A Royal Affair

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A huge cloud of mystery was hiding the wedding dress. No member of the international public knew who the designer was, what fabric was made of or even had a glimmer of the design and what it might looked like. Although, around midnight on Thursday, somebody on the inside must have let slip because I was alerted that the dress might be that of the lovely Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. The Sunday Times newspaper released a statement regarding the speculations about the designer being Burton, "A fashion source said that the dress will be a combination of Middleton's own design ideas and Burton's deep knowledge and understanding of high fashion." Though this was before the wedding day.

As Catherine stepped out of that high top Rolls Royce, the crowd erupted with celebration as the official announcement was heard. The dress was in fact a British classic McQueen.

Much in the style of the fifties, as was the late Princess Margret’s when marrying Anthony Armstrong-Jones in the fifties, Catharine’s ivory cream dress had a low cut jewelled neckline with a intricate Irish lace bolero over the bodice. What made it ‘classic McQueen’ was the almost hidden pleating around the skirt and the back, which flowed down into the 2.7 meter train. Fashioncatalogonline had said, as well as many others, “it is the symbol of the modern monarchy”.  The hand-made lace was intricately made by appliquéing hand stitching, detailed roses, thistles, shamrocks and daffodils, symbolising the four sections of the United Kingdom’s - England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This technique is an old Irish method.

The fashion world was expecting a dress to the level of Princess Diana’s, and that is unfair because in the eighties, that dress was not only fashionable, but designed for an eighteen year old girl. Sarah Burton was designing for a woman. Emanuel, the designer of Diana’s wedding gown said that, “It needed to say ‘innocent, whimsical and magical. The Princess Catherine’s dress is everything that is modern about the monarchy, and being twenty nine, and having lived with the Prince for most of their relationship, it is more than possible she is not innocent and is an educated woman. A lot of people forgot this and were disappointed, but the dress was a perfect extension of herself.  

Picking The House of McQueen, was a brilliant idea. It has the awe-inspiring elegance and sophistication and spectacular traditional beauty that becoming a royal requires, while still being top of the fashion tree in high fashion and style. While working closely with Miss Burton, Princess Catherine had a lot of input into the dresses design, which for a royal wedding dress is a special opportunity.

The BBC broadcast of the event showed all the action from 7 am CET, right up until after the couple left Buckingham Palace in their vintage James Bond Aston Martin. The worlds media was so well accommodated for. A very large, three story structure of ‘studios’ were built to allow broadcasting to come straight off the location to our lounges.

This five hour broadcasting spectacular was very informative, updating the views on the who’s who of royals and guests, little pieces of general knowledge to liven up the wait, and everything a person could possibly need to know about the day.

For this day, Kate Middleton was a trend setter of note, and as a young well-to-do young lady, she influenced all ages. Today, the fascinators were abound and hats have taken a turn towards strange and creative. There were a lot of matching numbers, as well as some badly pairs outfits. It was a good picture of tradition and respect to see all ladies wearing a head covering of some sort, that is all ladies except Misses Samantha Cameron, the Prime Minister’s wife, who was wearing three small jewels above her ear. The commentator on the BBC broadcast mentioned that this was a poor show from her side.

As a television on-looker, I was able to see most of the on-goings of the day, and besides Princess Catherine's dress, there were two other outfits that blew my mind - The Princesses of York, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Their outfits were gaudy and inappropriate. It's one thing to be fashionable, when you are part of a monarchy, there are limitations and boundaries and unfortunately, they both missed the mark. Horribly.

Most of the one million deep crowd flooded to the palace to hopefully catch a glimpse of the awaited balcony kiss. It was said that just over a million spectators view not one royal peck but two kisses.

Tradition is sometimes hard to break, and in a Royal family, it's often quiet a complicated affair. There were a few things that the couple decided on that strayed a little away from the norm, with a lot of goodness and kindness of the Future King and Queen being showed. Princess Catherine decided that instead of flowers to decorate the Abbey, she and her Prince would have ceiling height Maple trees brought in, and after the ceremony, the trees would be donated and planted in the Grove. Instead of wedding gifts from the national public, the couple asked for donations to be made to charities and Non-Profit Organisations. They chose not to take a honeymoon but the return to life as before the wedding, and take a helpful visit to Africa in the near future.  These wonderful gestures are a sign of all the good that is to come of this couple, and may it last forever.

The marriage between Catherine and William symbolised much more than ever-lasting love and the eternal bond of two people. The wedding celebrated a marriage of past and present, and the most important modern bond of all, the blending of the monarchy and the nation. Kate Middleton entered Westminster Abbey a commoner, although a wealthy one, and left Princess Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, a royal family member.

She has lived through the fairytale every little girl has ever dreamed of, albeit a modern version. The world will be waiting for her to trip up but I'm confident she has enough of a good background to stand by her own right. She has the Prince and now she has a life ahead of her to show the world how much good she can do.



what did you think?

(peace and love)