Ok, I admit it. I love me a royal wedding.
I am an anglophile, always have been. I used to pore over the royal lineage, fascinated by the history, the drama and the individuals that were offered up by centuries of intermarriage.
I clearly remember getting up in the middle of the night to see Princess Anne marry Mark Phillips.
I remember watching with a teenager's love of romance Lady Diana become Princess Diana.
What was she thinking? She was barely 20 and he was 32 for Pete's sake. What kind of shell game did he play on this poor thing?
Yeah, tragic.
Yeah, those both ended poorly, but the weddings were lovely.
William and Kate seem to be far more modern. I give them HUGE props for having the courage to not be bulldozed by the PR machine.
They kept it simple. They kept it from becoming a state occasion. Call me a dork (I know I am one for even watching this damn thing in the first place), but I love a couple that can barely keep from laughing during their vows, even when the world is watching. Those are people that are a team, that have an unspoken communication and sense of humor that will serve them well. Having to stare in each other's eyes while the world watches is just goofy in the extreme.
William seems to be the best of his profoundly screwed up parents. While his brother is a big scoop of trouble from THAT gene pool. YIKES! Seriously, if this guy wasn't a prince, he would be beaten up in an alley by soccer fans and rightfully so. Harry is the punk younger brother who lost his mother too young to have gotten the full influence of her better nature.
Kate is lovely and has a quiet confidence and elegance. No bridezilla here.
She knows what she wants.
She seems genuinely surprised (bemused even) that so many people are so intensely interested in what she is wearing, doing, thinking.
Diana has now been gone for almost 14 years. Wow, that is hard to believe.
I couldn't help but wonder what her role would have been today had she survived. The mother of the groom. She never got the chance. She was one of those people that would have made a compelling mother-in-law, grandmother, etc.
What kind of advice would she have given to this young lady?
Instead she is represented by a ring that represents a lie. It has bothered me that William gave it to her from the beginning. Too much baggage.