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| The Royal couple |
The whole world will be watching when Prince William, second in line to be the King marries Miss Kate Middleton tomorrow. One of the most important things about this wedding is that, bride and groom will not be accepting wedding gifts and they have created a charitable gift fund to help celebrate their wedding. The fund will focus on
assisting charities, which sup
port the five causes chosen by the couple and they have asked that anyone wishing to send them a wedding gift consider doing so in the form of a donation to the fund. The five charities are: Children fulfilling their potential, support for Services personnel and their families, changing lives through art and sport, help and care at home and conservation for future generations.
The most lavish wedding to date was that of Charles and Diana who married 30 years ago on July 29, 1981, at St Paul's Cathedral. It was also the BBC's biggest and most expensive outside broadcast ever and their son's Royal Wedding is set to be a global media extravaganza with the biggest audience in television history with an estimated 2.4 billion, more than double that of his parents. An estimated 400 million-plus will also watch the ceremony online. The first royal wedding to be filmed was that of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the late Queen Mother, and the Duke of York in 1923. The current Queen's wedding, on a wintry day in November 1947, was the first to be televised and broadcast live, to 42 countries.
moreWestminster Abbey
In 1981, Princess Diana and Prince Charles both stumbled over their vows. Diana promised to 'take thee Philip Charles Arthur George' - getting her husband's names in the wrong order. That evening Prince Andrew joked, 'She's married my father!', and everyone hope William and Kate will not make such blunders.
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| Born to a common family - Carole Middleton with her eldest child Kate |
While London in its leafy spring greenness for the big day, the Westminster Abbey will be majestic, flower-filled, with the sparkle of 16 crystal chandeliers, its pageantry, pealing bells, music and choirs. Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was held there in 1997. In the streets, five crimson-lined horse-drawn carriages will be seen, and everywhere proudly rippling flags and hundreds and thousands of people in cheering crowds. More than 5,500 street parties are expected to mark the royal wedding. London leads the way with more than 800.
It has emerged that Prince William and Kate Middleton have banned beer from their Wedding reception as the final seating arrangements and guest list are announced.
Prince Harry, known as a party boy who is often spotted enjoying rugby matches or nights on the town with a pint, will have to make do with the champagne and canapes being offered to the other guests. Neither bride nor groom will be drinking on their wedding day, as they want to make the most of it.
It is also well-known that Miss Middleton has never particularly enjoyed drinking - preferring to sip one small glass of wine.
British ingredients
Almost every detail of the wedding is now complete and Royal chefs have hinted at what guests will be tucking into on William and Kate's big day. The team of caterers has prepared 15,000 canapes for when guests arrive at the Palace at 12.40pm including quail's eggs with celery salt, mini Yorkshire puddings with roast beef and mini sausage rolls.
A select 300 people will then sit down to a three-course evening meal using the best of British ingredients. William and Kate have chosen Fiona Cairns from Leicester to create their wedding cake - a multi-tiered traditional fruitcake decorated with cream and white icing.
In Westminster Abbey the Royal Family and the Middletons will rub shoulders with heads of states, kings, princes and princesses and aristocrats, and some rather more ordinary folk besides.
The landlord of Kate Middleton's local pub and her family postman have made the 1,900-strong guest list.
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| Born to Royalty - Princess Diana at the Buckingham palace with William |
Some of the celebrities invited includes, Sir Elton John - close friend of Princess Diana, Guy Ritchie - Madonna's ex-husband and famous film director, Rowan Atkinson, known as Mr. Bean who is a close friend of Prince Charles, and singer Joss Stone as well as footballer David Beckham and his singer designer wife Victoria Beckham.
Sir Trevor Brooking: Former England player is now director of football at the Football Association, of which William is President, Sir Clive Woodward - former coach for the England rugby team, Mike Tindall- England rugby player who is engaged to Zara Phillips, Gareth Thomas - Wales's most-capped player and Ian Thorpe-Australia's five-time Olympic gold medallist are all in the guest list.
Diana's brother Earl Spencer will be there with his wife to be and also with Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Diana's eldest sister, who once dated Prince Charles. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, her husband Daniel Westling, King of Swaziland Mswati III, Sultan of Oman and King of Tonga are some of the foreign Royals invited.
Wedding dress
When Princess Diana married, everyone marveled at her wedding dress and knowing that, Kate Middleton has vowed to reveal nothing about her wedding dress until the moment she enters Westminster Abbey tomorrow. But most believe that she has actually designed it herself.
According to one impeccably placed source, Kate has taken inspiration from her History of Art degree, particularly the Renaissance period.
Few days ago, Sophie Cranston, of the low-key label Libelula, was tipped as the creator of the wedding dress. Miss Cranston, 34, won the Designer of Year award at London's Graduate Fashion Week in 1999.
Although Prince William will be a future king, and his mother Diana also was from a Royal family with one of her ancestors being a former King of England, Kate Middleton comes from a middle class family. Prince William arrived in the world at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London, on June 21, 1982 courtesy of the Queen's own surgeon-gynecologist, Sir George Pinker. Naturally, William's first photoshoot was a high-profile affair - taken at Kensington Palace by Lord Snowdon. Kate was born five months earlier than her future husband on January 9, 1982 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading.
Her ancestors include carpenters and coalminers a world away from the nobility. For it was when Carole Middleton was heavily pregnant with Kate, her first child, and unable to continue working as a British Airways air hostess, that she started making up children's party bags which she sold to friends and neighbours, later the business grew and Michael Middleton gave up his job at the airline and joined his wife on the business.
By the year 2000, a year before Kate went up to St Andrews and first met Prince William, the mail-order firm was on the Internet, employed ten people and was handling more than 1,000 orders a week. Today, thanks largely to the royal romance and then the engagement announcement, Kate Middleton's family business appears to be booming and Party Pieces employs 30 staff working out of two large converted farmhouses near the family's home in rural Berkshire. The Middletons are part-owners of the racehorse 'Sohraab'. Last week Kate Middleton's family was awarded their own coat of arms. Although royal bride-to-be Kate was entitled to apply for a heraldic design in her own right, it was her father, Michael, who actually entered the petition. This gives his entire family including his other children, Pippa and James, as well as wife Carole the right to use the emblem.
In the run-up to the Royal Wedding, the whole world is enjoying the craze and the Royal couple's image has appeared in many products worldwide starting from tea bags to bizarre items like condoms. Prince William's likeness has appeared on tea towels, plates and cufflinks and many other items of memorabilia. But even the Prince himself wouldn't have expected to be immortalized as an animated Disney character. Prince William and his grandmother Queen Elizabeth have inspired two new characters in the upcoming Pixar sequel Cars 2, of the box office hit movie Cars. A week ago famous singer and friend of Diana George Michael released a song for the Royal couple and apparently the couple are very pleased with the track and have given it the Royal seal of approval.
Prince William is set to arrive at Westminster Abbey on April 29 - along with his best man, Prince Harry, at 10.15am, while bride Kate will not turn up until 11am.
As 150 soldiers and their steeds who will escort Prince William and Kate Middleton through the busy streets of London on their wedding day, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment has completed a string of major rehearsals in Hyde Park, and also been training the horses in preparation for the wedding day. Capt James Hulme said: "Past reports from such large scale national celebrations have highlighted the huge noise from the crowds, and when riding towards Westminster Abbey, we expect to have to ride through a wall of sound. Apparently it is like riding horses though the middle of a rock concert."
Despite earlier predictions that the sun would shine on the royal newlyweds, updated forecasts yesterday indicated a strong chance of a traditional April shower. But no matter what, the whole world awaits to see the Royal wedding tomorrow, something that one may see once in a lifetime.
