Will & Kate: A Royal Wedding

Today's special significance may not have anything to do with my travels in SA, but it sure has everything to do with my life back home.

My grandmother comes from strong British roots and her self-proclaimed royalist nature has by now seeped into my own pores. I remember perusing books in her house on the Royal Family and afternoons where we'd chat about the nastiness of Camilla and Charles and of the beauty and legacy of Princess Diana.

When William and Kate announced their engagement, my heart sunk a little knowing that I wouldn't be in Canada for their nuptials. I would have loved to have been home for this wedding, to sit up all night and eat cucumber sandwiches and drink tea with my Grandma and gossip about who-was-who and who-was-wearing-what.

And what a wedding it was.

I am still savoring the regality and exquisiteness of it all.

Here are my personal highlights of the day, which was absolutely perfect and yes -- made me cry more than once!

• Prince Harry and William took time to visit people camped out in the streets yesterday afternoon to thank them for their support. It's so nice to see these young royals be spontaneous and warm with the public -- a far cry from Elizabeth and her mother.  
• Sights of the crowd lining the parade route: "I'll marry Harry" t-shirts; faces painted in red, white, and blue; union jack felt top hats; flags from all over the world; a sea of small British flags; little girls in tiaras; grown women in wedding dresses; masks of Will and Kate's face!
• Guests included people from Kate and William's charities. 1900 total. 
• My memories of Westminster Abbey are not great. I associate it with the overwhelming gloom and tragedy of Diana's death. I remember watching Will and Harry somberly walk underneath its arches behind their mom's casket. I've been looking forward to replacing it with something joyful, and I'm sure the two boys have been too. 
• I thought their idea to line the red carpet of the aisle with tress was stunning. Maples represent humility and modesty -- perfect for Will and Kate. They will later be planted at their residence.
• 7,000 journalists arrived to cover the event! One referred to the couple as "royal pop stars", while another noted that "this wedding is a great trial-run for the upcoming Olympics". 
• The fashion was to DIE for. Why can't extravagant hats and fascinators (those are the smaller, more sculptural headpieces that are pinned into hair) be wedding-chic at home?! Gah! There were women dressed to the nines in all the colours of the rainbow. My fav:

Aaaand my least:

YIKES!

• Fun fact: Swaziland, Morocco, and Lesotho are the only African monarchs invited to the royal wedding.
• Harry's girlfriend went in the "commoners" door, not the royal door with the rest of the family. Interesting note: she is from Zimbabwe! Her hair looked downright awful though. Low, messy ponytail,. Yuck. 
• I love their new title and think it suits both of them well: the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
• Royal bands of Welsh guards played in the street to entertain the crowd. How fun is that!? Everyone loves tall furry hats and trumpets.
• I spent a lot of time thinking now of how I grew up with William, from crushing on him when I was a teen to following his story when he took his gap year and began university.... now it's his wedding day. Amazing. 
• When David and Victoria Beckham showed up, I immediately started drooling. It's unreal how gorgeous these two are. Then I had to laugh, because the team of commentators reacted even stronger than I did! They were literally gushing. The network even slo-mo'd the footage of them walking into the abbey. haha!

• There was endless speculation about Kate's dress. Media spoke about how the dress needed to take "commoner Kate" to a higher level, that it had to have a transformative effect of elevating Kate to "princess" status. Two words to that brief: mission. accomplished. 
• I loved that William broke with tradition and arrived early to the abbey instead of just before. This was to give him enough time to visit with friends and take some quiet time in the chapel before the big ceremony. How very... human of him.
• My first glimpse of the princes in the Bentley literally took my breath away. It was the first time I teared up. The red and black uniforms were just divine and the cheers from the crowd would have melted the hardest of hearts. They smiled and waved to the crowd the entire way. Seeing them travel in the same car, looking so regal and joyful...ahhh... it truly was one of my favorite moments of the entire day.

• How funny was it that the royals arrived in coach buses?? Modern, indeed. 
• I was so impressed with the Queen. I've never been a fan of hers but today she won me over. Her bright canary yellow dress was a bold, sunshiny-happy choice for the day and I commend her for choosing such a unusual color. I also loved the moment when she and Prince Phillip got into their carriage and pulled out from the abbey and onto the parade route. She was positively beaming! Personally, I had never seen the Queen display such emotion before. It was great to see her as happy and as caught up in the joy of the celebrations as we "commoners" all were. 
• I'll never forget the moment that Kate sneaked into her awaiting car at her hotel. It offered the very first glimpse of her dress and the energy and excitement was palpable. The cameras had been trained on the car for full minutes before she emerged, just waiting for that first peek of the dress. It was so worth the wait and anticipation. She was a truly stunning, elegant, classically beautiful bride. And I loved that she opted to wear her hair down and do her own makeup :) 

• Fun fact: Kate's personal body guard sat in the front seat of her car -- and it's a woman! 
• Question: why did Pippa wear cream? The cut of her dress was stunning but the color perplexed me. 
• My second teary moment came when Kate was being walked down the aisle by her father to the sounds of the choir. What a moment!
• Sweetest moment?: When I caught William whisper "You're incredible. You look beautiful", when Kate joined him at the altar.

• ... I also enjoyed Harry's goofy, mischievous nature throughout the day. He was always seen smiling and making little side comments to Will. One can only imagine what he was saying... 

• The celebration of Kate and Will riding in their carriage to Buckingham palace will stick in my memory forever. They were beaming, the crowd was cheering -- you could even hear the smile in the commentator's voice. As their carriage turned onto the grand mall avenue, the sun came out from behind the cloudy skies and they were bathed in golden sunlight. You couldn't have asked for a more majestic moment. 

• My number one fairytale wedding moment?? When Kate and Will kissed each other on the balcony of the palace and Will turned as pink as a strawberry. Too cute!!

What was your favorite moment of the day? Did you do wake up extra early to watch? How did you celebrate the wedding?  Please share!