| Planning of the wedding:
On November 23, 2010, Clarence House stated that the wedding ceremony will take place on April 29, 2011 (the Feast Day of Saint Catherine of Siena) in Westminster Abbey.
On January 5, St. James’s Palace announced that the ceremony will begin at 11:00 local time and the bride will arrive in Abbey by car and not in a horse carriage (used traditionally as transport for royal brides). The route was along The Mall, through Horse Guards parade and up Whitehall to the Abbey.
Wedding expenditure:
It was also declared that the wedding expenditure will be borne by the royal family and the Middletons, while the security and transport expenses will be taken up by the British treasury. The couple requested donations to charitable organisations instead of traditional wedding gifts; for this, the Welfare Fund of Prince William and Ms. Catherine Middleton was set up.
The expenditure on the wedding, as reported, was around 20 million pounds. According to the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun, 32 million AUD were spent for security and 800 000 on flowers. The estimate of a special public holiday varied from 1.2 to 2.9 billion pounds. The state travel agency, VisitBritain predicted that the wedding will see a tourism boom, which would continue for some years and as a result will have an additional 4 million tourists and 2 billion pounds to the tourism industry of Great Britain.
The guests list:
On February 16 and 17, three guest lists were sent to the Queen. Since William is not the heir apparent to the throne, the wedding was not a "state event". Therefore, according to protocol, many guests (or their successors), who were invited to the wedding of Charles with Diana Spenser on July 29, 1981 are not to be invited to William's wedding. More than half of the guests constituted the families and friends of the couple though a considerable number of Commonwealth leaders (including governor generals, who represent the Queen in Commonwealth kingdoms, except Great Britain, prime ministers of Commonwealth kingdoms and the heads of governments of other Commonwealth countries), members of religious organisations, diplomats, military officers, members of the British royal household, members of foreign royal families, representatives of charitable organisations of William and others. Though the names of the guests were not made public by St. James Palace, the guests were categorized - there was no mention about the heads of foreign states though it was declared that about 40 members of foreign royal families had been invited.
The first list of guests (around 1900 persons) took part in the ceremony at the Abbey. The second list's guests (around 600 persons) were invited to the reception at Buckingham palace, organised by the Queen. Guests on the last list (nearly 300 persons) were invited to the dinner, hosted by the Prince of Wales.
On April 19, Sean Cardinal Brady, Primate of All Ireland, intimated that he would be present. The invitation and his acceptance were described as "unprecedented" by the representative of the Catholic Bishops of Ireland. The representative treated the invitation as a contribution of Cardinal Brady to the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Route:
The route of the bride and groom passed between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey along The Mall, Clarence House, through the road of the Horse Guards, horse guards parade, through the Arch of the horse guards, Whitehall and the South side of Parliament Square.
After the ceremony, the wedded couple returned through the same route in a carriage for the reception by the Queen in Buckingham Palace. The Prince of Wales hosted a private dinner in the evening, which was not attended by the Queen.
Schedule:
At 6:00 AM, roads, en-route to the procession, were closed for public traffic. After 8:15 AM, the main guests, governor generals, prime ministers of the Commonwealth kingdoms and diplomats arrived at the Abbey. Princes William and Harry left Clarence House at 10:10 in a Bentley State Limousine and arrived at 10:18, after which the representatives of the foreign royal families, Middleton's family and finally the Prince's family (Princess Royal, Duke of York, Princess Beatrice of York, Eugenie of York, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Vice-admiral Timothy Laurence, Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall). Traditionally, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are always the last members of royal family to leave the Buckingham Palace and arrive at the Abbey at 10:48. The bride's party left the Goring Hotel in a former state Rolls-Royce Phantom VI at 10:52 on time before the start of the service at 11:00. The service came to an end at 12:15 and then the newly-married couple went to Buckingham Palace in a procession, consisting of other members of the royal family, parents of the newly-wed couple, the best man and bridesmaids. At 13:25, the couple came out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch the air parade of Avro Lancaster bombers, the fighters Super marine Spitfires and a Hawker Hurricane along with two fighter Typhoons and two fighters-bomber Tornado GR4s. |
This Friday we continue our freaking experiment with provided source images.
LOL!
