While most couples preparing to say “I do” face their own share of challenges in planning a wedding, but what happens when the big day is shared by a somewhat famous pair?
While royal enthusiasts rushed to set their DVRs after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced they would wed on May 19, couples planning to say "I do" on the same day had a different reaction.
"They really stole our day," Penelope Yates told InsideEdition.com with a laugh.
Yates and her fiancé, Andrew Kopping, 31, are among those tying the knot on May 19, when the world over will likely be tuning in to the royal nuptials.
“You know, our timeline was ahead of Meghan and Harry’s," Yates added.
But the couple plans to have fun with the coincidence, and are considering working the royal coincidence into their wedding hashtag.
“I could see how some brides and grooms, when faced with having to 'share' their date, would feel put out, but I think it adds to the specialness," Yates said. "I think they picked a great day and I hope it’s auspicious ... we very much feel our day is our day, and the more love going out, the better."
Alyssa Fahy and Breckan Fisher also plan to include nods, ever so subtle, to Harry and Meghan on what will also be their big day. Fahy and Fisher intend to gift commemorative glasses to partygoers, drawing inspiration for what will sure be the onslaught of collectible items sold around the time of the royal wedding.
"I'm in Texas and we like our mason jars," Fahy, 22, told InsideEdition.com. "So it will still be a little touch of us."
While most couples preparing to say “I do” face their own share of challenges in planning a wedding, what happens when the big day is shared by such a famous pair?
“We decided on the 19th because we didn’t want to do Mother’s Day," Yates, 30, who is getting married in Nashville, Tenn., said. “Then I started getting text messages and emails from people: ‘Did you know the royal wedding is May 19?’”
Like Yates, Emily Steele and her fiancé Colin chose May 19 because of other celebrations this month.
"We knew we wanted to do spring," Steele said. "A couple of other people [we knew] were picking Cinco de Mayo, then there was Mother’s Day and Memorial Day ... We said, 'OK, we'll do the 19th.'"
The Virginia couple first learned they would forever share their day with Harry and Meghan from Steele’s grandmother.
“I knew they had gotten engaged and she’s beautiful and he’s handsome, and I had actually said, ‘Colin, that would be cool if they got married around the same time,'" Steele said. "And then grandma texted me!"
May 19 had long held a special place in the hearts of Fahy and Fisher, who will have a brunch wedding.
“I met my fiancé six years ago at church. I fell in love with him and I was too nervous to tell him I loved him,” Fahy, 22, told InsideEdition.com. “On May 19 in 2013, he wrote me a letter about how much he loved me and cared about me. That was the day I absolutely knew I was going to marry him."
The couple got engaged on Dec. 2, shortly after Meghan and Harry announced they too, were engaged.
"That whole month, all my family was asking me was when we were going to choose the date," Fahy said.
Fahy was hesitant to plan a wedding so close to her May 5 college graduation at first, but she and Fisher knew May 19 was their top choice.
“I come home from Christmas break and I’m telling my family that we chose May 19 — then we find out the royal family chose the same date!" Fahy said.
When Melanie Roscoe, 26, and Joshua Bloomingdale, 29, decided to marry on May 19, they soon realized they would be sharing the date with another couple arguably more important than Meghan and Harry could ever be: Roscoe’s parents.
"That was when they got married, too," she told InsideEdition.com. “That wasn’t the plan, but it’s nice it worked out that way.”
Bloomingdale took to social media after learning yet another couple would also call May 19 theirs.
“I posted on Facebook, 'How the heck am I going to top the royal wedding?'" Bloomingdale said. "I just thought it was pretty funny ... but we're just going to keep it our special day."
Though Erin Russell and Andrew Dewimille’s wedding has been planned with an English tea party theme, the royal wedding has had little influence on the preparation for their big day.
"It’s more amusing than anything," Russell, 23, said. "The strangest comment I’ve heard [from someone] is if they were me, they’d be afraid that people would be on their phones looking at the royal wedding while I'm walking down the aisle.
"If they’re doing that [looking at their phone] at all, then we’ve got a problem," she said with a laugh.
Though the thought of sharing the day with Meghan and Harry has been little more than an amusing side note for most couples planning their wedding for May 19, some couples have found themselves in a quandary because of it.
"We have good family friends who are British — [one of them] is really high in the Royal Marines," Steele said, explaining that they in all likelihood would get an invitation to the royal wedding as well. "He does know Harry... if he got invited, he'd have to go."
But she added, "We know where the real royal wedding is, it’ll be in Virginia!"
For Fahy, the challenge presented was ultimately easier to solve.
"My older sister is a huge fan of the royal family. I mean, huge," Fahy said. "We watched Kate Middleton’s wedding, we had a party at 3 a.m. our time and everything. So my sister looks at me [and says], 'You have to change your date.' I said, 'You’re gonna have to watch the rerun of that.'"
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