Category: Royal Wedding

The Wedding Day!

Wedding dress designer – Sarah Burton

Blogger “Boy Meets Fashion’s” on-the-ground video of balcony kiss and fly past can be seen here
Newlyweds leave Palace in Prince Charles’s Aston Martin
Watch the video

All about the cake

All about the tiara

The Secrets Behind Kate’s hairdo revealed
Gorgeous photos of the wedding can be seen here
You’ll find video of the wedding highlights here
and photos of the reception here

Recipe for William’s Groom’s Cake

Wedding Central

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!

 

Parents host pre-wedding gala at Mandarin Oriental
This is what happiness looks like
(OMG, I’m actually tearing up already)

The Ceremony – minute by minute

The full guest list

Today’s last minute rehearsals in pictures and

The coach that will carry Wills and Kate after the wedding

Ceremony to include music by composer Paul Mealor

Listen to selections from the wedding music

Recessional music revealed – take a listen

 

A peek inside Kate’s suite at The Goring

An essential guide to the RW

Chelsy Davy to wear TWO Ferretti’s

Ellie Goulding to perform at reception

Details about the Royal after party at the Palace

Dame Edna gives Piers Morgan some Royal insights

Download Will and Kate masks here

Westminster Abbey, Royal Connections

Westminster Abbey was founded in 960 and is the tallest medieval church in the country, reaching 102ft at the highest point of the nave; and its facade is the tallest of any English church, at 225ft. As the site of coronations since William the Conqueror in 1066, Westminster Abbey is closely associated with royalty throughout history.  According to the Abbey’s website, it has also been the venue for fifteen royal weddings, about to be sixteen.  And since we love nothing more than tickling our “Fun with Wills and Kate” itch, here are some spectacular pictures of royal weddings at the Abbey from the past.
On November 20, 1947, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) married Prince Philip of Greece, who was made Duke of Edinburgh. They were the tenth royal couple to marry at the Abbey. Their wedding was broadcast by radio to the world. Rationing was still in effect and wartime austerity continued, so the wedding was a time for great national celebration.


In 2007, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at a special ceremony in the Abbey.  She is the first ever English monarch to achieve a diamond wedding celebration. in 2012, the Queen will observe her Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

The Queen’s sister Princess Margaret Rose (1930-2002) wed Anthony Armstrong-Jones in the Abbey on May 6, 1960.  After two children, their marriage ended in divorce in 1978.

The Queen’s only daughter, Anne, Princess Royal, married  Captain Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey on November 14, 1973.  They have two children.


After divorcing Phillips in 1992, Anne married Timothy Laurence, in Scotland on December 12, 1992.

Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson on July 1986, They became the duke and duchess of York. They have two daughters, but separated in 1992 and divorced four years later.


We are awaiting the big day on Friday, April 29, for the next royal wedding at Westminster Abbey.

This Friday, the Abbey’s 10 bells will ring out as William and Kate leave the royal wedding service. Westminster Abbey’s bells only give a full peal on important royal or national occasions. It was sounded on the day of the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday – August 4 2001 – and rung half muffled less than a year later after her funeral on April 9 2002. The 50th anniversary of the Second World War milestone V-E Day was commemorated by the bells in May 1995. Note: A full peal features a minimum of 5,000 different changes (or sequences) and lasts more than three hours.
Watch an interview with the royal florists, who will be creating an Avenue of Trees within the Abbey and using flowers from Windsor Great Park.
Read the latest story on how florists are currently transforming the Abbey into a Fairytale Forest.

Royal Wedding Weekend Getaway Plans

Not content to settle for an extra Bank Holiday and late openings for pubs on the Royal Wedding Day (RWD), airlines and hoteliers are offering extended getaway specials themed around the Big Day.  British Airways is offering Royal Wedding weekend packages and London hotels have been raising their room rates over the weekend accordingly, but really, anyone can book a BA flight or a room at the Savoy, no matter how inflated the cost. So, we’ve rounded up some unique options for the big RWD, each with its own twist on the festivities and all far away from the madding RWD crowds. Book early!
Why not book yourself into the Celtic Manor Resort, where they’ll be throwing a RWD Street party? Their website invites us to “join (them) to celebrate the Royal Wedding in the most traditional British way, with a spectacular outdoor ‘street party’ with live entertainment and big screens to watch the wedding celebrations, in the glorious surroundings of the Rooftop Garden. Immerse yourself in nostalgia with Union Jack bunting and trestle tables laden with tasty treats including jam sandwiches, homemade pork pies, Scotch eggs and sausage rolls, along with favourites such as Victoria sponge, fondant fancies, trifle and of course, traditional wedding cake.” This Five Star Welsh resort features award winning dining, the Forum Spa and was home to the 2010 Ryder Cup.

Forget the RWD, The Castle Hotel in Taunton, Somerset, is offering a Royal Honeymoon package to die for – it includes penthouse accommodation, a private butler, massage, flowers, wine and . . . a throne. I’ve stayed here and it’s just lovely. Of course, I didn’t have a butler. Or a massage. But it was still lovely.


Personally, the offer from the Ambassador Bed and Breakfast in Brighton sounds like a hoot – book into the gay friendly hotel for a minimum of 3 nights over the Royal Wedding weekend and you’ll be invited – at no extra cost – to join  them at a garden party where you’ll watch the wedding and be treated to a free buffet lunch, afternoon tea and wedding cake.

Even Grand Rapids, Michigan is getting in on the weekend wedding getaway deals, which isn’t as far fetched as it seems once you realize that the exhibit, “Diana – A Celebration” will be in town over that weekend, with items on loan from the Spencer family.

And lastly, if you want to do the Royal Wedding in royal style stateside, The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago has announced the “Trump Royal Wedding Experience” where guests will watch the televised version of the Royal Wedding during an exclusive breakfast at the Michelin three-star restaurant Here’s the description from the official press release: “After a night of ultimate comfort in a newly renovated guest room designed by Ivanka Trump, guests will descend to Jean Georges for an exclusive breakfast in the restaurant’s main dining room starting at 5 a.m. A special tasting menu fit for a prince or princess will include selections like scrambled eggs with caviar, mini-French toast, and pains au chocolat. Guests will toast the royal couple with sparkling mimosas as they watch the Royal Wedding on monitors strategically placed around the dining room. The breakfast event will conclude by 9 a.m., at which time guests may choose to hit the town or return to their rooms for a nap. A 4 p.m. late checkout is guaranteed. As a memento of the occasion, each guest will receive a piece of official Royal Wedding china commissioned by The Royal Collection.”  What, no massage?

The Royal Wedding on the Telly

With just 90-something days to go till the Wedding of the Year/Decade, you can bet that news outlets and television stations on both sides of the pond, and elsewhere, are plotting their strategies and schedules for the weeks and days leading up to the big event at 11 a.m. on April 29th. So far, TLC is the only channel that’s given out any information on their royal line up – during the five days leading up to royal wedding, TLC said on Wednesday that it will air specials featuring archived and other footage, interviews and a round-table discussion with experts on royalty. The U.K.-themed week, in partnership with ITV Studios, also will include a show focusing on both British and American hoarders and “extreme” collectors of royal memorabilia. One hopes they’ll focus on the lady featured in our right sidebar and not on, er, one.

TLC also plans live coverage of the wedding, with a condensed version of the event set to air April 30-May 1. But you won’t have to wait till April – beginning next month, TLC will show “The Queen,” a new two-hour special that explores romance, weddings and divorce among members of Queen Elizabeth II’s family. The special will air Feb. 13 (9 p.m. EST). The program will be preceded by repeats of two specials about William and his fiancee: “William and Kate: A Royal Love Story” (7 p.m. EST) and “William, Kate and Royal Weddings” (8 p.m. EST).

For TLC, home of “Four Weddings,” “Say Yes to the Dress” and other wedding-themed shows, the week long coverage is intended to enhance viewers’ “overall royal experience” of the Westminster Abbey ceremony, said programming executive Nancy Daniels.

“This is without question the most widely anticipated wedding in a generation,” Paul Buccieri, ITV Studios America president and CEO, said in a statement, promising American viewers “intimate access to this landmark event.”

Right . . . . . Just you, me and a couple of million others . . . . . Reports are that Rupert Murdoch’s British Sky Broadcasting Group is negotiating with royal officials to show the nuptials on television, and the talks, which involve the BBC, also are said to include a plan to possibly shoot the ceremony in 3-D and broadcast it to cinemas throughout the world. Which will delight the folks at Royal Caribbean Cruises, who plan to broadcast the wedding live across all 40 ships in their fleet on 29th April.

Stay tuned . . . . . .