Saturday, April 30, 2011

Every Wedding is a Royal Wedding

I had been a spectator in two famous Royal Weddings, Prince Charles and Lady Dianna in 1981.  I was in boarding school in Bloemfontein, South Africa.  We woke up early to watch the event in a commons room on a small TV ( as compared to today's standards)  Now 30 years later, another Royal fairytale wedding took place in London.
It is now a day later after the royal wedding of Prince Charles Arthur Phillip Louis and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton who were married at Westminster Abby in London.

Yesterday I woke up at 4am and proceeded to get ready for an action packed day.  The Plimoth Plantation had an event starting at 4am in their theater to watch the royal wedding on a big screen. I arrived about 4:45am.

I was dressed in a party dress and a fancy hat.  Many people had hats special for this historic occasion.  I was so surprised to see so many people there so early in the morning.  There were about 150 attendees all eager to watch the ceremony of Prince William marry Kate Middleton.

It was exciting to see Prince William and Prince Harry drive down the street in their car towards the Abby.  They both do not have the "queens wave".  It was a childlike wave to the audience that caught my eye.  They both looked truly excited to be there and were absorbing the moments of the day that would add to a life time of memories.

When Prince William arrived at the Abby, in respect to entering the church he removed his hat.  Hat hair.  It was endearing that he had messed up hair on his wedding day and that he too is human and not everything is perfect, even for the Royals.

When Kate arrived there was a gasp in the crowd.  Everyone wanted to see what she was wearing.  Who the designer of the dress was, and what type of veil or tiara was she wearing.  There had been so much speculation, but now here it was about to happen.

She looked beautiful.  Not only that, she looked happy.

As she made her procession down the aisle, it was endearing that Prince William did not watch her approach.  Prince Harry chatted to him and by the accounts of reports from the lip readers, he was saying how beautiful Kate looked.

The ceremony was beautiful.  The voices of the young boys choir was angelic.

Another funny point, Prince William had troubles putting the ring on her finger.  There was almost a gasp in the crowd at that point.

The Bishop of Canterbury in his statements to the Royal couple said a wonderful quote that I will always hope to remember.

"Every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future."

Another funny moment was when the Bishop asked "who gives this woman", the father in law gives Kate's hand to Prince William, and Prince William says something to him.  During the ceremony we do not know what was said.  One of the commentators afterwards that the expert lip reader interpreted what Prince William said to his father in law was, " I thought this going to be a small family affair".  How funny !

I missed the part where they coverage showed the guests arriving.  I was told from another friend that one of our friends from Lesotho was at the wedding.  WOW, so I knew someone who was at this Royal wedding !  OMGosh !  In my Facebook photo albums I have photos of when I was in Lesotho in 1981-83.  Prince Seeiso is playing soccer with another friend of mine Patrick who lives in Sweden now.  When I lived there I knew he was a Prince, but that did not really mean anything to me, as he was just another kid.

My speculation is that Prince Seeiso was there because of the close tie that he and Lesotho has with Prince Harry.  (  http://www.sentebale.org/home/PrinceSeeiso.html  )  Read more about Lesotho here.

My friend also told me that there was coverage about Lesotho during the wedding coverage.  I must have missed that too.  I will look for it on the Internet.  I have a very special place in my heart for Mountain Kingdom.

I know that some people think watching the royal wedding in a time of economic hardships is wrong.  However I disagree.  I think when we as a world economy are in our hardest times, we can use an event like this to remind us of the optimism that life has to offer us.  It was romantic.  It was full of funny little moments that in the end will make a lasting memory for many of those who watched in awe as Kate Middleton became a princess and Prince William married a beautiful woman whom he loves dearly.

My best wishes are with them both because ultimately in the end they are just a boy and a girl in love wanting to commit to one another.

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