Meet William and Kate’s matchmaker

LONDON – Sam Waley-Cohen should allow himself a smug smile at Friday's royal wedding, content that he did more than anyone to ensure the event watched by the world takes place.

Huge teams of workers and planners are laboring around the clock to make sure the big day goes off without a hitch, but if it was not for Waley-Cohen, a 28-year-old horse racing jockey, the marriage wouldn't be happening at all.

Waley-Cohen turned royal matchmaker in 2007 when, after Prince William and Kate Middleton had been split up for several months, he invited both of them to a party he organized at his wealthy family's 400-year-old mansion in Oxfordshire.

At the time it appeared as though the break-up would be permanent. However, William and Kate, who had scarcely seen each other since their split, spent hours locked in conversation and rekindled all of their old feelings.

[ Photos: Kate's see-through dress that started it all ]

Weeks later they were photographed together on a yacht sharing a trip to the Seychelles and it soon emerged that the romance was very much back on.

Waley-Cohen downplayed his role in the royal reconciliation to Yahoo!.

"I don't know for sure if I had anything to do with it," he said with a smile at a recent horse racing event. "They have both been friends of mine for a long time and they make a fantastic couple ... Wherever it happened, I like to think they got back together of their own accord and we are all delighted that they did."

However, a royal source told Yahoo! on Monday that Waley-Cohen's party was a "significant moment" in the couple's relationship. "It set the foundation for the reunion, most certainly," the source said.

While the original split caused much heartache for both William and Kate, they now agree that it was the correct decision and one which helped them gain perspective.

"I wasn't particularly happy about it," said Kate during the pair's engagement interview. "But it made me stronger as a person, and it was a chance to learn some things about myself. It was a chance to center myself."

[ Related: Lady Diana's personal astrologer concerned for Will and Kate ]

"We picked ourselves up and we got things back together and we moved on," added William.

Unsurprisingly, given his status as both friend and matchmaker, Waley-Cohen was saved a prime spot at Westminster Abbey for Friday's wedding ceremony.

It will be another highlight in a remarkable year for the jockey, who secured an upset victory in the King George VI Stakes, one of Britain's most prestigious races, in January.