Will & Kate..Sorry, Will & Catherine's Wedding!

One of the most anticipated events this year has passed. Did you tune in to the whole procession? Was it as romantic and magical as you imagined it to be?

I think it’s hard not to get sucked into the whole fiasco. I thought I was gonna be too busy yesterday for the royal wedding as I’ve got a million things to do before the weekend. Yeah, right, who was I kidding? I was in a meeting when Kate Middleton stepped out the car in that exquisite gown and I heard the girls in the office squealed with delight. I suddenly had the urge to just drop everything and park myself in front of the laptop and watch the whole procession through online streaming 😀

As soon as the meeting was done, Vanya, Deszell and I rushed to Murphy’s Bar next to our office where Lena was waiting for us (she’d actually been there since 4.30 PM). We missed the procession, but we caught the part where the newlywed rode the carriage to the Buckingham palace, looking so so happy and so much in love with each other.

Then of course I saw….the kisses! The bar was suddenly alive with cheers from the crowd, when Will and Catherine finally locked lips. I thought it was adorable how they looked embarrassed after that. Well, I guess I would be too if I knew that about 2 billion people watched me kiss my husband. Yikes.

Anyway, I went home last night and caught the rerun on E!. You know, I always thought that I’m too old (and a bit too jaded) to buy into the whole “fairytale” wedding thing. But I couldn’t lie to myself. I sighed countless times and found myself holding back tears watching everything. From when William and the best man, Harry, stepped out looking handsome and tall in those uniforms. When guests start to pour into the Westminster Abbey. When I learned that the last event that took place in Westminster Abbey was Princess Diana’s funeral. When I saw Catherine in a car with her father, smiling through her veil and waving to the crowd. When she stepped out of the car looking demure, calm and collected, like she has been preparing for this moment all her life. When she walked down that very long aisle. When Harry, who was standing beside William, looked back and (reportedly) said to his brother “Wait until you see her”. When she finally reached the altar and William greeted her with a smile and said “You look beautiful.”

Okay, I can’t continue. My eyes are too blurry 😀

Anywaaaay, everything felt almost surreal. It looked like scenes from some movies. And now I understand why people, even those who are not British, pay so much great attention to this wedding.  Apart from the emotional attachment some of us (who are old enough to remember) with the late Princess Diana, this is the closest we’ll ever get to a fairytale.

And I sincerely wish, they would live happily ever after.

Royal Wedding Quick Facts

The venue:

The Westminster Abbey. It’s been the site of many glorious royal coronations, burials and weddings, with the earliest dating back to 1100, when King Henry I married Princess Matilda of Scotland. Queen Elizabeth, her daughter Princess Anne and son Prince Andrew all married at Westminster.

The bridesmaid:

Catherine’s younger sister, Pippa Middleton.

The guests:

A total of 1,900 guests have been invited to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine, including 50 members of the Royal Family and a further 40 guests from Foreign Royal Families. …And of course, about 2 billion of us watching at home.

The Dress:

The wedding gown that she wore for the procession was designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. Middleton’s dress featured an ivory lace bodice with a restrained, high lace collar, long lace sleeves and sweeping ivory satin skirts. Clarence House said Middleton chose the label “for the beauty of its craftsmanship.” “Miss Middleton wished for her dress to combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterizes Alexander McQueen’s work.”

The dress featured a lace appliquéd bodice and skirt, along with long lace sleeves and a high lace collar. The lace was hand-made at London’s Royal School of Needlework based at Hampton Court Palace.

The design was appliquéd with individual flowers that were hand cut from lace, and then hand engineered onto ivory silk tulle. The bodice and skirt were made from hand-cut English lace and French Chantilly lace, while ivory and white satin gazar was also used in the body of the dress and its skirts. The ivory satin bodice, narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips, drew on the tradition of Victorian corsetry. The train measured eight feet long.

The Evening Dress:
Also designed by Sarah Burton, Duchess of Cambridge, nee Kate Middleton, wore a cream gown with a knit cardigan and a silvery belt.

The veil & the tiara:
Middleton also wore a full veil, made from layers of soft ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers. The veil was held in place with a Cartier halo tiara, lent to Middleton by Queen Elizabeth. The tiara was made by Cartier in 1936, and was presented to the Queen on her 18th birthday, when she was still Princess Elizabeth. It was presented to her by her mother, who originally owned the tiara.

The ring:

Wartski created the simple band from a piece of Welsh gold given to the Prince by his grandmother, HRH Queen Elizabeth II. (Did you notice William struggled a bit when he slipped it into Kate’s fingers?)

The jewelry:

Middleton wore earrings in the design of diamond-set oak leaves, designed by Robinson Pelham, a gift to Middleton from her parents.

The shoes:
Her shoes were hand-made by the team at Alexander McQueen, in ivory duchesse satin with hand embroidered lace.

The bouquet:
A simple one made up of myrtle, lily of the valley, sweet William and hyacinth.

The makeup, hair and nails:

Kate reportedly did her own makeup after receiving 4 one-on-one lessons with London make-up artist, Arabella Preston. For her hair, Kate relied on longtime stylists James Pryce and Richard Ward of London’s Richard Ward salon to create cascading curls.

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The day before the wedding, Kate was treated to a manicure by the Jo Hansford Salon’s Marina Sandoval, a gift from mother-in-law Camilla Parker Bowles. To create a neutral look, Sandoval blended colors including Bourjois “Rose Lounge” and Essie’s #423 “Allure.”

The cake:
The Wedding Cake, made by Fiona Cairns, was designed using the Joseph Lambeth technique.

The other cake:
The couple asked McVitie’s Cake Company to create a chocolate biscuit cake for the reception at Buckingham Palace. The chocolate biscuit cake is made from a Royal Family recipe and was specially requested by Prince William.

The food:
During reception lunch hosted by Queen Elizabeth at the Buckingham Palace, the 650 guests were served canapés made using U.K.-based ingredients, which included miniature watercress and asparagus tarts, quail eggs with celery salt and miniature Yorkshire puddings with roast fillet of beef. The 10,000 canapés were prepared by a team of 21 chefs led by royal chef Mark Flanagan.

The flower arrangement:
Prince William and Miss Middleton have chosen London-based floral designer Shane Connolly to create the floral displays. Mr. Connolly has directed a team of florists, including Westminster Abbey’s and Buckingham Palace’s florists, and florists individually chosen by the Couple, to create the floral displays at the Abbey and for Buckingham Palace.The flowers and plants include blossoms, azaleas, rhododendron, euphorbias, beech, wisteria and lilac.

The carriage:
Kate Middleton leaves Westminster Abbey with her Prince in a 109-year-old State Landau carriage. Originally crafted in 1902 for King Edward VII, the open-air coach also carried the groom’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, to Buckingham Palace after their 1981 nuptials.

Source and image credit: people.com, wwd.com and The British Monarchy Flickr page