two weeks. That sounds like a deliberately lame excuse coming so late in the day, especially as Kate apparently received her invitation — presumably accepted — many weeks ago.

I suspect the Hello! sellout has a great deal to do with this decision. Senior Royals have always kept clear of the celebrity publicity machine where weddings are auctioned off to the highest bidder.

It’s a shame that the first “Royal” wedding of Prince William and Harry’s generation has been tarnished by this episode. Who else will pull out now?

It seems that Prince Harry will formally present Chelsy Davy to the Queen at Windsor during the wedding weekend. Although she has met Prince Charles and Camilla while staying at Highgrove and at other events, she has never met the Queen. This represents a major upgrade for Chelsy in her relationship with the Royal Family and confirms other reports of the seriousness of the relationship with Harry.

A Buckingham Palace press release gave minimal information about today’s Windsor Christening of Viscount Severn, the Earl and Countess of Wessex’s second child, now four months old.

Viscount Severn with his parents soon after his birth

“The Christening of Viscount Severn will take place at the private chapel at Windsor on 19 April 2008. ”

In a note for editors, the private nature of the occasion is stressed :

This is a private Christening. However, one official photograph, taken by Mr John Swannell, will be released to the media via Camera Press.

The Christening Gown worn by Viscount Severn is a hand-made replica of Queen Victoria’s daughter’s Christening Gown, which was worn at subsequent Royal Christenings and has now been preserved. It is the first time this gown has been worn by a member of the Royal Family and was commissioned by The Queen.

James Alexander Philip Theo, who has the title Viscount Severn and is the Queen’s eighth grandchild, became the first member of the Royal Family to wear a replica of the royal Christening robe.

The new robe was commissioned to preserve the frail original by the Queen herself, and was made by her personal assistant Angela Kelly and the in-house dressmaking team at Buckingham Palace.

Close family members of Edward and Sophie were expected to attend the event including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The couple’s second child was born by caesarean section at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey on December 17, weighing 6lb 2oz.

They have a four-year-old daughter, Lady Louise Windsor. James, the first male grandchild for the Queen and Prince Philip since the birth of Prince Harry 23 years ago, is eighth in line to the throne.

Kate Middleton will go to the Windsor wedding of Peter Phillips, non-Royal grandson of the Queen, and Canadian, Autumn Kelly.

Chelsy Davy — Cinders will not be going to the ball

The ceremony, described as a very small and private occasion, will apparently be held in St. George’s Chapel as originally thought. However, the recent mention of Frogmore House on the Windsor estate perhaps gives a clue to the venue of the reception afterwards.

A disappointment for some is that Chelsy Davy has not been included on the guest list. An insider has told the Mail on Sunday that both Prince Harry and Chelsy are angry at her absence — she was not invited to ski at Klosters either, suggesting some reluctance to accept her on the part of the Royal Family.

[Speculation] Of course if Prince William and Kate Middleton are secretly engaged — as has been suggested in the German press — it would explain Chelsy’s omission. [End of speculation].

The Royal insider comments, “Chelsy has been left off the list for the wedding and all the invitations have gone out now. Peter and his fiancee Autumn sent invites out a few weeks ago for what is going to be a very small and private occasion.

“The explanation being offered is that, at the time, Harry and Chelsy were going through a wobble. But Chelsy sees it as a direct snub and is pretty miffed at not having been invited, especially as Kate plans to go. Chelsy feels like she is often left out of family engagements. She was not invited to ski, which doesn’t bother her because she’d rather go home to Cape Town, but she would like to have been invited to Peter’s wedding. She’s becoming the Royals’ Cinderella.”

If Cinders needs a role model on how to be a Princess-in-waiting, she would do well to take a close look at Kate Middleton.

In the aftermath of the death of Sir Edmund Hillary at the age of 88, the Queen has offered to honour the explorer by holding a special memorial service for his family at Windsor Castle.

Sir Edmund Hillary being honoured by Nepal

New Zealander Sir Edmund was the first man to conquer Mount Everest as part of the British 1953 expedition team. The news of the triumph came through just before the Queen’s Coronation and added considerable sparkle to the beginning of the new Elizabethan Age.

Mount Everest — world’s highest peak

His recent passing has “deeply saddened” the Queen who sent a personal message of condolences from herself and the Duke of Edinburgh to the Hillary family.

The service is expected to be held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on a date to be fixed in April.

Hillary started out as a bee farmer before becoming one of the world’s most famous explorers. He was made a Knight of the Garter, which means the Windsor ceremony will include the “laying up” of his banner in the chapel. His family will meet the Queen personally after the service.

Sir Edmund has been granted the rare honour in his native New Zealand of a State funeral, where the Queen will be represented by the Governor-General of New Zealand.

The service will be held in Auckland next Tuesday and the Queen and the Duke will send a personal wreath to be laid at the lying-in-state before the funeral.