Gallery: When Princess Diana Was a Lady

Prince Charles invited Lady Diana to visit Balmoral in early September 1980. The press spotted the new girl with Charles and a few days after Diana returned home they tracked her down at her job as a nursery school assistant at the Young England kindergarten. Diana agreed to pose for pictures since the attentions of the press were frightening the children.

The British press declared open season on Diana as the romance developed. She was polite and friendly to the press and they all fell for her. Despite that, the press stalked her from the moment she left her flat in the morning. Diana developed several ruses for avoiding them, one of which was taking a black London taxi that was hard to follow. She sometimes eluded her press "tails" by driving to her grandmother's flat on the way to Buckingham Palace.

No engagement announced, but Vogue wanted a portrait of the newly-famous girl. Diana chose this pink blouse from a rack at the Vogue offices and liked it so much that she later contacted the designers, Elizabeth and David Emanuel.

On February 24, 1981 Prince Charles and Lady Diana welcomed photographers for the first time. The photo call in the gardens of Buckingham Palace showed the large sapphire and diamond ring Diana had chosen from a tray of rings sent to the palace by Garrard's. She later told Andrew Morton it reminded her of her mother's engagement ring. Diana thought she looked plump in these photos and put herself on a crash diet, which began her struggles with bulimia.

On March 9, 1981 the couple attended a charity event at Goldsmiths' Hall in London. In an attempt to look older than her nineteen years, Lady Diana ordered a black taffeta dress from the Emanuels. The dress caused a stir, both for the color (the royal family only wore black for mourning) and the deep decolletage. A society wag saw the revealing photos and quipped, "Isn't that a tasty dish to set before a king?"

The Princess of Monaco did a reading at the charity event. Diana was overwhelmed by the photographers and pressure at her first public event with Prince Charles, and retired to the Ladies Room for a weepy break. Princess Grace went with her and comforted her saying, "Don't worry. It will get much worse."

After a meeting with the Privy Council where Prince Charles was officially permitted to marry Lady Diana Spencer, Queen Elizabeth posed as proud monarch and mother with Charles and Diana. Diana had known The Queen since her own early childhood on the royal Sandringham estate, and the press happily referred to Diana as "the girl next door".

After the photos with The Queen, Charles and Diana opened a new building near Highgrove, soon to be their country home. A schoolboy in the crowd asked, "May I kiss the hand of my future queen?" Diana agreed, laughing, "You will never live this down."

Still looking very much like a teenager who has been dressed up and bedecked with too-old-for-her jewelry, Diana sat for Lord Snowdon's portrait.

On the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral, Lady Diana turned to acknowledge the roars, "Dian-A, Dian-A", from the crowd. Her wedding dress, designed by the Emanuels, looked like a child's drawing of what a fairytale princess would wear, with a full skirt and a long train. Just 20, Diana was still innocent and romantic.