Crossword Genius

Wedding attendant from NATO unexpectedly given CBE, say (6,2,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

matron of honour

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'cbe say' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'wedding attendant from nato unexpectedly given' is the wordplay.
'wedding attendant' becomes 'honour' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'unexpectedly' is an anagram indicator.
'given' says to put letters next to each other.
'from'+'nato'='fromnato'
'fromnato' is an anagram of 'matronof'.
'honour' put after 'matronof' is 'MATRON OF HONOUR'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for matron of honour that I've seen before include "Married woman attending bride" , "Bridesmaid" , "Bride's attendant" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app