All dressed up and somewhere very important to go. London puts its white tie and tails on for the mega-wedding that will grab global eyeballs tomorrow
All dressed up and somewhere very important to go. London puts its white tie and tails on for the mega-wedding that will grab global eyeballs tomorrow
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Kate Middleton, nicknamed, 'Waitey Katey' because she waited patiently for nearly 10 years for St. Andrew's batch mate Prince William to pop the question, "Will you be my Queen?" is set to turn the tables at the wedding. While William intends arriving at Westminster Abbey at 10.15am (London time) on Friday, April 29, the bride will exercise her prerogative of being late by about 45 minutes. She is over nighting with her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, her sister Pippa, who will be her bridesmaid, and brother James, at the Goring Hotel; a small but expensive establishment in Belgravia just round the corner from Buckingham Palace. She will arrive with her father just as the service begins at 11 am. By 12.15 pm, the couple will be married.
Guards glory: Conmael, the Irish Wolfhound mascot lines up with the
guardsmen of the Irish Guards as they are inspected at their barracks
in Windsor, as they prepare for their ceremonial duties for the wedding.u00a0
Their participation at the royal wedding is significant to the guards, as
Prince William is Colonel of the Regiment.
Guess who's coming?
The surprise is Tony Blair, three time prime minister, has been snubbed. Could this be because his wife, Cherie, refused to curtsey to the Queen? There have been tensions between Blair and the Royal family since the days of Diana's death when he eulogised her, "the People's Princess" and "saved the monarchy" when public sentiment was very much against the Queen and Prince Philip who were deemed to be uncaring.u00a0u00a0Gordon Brown has also been left out, in contrast to two former Tory Prime Ministers, John Major and Baroness Thatcher, although the latter cannot attend on health grounds.
David Cameron will lead the political pack. The prime minister, who received a pasting from newspapers for indicating he would wear only a business suit, has changed his mind and will wear morning dress with white tie and tails after all. All politicians will come with their spouses except for Labour leader David Miliband, who will be accompanied by his "partner" Justine Thornton.
The Royal family is very Indian in one wayu00a0-- there is an extensive network of relatives who will take up quite a few of the 1,900 places inside Westminster Abbey.u00a0u00a0The House of Windsor, created in 1917, is not even a century old. King George V, "made the British monarchy British" by changing its German family name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor during the First World War between Britain and Germany.
The governor-generals and prime ministers of 15 countries where the Queen is still head of state are invited, along with their Prime Ministers. Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is being allowed to bring her boyfriend, Tim Matheison, in the hope this will dampen any latent Republican sentiment.
Among celebs Sir John Elton, who sang Candle in the Wind, at Diana's funeral, has been asked, with his civil partner, David Furnish; so have David and Victoria Beckham; director Guy Ritchie, Madonna's former husband; comedy actor Rowan Atkinson and his Indian origin wife, Sunetra Sastry.
Television coverage
A global audience of 2.4bn will watch William marry Kate, it is claimed. "It will be the biggest event in television history because there are no bigger celebrities in the world than the royals," declared Piers Morgan, who will be fronting CNN's coverage.
Morgan used to editor of the Mirror until he got the sack for publishing fake photographs but he is making a new career in the US as successor to Larry King. Not known for making understatements, Morgan's "cheekie chappie" demeanouru00a0 --he would probably ask Kate and William intimate questions about their sex lives if they were unwise enough to be interviewed by himu00a0-- is a world removed from the grave and deferential style employed decades ago by Richard Dimbleby. The BBC is deploying 500 crew and 100 cameras.
The diversity of modern Britain is reflected in the BBC's decision to include good looking British Asian presenters, Mishal Husain and Anita Rani, as part of its reporting team. Coverage won't be like that of the IPL, though, since even the commercial networks such as ITV will, for once, skip the irritating ad breaks. It is predicted that 400 million will watch the event onlineu00a0-- a first. The Queen, known to be thrifty, is allowing Buckingham Palace to be lit late into the night so that American reporters can do their pieces to camera for audiences back in the USA.
Then and now
The first royal wedding to be filmed was that of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the late Queen Mother, and the Duke of York, in 1923, when her tiara contained the Koh-i-Noor, which had been "gifted" to Queen Victoria by Maharajah Duleep Singh when he was about 14 or 15.u00a0u00a0The current Queen's wedding in 1947 was the first to be televised and broadcast to 42 countries. The first wedding to be televised in detail was that between the Queen's sister, the late Princess Margaret, by far the best looking member of the family, and the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960.
It ended in divorce. The first of the Queen's children to marry was Princess Anne when she wed commoner and fellow equestrian Capt. Mark Phillips in 1973. This ended in divorce.u00a0u00a0The Charles-Diana wedding in 1981 was followed in 1986 by that between Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in 1986. Prince William, then four, was a pageboy who was photographed fiddling with the chinstrap of his hat worn with a sailor's suit. In 1996, both marriages ended in divorce. Prince Edward, the Queen's youngest son, and Sophie Rhys-Jones, who worked in PR, married at Windsor Castle on June 19, 1999.
Who pays for what?
Since this is a time of savage government cuts and austerity, the Royal family does not want to be seen to be too extravagant. The Middletons are contributing ufffd100,000 towards the cost of wedding, Kate's bridal gown, the bridesmaids' dresses, ufffd20,000 for the stay at the Goring - Kate will have the ufffd5,000 a night royal suite - and the honeymoon (the destination is unknown though Jordan and Africa have been mentioned as possibilities).
The Queen will host a buffet reception for 600 at Buckingham Palace after the wedding. Champagne will be served along with canapes. Charles will pay for the party for 350 at Buckingham Palace in the evening though the Middletons are expected to make a contribution. Technically, the wedding is a semi-state occasion but the government will pick up the cost of security, which will run to tens of millions of pounds. Since there is a real threat from groups ranging from anarchists to terrorists - and Britain is at war in Afghanistan and in Libya and remains involved in Iraq still the security forces will breathe a sigh of relief if the day passes off without incident. Every drain hole and lamppost along the wedding procession route has been checked and sealed.
By way of comparison, the Charles-Diana wedding in 1981 cost ufffd30m, which is what Lakshmi Mittal lavished on Vanisha when his daughter got married in France in June 2004. Charles's much more modest wedding to Camilla at Windsor Castle in 2005 cost ufffd5m.
Older and wiser
Though Kate Middleton, 29, is "the new Diana Spencer" in that she will have to get used to intense and intrusive media coverage, the comparison should not be pushed too far. She was born on January 9, 1982, which means she is nearly six months older than William Arthur Philip Louis, 28, who was born on June 21, 1982. They appear well matched. The significant difference is Kate is 10 years older than Diana, who was an innocent virgin of 19 when she married the worldly 32-year-old Charles.
Lord's Prayer
Kate was recently "confirmed" into the Church of England by the Rt. Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, who will deliver the sermon at Westminster Abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will marry the couple; and the Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hallwill conduct the service. The Church has urged people to pray so that Kate and William "deepen their love and strengthen their wills to keep the promises they will make, that they may continue in life-long faithfulness to each other."
Save for the Queen and Prince Philip, who have been married since November 1947, other members of the royal family have found it less easy to honour their marriage vows.u00a0u00a0William was still at school when he had to watch his father admit in a TV interview that he had been unfaithful to Diana with Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles, now his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall. In a now famous BBC Panorama interview, Diana confessed she had "loved" and "adored" the army officer, James Hewitt. He tried to make money by trading on their relationship, provoking Indians to disparage him as a "pyaar chuha" (love rat).u00a0
The topless Duchess of York was photographed having her toes sucked by John Bryan, her American financial adviser while she was still married to the Duke of York. Though Prince Andrew ("Randy Andy") and his ex-wife remain friends, Fergie has not been invited to the wedding, though her daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice, first cousins and friendly with William, have.
Indian connection
Hindus are represented by Anil Bhanot, a founding member of the Hindu Council (UK), who received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) last year for services to the Hindu community and interfaith relations. He is not going to wear a saffron cloak or a Nehru jacket but a morning suit. "We are British Hindus," he pointed out.u00a0 His gift will be a marble plaque, made by Amrit Bhamra of Windsor, featuring an image of the couple, below the words, "May the Celestial shower blessings on you always." British royals struggle to stay married for one lifetime so the Hindu idea of marriage may be harder to absorb.
"We Hindus believe in reincarnation so that you stay married to the same person for seven lifetimes," Bhanot explained. Other religious representatives include Natubhai Shah, President, the Jain Academy; Dr Indarjit Singh, Director, Network Sikh Organisations (UK); and The Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, Acting Head Monk, the London Buddhist Vihara. The Indian High Commissioner, Nalin Surie, has been asked, as have the couple, Hasmukh and Chandrika Shingadia, who run the local store in Kate's village of Bucklebury in Berkshire.
Let's party
After the Buckingham Palace lunch for 650, Kate and William will rest for a few hours at Clarence House before returning for the evening party that is decidedly theirs. The Throne Room at Buckingham will be made to resemble a "cool nightclub", with cafe type tables, sofas and armchairs so that revellers can enjoy a "Chillax" (chill and relax") zone. The 120ft by 60ft Ball Room will house a disco, with one of Diana's (and William's) favourite numbers, Neil Sedaka's Sweet Caroline, probably starting the proceedings. The Queen has been persuaded not to impose a curfew so that Kate and William can dance till dawn. The chosen 350 will include friends from Eton and Marlborough, where William and Kate were at school respectively, and from St Andrew's University. Quite a few former girlfriends and boyfriends have been asked with their current lovers.
Picture perfect
Mario Testino, who took the engagement pictures of Kate and William, now turned into stamps, has been invited to Westminster Abbey. However, Hugo Burnand who photographed the wedding of Charles and Diana will take the formal group pictures.
The journey begins
William and Kate will leave for their honeymoon on April 30. After an eight-day official visit to Canada, the couple intend settling down in Wiliam's rented cottage in Anglesey in Wales until his tour of duty as an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot ends in 2013. This concludes our two-part series on how London is preparing for the royal wedding.
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