Kate and William – The Royal Wedding

Well, it was unrealistic to expect that we would be able to get away not recognising the Royal Wedding, especially since we all got an extra day off school and it was a party day!!

It’s the beginning of an exciting weekend for us – beginning, of course, with the wonder wedding of Miss Middleton to Mr Windsor.  Beyond that, however, we are looking forward to spending time with some of our very best friends from Friday afternoon through to Sunday evening.  More of that later….

To celebrate the wedding, we were very pleased to be invited to our friends Rachel and Mark’s house, where they were hosting a packed ensemble of people who could share in the historic occasion.  The children generally played around in the garden, kicking balls and trying to steal food (Harry) from the buffet table, while the adults marvelled in their own way at the unfolding spectacle in London.  It was, as everyone had hoped, a great display of organisation and pageantry.  My Dad used to argue that the Royal Family were so important for Britain because of the standing they gave us in the world – the revenue and tourist value if nothing else.  Today seemed to demonstrate that point.

The estimation is that about 2 billion, or a quarter of the world’s population, watched part of the day’s events and it did feel like Britain was joined in some way which unfortunately only usually happens after some tragic event or another.  Yesterday was a good news story, for which we can be happy.

The ceremony begins

For a while I couldn’t really work out why this wedding felt different to me – beyond the obvious reasons of scale, uniqueness and national importance.  I realised later that it was because I think in some way this was the first wedding we had witnessed where we felt that we had ‘known’ one of the marrying people since they were born.  Although I was young when William was born, I remember it being reported on and through the media we have seen him grow up.  Here he was, a man, getting married.

We have filmed many, many weddings and one of the oft repeated phrases is ‘I remember when you were a baby… etc. etc.’  Well, in this case I too was in that camp.  Bizarre seeing as our own boys are still a long way from marriage, but there was something parental about watching the occasion, a bizarre kind of proud connection.  Weird!  A taste of things to come, perhaps, when the raft of marriages that will surround our boys and their friends begins in something approaching about 12 or so years.

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Of course, a Royal Wedding is all too much for some people:

Too much wedding cake.

The other thing that commentators made much of with this wedding was the marriage of tradition with modernity in the form of social networking.  The wedding was broadcast live on the internet and it was also on Facebook and Twitter.  One of my intersting parts of the day was watching the social commentary coming through from many of our friends on the twitter account; a great mixture of joy, social comment and sharp humour.  There were many, many perspectives from which you could view the Wedding, and seeing those come through while it was happening made it all the more of an inclusive event.  Three of my fleetingly favourite tweets were:

Prince Andrew is wandering around, stuffing fivers into people’s hands and tapping his nose. (from @themanwhofell)

Father to bride: “Look darling, see all those flags? We sold those.” (from @simonmhickson)

Oh dear, there really isn’t a way to make Will’s hair look good. (from @justanactor)