Thanks, Grandma: Prince William Explains How the Queen Helped Plan His Wedding

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Queen Elizabeth II arrives to attend the Royal Wedding after advising her grandson on the day's finer details.

When Queen Elizabeth II offers her advice, don’t you even think about ignoring it.

Prince William has revealed how his grandmother (hint: she’s more famous than yours or ours) helped him when it came to the all important wedding guest list.

(PHOTOS: The Royal Wedding)

We’ve all been there: close friends and family get the instant nod but should Auntie Doris, who we only met once, at that oh so awkward family reunion (thanks again for that, mom) get invited? If only we had HRH to turn to.

A new book, Our Queen, which has been excerpted in the Daily Mail, has a glorious anecdote, whereby the 29-year 0ld remembers being given a list of no less than 777 names of people expecting to get a precious invite to the April 29 wedding between him and Kate Middleton. Sounds pretty daunting, especially when that number, to most of us, only seems like a type of aircraft.

What did William do? He called the Queen for her take, of course. “I rang her up and said ‘Do we need to be doing this?’ ” William said. “And she said, ‘No. Start with your friends first and then go from there.’ And she told me to bin the list.”

Brutal but fair, no? And to give HRH her due, she didn’t play favorites, even telling her beloved grandson that he should suck up the suggestion that he wear the scarlet Irish Guards uniform and put it on, even if it arguably wasn’t his first choice of clothing. “So you don’t always get what you want,” he recalled, “put it that way.”

Our Queen is out in the U.K. on Oct. 6 and in the U.S. next spring, which will help mark the diamond jubilee of her incredible 60 year reign. And it’s reassuring to see that the bluntness of her opinions hasn’t diminished during that time. (via People)

MORE: 13 Ridiculous Royal Wedding Hats

Glen Levy is an Executive Producer at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @glenjl. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.