The Royal Wedding: A Recap

Today Ben humored me.  He sat with me (and wrangled Nora as her interest waned) as I unabashedly drank in every detail of the royal wedding.  What a guy!

Honestly, I wasn't sure I'd even watch it - this was not a massively pre-planned event in our house.  First off, while I find it all amusing, I'm not a huge royal family buff.  And we don't have a TV and we listen to the radio for about 6.5 seconds every morning (this is how long it takes us to hear the alarm and then turn it off) so besides the Kate and William china plates and tea towels that have been appearing in shop windows for the past 6 months or so, I really didn't experience any of the build-up.  But, I figured, it's not everyday that you see a royal wedding... and so we watched.

And I must say, I was thoroughly swept up by it all!  For those who didn't watch I can tell you it was certainly a royal affair complete with hundreds of guards carrying automatic weapons, 5,000+ police, red carpet, horse-drawn carriages, adoring masses lining the streets, an arch-bishop presiding, an orchestra, an angelic boys choir, and trumpeters.                  

(Ah yes, it's all clear now.  That's what was missing from my wedding... the trumpeters.)

  

And the star of this wedding - as is most often the case - was definitely the bride.  Wow.  Kate who is now Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn (Scotland) and Baroness Carrickfergus (Northern Irish) was absolutely stunning.  But not in a "Hey look at me!  Oh wait you can't help it because I look ridiculous" sort of way.  There was an understated, effortlessness about her and the woman showed amazing poise with half the world watching.  Her dress, and in fact her whole look, was traditional - yet modern and stylish. 
Classy, elegant, and timeless without tip-toeing toward old fashioned. Very fairy-tale princess.
And the perfect dress for the occasion - if you ask me.





And then there were the hats.

Oh my, the hats.

It seems that the tradition of wearing hats to weddings is a hold-over from when women always wore hats (to cover their heads) in church.  Since a wedding was a very special occasion one would, of course, wear their very best hat - assuming they owned more than one.  I've also heard from a British friend that traditionally it is married women who wear hats while unmarried women may wear some other sort of headband or fancy, often feathered hairclip (appropriately) called a fascinator.  Nowadays there aren't such strict rules about it.  The hats are a fashion statement for all.  A chance to be eccentric, to dress up, to put on your best and to splurge a bit.  And boy did these guests ever do that!

Wow.

But not in a good way.

Obviously some made more 'positive' (read: 'palatable') statements than others.

Any favorites??