The Wedding- Page 3

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 7:53pm

Watching it now on DVR. The BBC (5.5 hour) broadcast carried here by PBS. Skimming through ...

Just really a breathtaking ceremony. I love seeing the 1,000-year-old (well, pieces of it) Westminster Abbey with today's high-def technology. I've been to the abbey twice, and it's bringing back those memories so vividly.

Things I love:

The music
Her dress (completely stunning)
The hats (even the ones from Dr. Seuss)
The colors
The maple trees (Love that in the middle of all the gold, marble, graves, and grandeur, Catherine wanted maple trees to celebrate nature, and they are a symbol of humility. I love the balance of that sentiment, especially on this day.)
Okay, yeah, and ... the pageantry! The tradition!

Every now and then, I would take my dad to church with me. I didn't go all that often (raised Episcopalian), and he is Jewish. But he said he wanted to come with me because he liked the "show," (music, lights, costumes, scenery ...)

That's the way I feel watching this event. I really love the show.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 8:37pm

I detested the music, but I'll give them the silk purse out of sow's ear award, that's for sure. Never has such lousy music, been given such phenomenal presentation. The choir and orchestra were superb. That newly commissioned Rutter piece was abysmal, imo. Compared to what Charles and Di had (incredible music), this stuff sounded like nursery rhymes.

We too watched the BBC feed via PBS. We switched through each channel (live). Between the endless graphics on the screen and the plethora of talking heads (all talking), it was like an assault. At one point on CNN, Anderson Cooper (who annoys more and more, as the years go on), Piers Morgan (who I couldn't possibly despise, more) and some other Brit (black, who I did not recognize), were all speaking at the exact same time, while Cat Deeley and some other woman giggled. Meanwhile, on the screen, there was a news' crawl, some sort of royal seal thingy, the station identifier, and the words Royal Wedding. When we went to the PBS station, only one person was speaking at a time (actually pausing in between sentences), and only the station identifier was visible at the bottom far right of the screen. It was like going from a kindergarten recess to the adult lounge.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:34pm

Jordan, regarding the black people at the wedding...I kind of noticed that too. I also noticed that they all seemed to be sitting in one section. I thought I was just "seeing things" until it was pointed out on The View this morning. It was kind of weird. You did see a few in the choir but there was a section in the cathedral in the front that was predominantly black. Sherrie called it a Rosa Parks moment.

Starts at 5:29:

http://abc.go.com/watch/the-view/SH559080/VD55124459/the-view-429

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/29/11 at 11:44pm

I went back and found that part after I read it and was a little bit shocked. It really does seem like a segregated section! I have no doubt it wasn't planned that way but, damn it looks bad.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 12:08am

You couldn't pay me to be interested in these boring ass white people. Privileged and pretentious.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 12:20am

I mostly feel like that, but as someone who keeps vampire hours, I did catch the first hour or so of the arrivals last night. Those hats. Those HATS!

I find all ridiculous, but it's hard for me to get too worked up over it. Maybe because my people haven't lived in England for almost a hundred years. Maybe because despite everything, the two do seem to be in love and pretty happy. I dunno. I totally get why it makes folks' blood boil and I feel like normally I'd feel that way, too, but for some reason this comment on Jezebel really resonated with me.

t's Friday, the sun is shining, this nice-looking couple had a big fancy wedding. I ain't mad.

Also, I loved this picture.

http://community.ashworthcollege.edu/servlet/JiveServlet/showImage/2-45419-6758/frowning+flower+girl.jpeg

[Scripps2]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 3:49am

"Sherrie called it a Rosa Parks moment."

The seating plan was such that different representatives were sat in different sections of the abbey and that has been publicly available information: the politicians were sat together; the representatives of the faiths were sat together; the diplomats were sat together etc.

Being in the UK I cannot watch the linked TV programme but I guess they were probably watching the representatives of the Commonwealth. In the UK there have never been the sort of segregation laws that existed in some of the Southern states of the US. To call it a Rosa Parks moment is ignorant.

[uncageg]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 10:41am

Scripps, I think she was actually joking. But it did look odd.

As far as the wedding, they both looked a bit bored. I don't think they were into all of the pomp & circunstance. I got the feeling they would have been fine having the ceremony on a beach and partying by the ocean. But they had to do it.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 11:22am

JohnBoy, you read my mind about Eugenie and Beatrice. Forget dethroning Aretha's hat at the inauguration, what was on Beatrice's head could replace the Rorschach blot!

I was not interested in it but it was pretty unavoidable hours after it happened. Kate and Pippa Middleton looked stunning. Nick Clegg's wife also looked fantastic.

[nygrl232]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 11:39am

Watched the 8-minute clip of the vows on hulu. The whole vibe was like a giant bored sigh. No one seemed to want to be there, and the cloud of the public ennui was palpable. Yes, everything was perfect and beautiful and went according to plan. But we don't live in times of people oohing and ahhing over this stuff--people have too much on their minds.

At least Fergie's kids gave everyone something to talk about. I do admire Kate, though--cool and calm as anything.

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 1:47pm

"No one seemed to want to be there, and the cloud of the public ennui was palpable."

Huh? I think maybe whatever clip you saw on Hulu was misperceived, as it was view out of context with the whole experience. I watched six hours of coverage and what was palpable to me was the public excitement and joy. The streets of London were ghostly quiet during the ceremony because the crowds were attentive to the service, which they followed on massive public screens. A huge cheer could be heard from the crowds gathered outside the Abbey when the vows were finished. I read the mood of those inside the Abbey as one of solemn reverence.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 3:10pm

I totally agree with you Bluemoon!

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 4:03pm

"But we don't live in times of people oohing and ahhing over this stuff--people have too much on their minds."

???

... which is why a billion people tuned in to watch this around the world.

[singalongsong2]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 4:38pm

I thought the wedding was very nice. So many hats!! I haven't seen that many floppy/fancy/odd hats in one place since the Kentucky Derby.
Updated On: 4/30/11 at 04:38 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 6:34pm

There's something about watching them pull away from Westminster Abbey in that 1902 restored carriage while the bells were pealing,

It may not be a fairy tale, but it's as close as we can get to "Cinderella" in this day and age.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 6:53pm

Besty, it was the the ending to a movie! So romantic!

[nygrl232]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 7:22pm

Whatever. Like someone else said, one gets the impression that they might have preferred a small, private thing on the beach.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 7:34pm

Yeah, they probably would have preferred that. I guess they can console each other over the fact they didn't get it after moving into one of their new castles while one of a two dozen servants brings them whatever they want for the rest of their lives.

Poor kids.

[nygrl232]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 7:38pm

Would you want to marry into that family, Jordan? Seems like it'd be kinda scary.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 7:40pm

I don't know any of them but I'm sure if I fell in love with someone in that family, I'd want to. I'm going to put money on the fact that I won't ever be in that position, though.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 4/30/11 at 10:42pm

****COUGH**** Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex****COUGH***


Just SAYIN'

One never knows, do one?

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 12:39am

Well I loved it. Man alive, the few negative comments in this thread! Some folks just gotta poop on the Duke & Duchess' wedding parade I guess.

I for one would not wish to project any ideas of what the couple may or may not have wanted for their wedding day and how much of that did or didn't actually happen on the day. I do however doubt if many a wedding is solely about what the couple alone want, as weddings are at least in part about the other people - family, friends - in a couple's life. My husband and I would probably have been happy to get married in front of a justice of the peace. We had a church wedding, for which I look back on and am glad for, but at the time that was as much about my mother's vicarious desire to have the church wedding she and my father never had.

Anyway, back to those hats...
Article about designer Philip Treachy (Beatrice's and other hats at the wedding).
http://celebs.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979278957

Linked from the above article is this gallery:
http://www.examiner.com/pop-culture-fashion-in-national/hats-on-for-the-royal-picture#slide=32622821

Designer's web site:
http://www.philiptreacy.co.uk/

[StockardFan]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:05am

Jbara, my husband and I got married in front of a justice of the peace, and I sort of wish I'd had a church wedding. LOL

[Scripps2]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 2:14pm

"Scripps, I think she was actually joking."

Thanks for that Uncageg. I'm pleased to read it was a joke.


Did the following make it on to American TV? I think there's a feeling that the whole thing probably went off reasonably okay...


Auditioning for Sister Act maybe?

[JbaraFan1]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 2:21pm

Stockardfan, ain't that just the way it goes with us humans?

Scripps2, I for one had not seen that video. Love it! Thanks for posting the link.

Editing again to add link to official Flickr set of royal wedding photos "Galleries showing preparations for the wedding, and key events from the day itself.":
http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishmonarchy/collections/72157626483828391/

Here's Mirror.co.uk's article on the wedding reception Updated On: 5/1/11 at 02:21 PM