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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

O to be in England... For a Royal Wedding

"Oh to be in England, now that spring is here." -- Robert Browning
Alas! I'm here in the states, across the pond from the greening of England's magnificent spring, full of yellow daffodils and red tulips and blue skies.

Not that you'd get to see much of that, with all us Yanks over there with the rest of the world (an extra 600,000 according to VisitBritain) to celebrate
the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William.




I remember getting up at 4 a.m. for Diana's wedding to Prince Charles. I was planning my own wedding for the next year, so you know I took notes.
Her dress, the music, the flowers, the carriage... but we payed for our wedding ourselves, so the fanciest elements in our wedding were the limousine, the pipe organ,  and the silver champagne coolers that held my flowers, cut fresh from my florist's garden that morning. It was all pretty simple.

But... we honeymooned in LONDON!
It's a gorgeous city, with history everywhere you turn. I haven't been everywhere, but for pageantry and atmosphere and architecture and costumes and graveyards, London is amazing.
And it's amazingly accessible.







Want to see the Crown jewels, the Star of Africa?


Visit the tombs of Dickens? Oscar Wilde? Percy Shelley? Lord Tennyson?


They're all in Westminster Abbey, along with hundreds more.  Really... the place is one big mausoleum.













There's the media who report that the royal wedding is a drag on England's economy, and maybe that's true. Surely the government could find a better place to spend all that money. All those flags, all those tourists, all those kitschy souvenirs... yeah, their merchants are really going under.

Sometimes I think the media wants to find the cloud in every silver lining. 

I'm very happy for Wills and Katie. They're a beautiful couple and their wedding will be extravagant and lavish, as only an unlimited budget and a setting of flying buttresses and gothic clustered columns should be. It's all a treat for us romantics at heart who love splendid bridal gowns and handsome grooms in uniform. It's an omen, a foreshadowing, a signal that better times and higher spirits are ahead.
Do you agree? Disagree?

And it's worthy of me setting my alarm for 4a.m. to watch it live on my little television set. 
 Any weddings you'd get up at 4o'clock in the morning for? 

THE year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven--
All's right with the world!
Robert Browning

11 comments:

  1. Great post, Pam. I love my royal weddings. Don't know why, but I do. Maybe it's all the mystique of royalty, wondering what goes on behind the scenes. I stayed up to watch Charles and Diana's weddings, and cried myself to sleep in the Bahamas where we were vacationing when I heard that Princess Di had died. Sat glued to the television both times.

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  2. Diana's wedding and funeral were bookends to her life, weren't they? It was the saddest funeral to see, & a testament to her charisma that it was televised and watched by so many around the world.

    I do love a real royal wedding.

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  3. There is more than a touch of fairytale to a royal wedding. I do hope William and Kate have a wonderful life together.

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  4. Me too Donna!

    I told my boys this a.m., just the fact that all those heads of state from around the world could be under one roof, with all the people lining the streets & watching at home, gives all us citizens of the world something to rejoice over and relax a bit after all the tragedies this year.
    It's a day of peace to be enjoyed.

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  5. I agree! This is definitely a highlight in my life. People around me looked at me funny when I said I was taking the day off from work so I didn't miss it. I also helped with getting our yard ready for sod (very little help on my part), but the major reason was for the wedding.

    Thanks so much for posting your posts on Facebook. I loved reading along with you and a few others as the events took place.

    Tami

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  6. Tami, tweeting with others at 4a.m. definitely made it more fun. Then Fri.night, we watched it again on dvr so hubby could see it, and some of us tweeted all over again.
    Some of us just couldn't get enough LOL!

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  7. I didn't see any of the wedding. :( But I did watch Dianna's years ago.
    I do love a good wedding though.

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  8. I didn't watch the wedding. But I just gave you a blog award for writing about it - and so many other interesting topics! Check out my post from today for the details! CONGRATULATIONS!! :-)

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  9. I, too, was switching between the channels, watching and smiling. We need beauty and happiness in this world and by golly, it did help the tourism business, didn't it? Wishing the couple happiness and peace. Wasn't it just the coolest when they came out in the Aston Martin?

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  10. We were a teensy bit late for the show because she was getting out of the car 10 minutes after we should have headed out the door....but we had to see it!

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  11. Pam, thanks so much for the award! But I don't deserve it!


    Julee, I Know!! Nothing cooler... think it broke Bond's Curse?


    Paige, Hopefully the cows forgave you; it was all worth it, just for your memories.

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