April 29, 2011

The big day has arrived. It is now 8:00 Eastern time, and no I did not get up a the crack of dawn to watch the beginning of the wedding. Sorry. I did catch the tail end, as the couple Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, made their way outside. News programs here are covering every inch of the wedding. Right now ABC news is interviewing a pub owner that knew/ knows the Middleton’s and had a front row seat at the wedding!

Pictures coming shortly. Just waiting for William and Catherine* to make their way to Buckingham Palace.

Will & Kate Movie Premiere And More

On April 18, Lifetime will final air the Will and Kate movie. The airs Monday night at nine and stars, Nico  Evers Swindell and Camilla Luddington. The film will also air on British Television on April 24th. According to the synopsis on Lifetime’s site, the film chronicles their relationship from close friends to lovers.

Don’t expected this movie to have cinematic greatness of The Kings Speech or even the Queen. You don’t have to take my work  for it, take a look at the trailer:

The movie will also be ready for DVD release on April 25th. But look for our review of the movie next week after the premiere!  

television, for the next few weeks,  will be filled of  nothing but  wall to  wall coverage of the wedding. The Los Angeles Times even was  able to round-up all William and Kate television specials.  And of course on the big day, April 29th, all major news networks will be covering every inch of  the wedding.  Consider yourself warned, Wills & Kate will be  unescapable.

Spotlight Wedding: Prince Khalid & Lucy Cuthbert

Prince Khalid bin Baudar bin Sultan al- Saud   held a discreet wedding on March 30th. The prince the grandson of  the Crown Prince of Saudi  Arabia. The Saudi Royal family is one of the wealthiest in the world and Prince Khalid is one of the heirs to that fortune.

His bride, Lucy Cuthbert is an Englishwoman and the niece of a duke.  She also comes from a wealthy family.

It is not known as to how they met or for how long they have been together. But the couple had a very low-key (especially for a Saudi Prince) wedding at…… guess where!

At the Oxford Register’s office! Which kind of similar to having your wedding at City Hall. One report states that the couple only paid 167 pounds for the ceremony, which is about $273 U.S. dollars.  The bride wore a  simple knee-length white dress and the groom wore a conservative business suit. 

 Unfortunately there is no video of the couple emerging from the Register’s office. It was reported that after a quick photo-op, the couple was whisked away to their wedding reception. After all it’s not everyday that a member of any royal family has such a simple low-key wedding.

The Royal Round Up

 

Royal Wedding preparations are under way across the pond. This past week workers have been  preparing for the large crowds that will gather for the  event.  With two weeks till the big day, workers are making sure the area along the processional route Westminster Abbey is spotless.  In case you have never seen, a british royal wedding or not have never been to England, Google Earth has a great virtual map that  shows the route from Westminster Abbey (where the ceremony is being held) to Buckingham Palace.

In other news, Prince William spoke to a group of reporters   while  he was in on royal duty. He admitted that during the wedding rehearsal, he felt a bit nervous.  The prince said

I was telling everyone i did the rehearsal the other day and my knees started tapping quite nervously. It’s quite a daunting prospect, but very exciting.

Prince William also spoke about  his bachelor party and how he was proud that he and his brother Prince Harry were able to outfox the media with their military operation.  One this day, Prince William was also greeted by his grandmother the Queen, whose hat almost blew away.

Spotlight Wedding: Crown Princess Victoria & Prince Daniel

 

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden defied royal tradition by marrying her personal trainer Daniel Westling.   Her father was not pleased that she was marrying a commoner and under the Swedish Succession Act, the King can  approve on who the princess can marry. If he disapproves they lose the right to the  Swedish throne.

The  Crown Princess wedding was considered by the European press as the biggest royal wedding since Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s decade earlier.   Daniel Westling and the Crown Princess were first pictured together in 2002.  The Swedish press constantly mocked Westling, because he didn’t fit in with the Royal circle.  In 2009, they officially announced their engagement.  Sweden  had wedding fever, memorbilia of the couple were everywhere.

The couple married on July 19, 2010, also her parent’s wedding anniversary. It was the usual Royal wedding ceremony but with a little twist.  The  Crown Princess requested  to walk  down the aisle with her father King Carl XVI Gustav, which is not the tradition in Sweden.    The ceremony was held at the Stockholm Cathedral  and was attended by 1,2000 guest, mostly made up of Royals.  THe ceremony was also televised throughout the world and viewed by about  500 million people.  The  bride wore  a cream-colored  satin gown with a 16 foot train designed by swedish designer  Par Engsheden.  She topped off the look with a gold tiara.  The ceremony ended with the usual royal precession, thru the streets of Stockholm. The couple ended the precession by getting on a  royal boat. Westiling was given the title of His Royal Highness, as well as Dukedom, he is now known as the Duke of  Vastergotland.

Below are snippets from their 2010 wedding, just by looking at the video you can see that they are truly in love  and happy.

Prince Harry:The Best Man and The Spare

One of the duties of the best man is that he plans the bachelor party for the bridegroom.  As we reported  before, Prince Harry  was appointed  by Prince William as his best man. This past weekend, Prince William “quietly” celebrated the end of  his bachelorhood with his brother and a few close friends. The reported “stag – do”  was held at a large estate northern England.  The  guest list hasn’t been revealed and probably never will, however the theme was rumored to be  water sports, only after the originally theme had been leaked to the press. All other secrets are top-secret, the only thing that is confirmed is that the party did take place.

Ironically, this was the last weekend before Prince Harry trip to the Arctic Circle. Yes the Arctic, as in the North Pole. The Prince, sometimes  refered to as “the spare”, well because Prince William is the heir, is the cover boy for the May edition of British GQ.  Prince Harry is promoting his  a new initiative that he calls Walking  with the Wounded, to help raise awareness for the  wounded service men and women who have been injured in Afghanistan*.  He will be embarking on a 200 mile journey that will last  about 30 days. He  has already stated his training in Norway and even managed to speak to Good Morning America.

Check out the video below:

http://www.hulu.com/embed/N5iSNDQ-HCWQ6MN9QEELZg

*It’s important to note that Prince Harry  briefly served in Afghanistan in 2008.

Weighty Katie??

An interesting article was published in New York magazine  recently.  According to many news sources Kate Middleton is on a diet in an attempt to lose “weight” before her April wedding.  Just looking at pictures of her Kate looks no different from how she looked prior to their engagement.

But several sources claim that she is on  a new diet fad called Dukan with her mother. The Dukan diet  is very popular in  France and is  similar  to the famed Atkins diet.  It is a  high protein diet, low carb diet.  The diet gained popularity in 2000 and has been the diet of choice for many Hollywood stars. The diet has four “phases”: attack,  weight loss, stabilization, and cruise.  It has strict rules of not eating any fats or carbohydrates. But what it does boost is rapid weight loss, which might be one of the reason people are attracted to  the diet.

Anyway back to Kate. People in her inner circle feel that she doesn’t need to lose any weight.  Another source says that Prince William would never force Kate to lose any weight, like his father did to his mother.  Of course we don’t know for sure if Kate is even dieting at all.  And if she was, she has as valid reason.  The most important day of her life is coming up her wedding, and she will be sharing with million perhaps billions of people world-wide.

Spotlight Wedding: Crown Prince Naruhito & Crown Princess Masako

Yes, there are other Royal Houses beyond Europe. And in this case we are looking at the Crown Prince of Japan,  Prince Naruhrito and his wife the Crown Princess Masako. One thing we should note is that the Japanese have the oldest hereditary monarchy… yes it is even old that Britain’s. Prince Naruhrito is the  heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. His father is  the current  Emperor of Japan and the Crown Prince is the nest in line for the throne.

Princess Masako was born  Masako Owada. Her father was a Japanese diplomat and she spent her high school years living in the United States where she also attended an American University. She met the Prince in  Tokyo in 1986.  Masako  was only the second commoner to marry into the imperial family. The first being Empress Michiko, who had trouble adapting to the strict protocol of being a royal member. The Empress suffered a nervous breakdown during her marriage.

Prince Naruhito proposed to Masako many times over six years,  before she finally “agreed” to his

"The Crown Prince and Crown Princess in traditional clothing on their wedding day"

request.  The couple officially announced their engagement in December 1992 and they were married the following year on June 9, 1993.   They had a traditional Japanese wedding,  was a modern twist.

The couple both participated in  traditional wedding rituals, such as bathing in  sacred water and wearing a waxed wig, that had 12 layers.  Both the Prince and the Princess wore silk kimonos.  Princess Masako’s  weighed about 30 lbs and cost over &100,000. The couple’s wedding was not a media spectacle if  you compare to Charles and Diana’s wedding.  It was a simple wedding ceremony that lasted about 18 minutes. After the wedding ceremony, the couple changed their outfits and had a procession in the streets of Tokyo.

Princess Masako has proved that it is not that glamorous  to be a princess. She had been rumored to have suffered a nervous breakdown  after suffering many miscarriages and  pressures to produce a male heir. She has not been seen in public events since 2002. The Crown Prince and Princess were invited to Prince William’s wedding but due to the recent disasters in Japan cancelled their appearance.

Below is a video of the couple’s wedding at the Imperial Palace, unfortunately the video is japanese.   Segments  from their wedding, including the procession after can all be found on youtube.

Royal Round- Up

A lot of thing  have been happening. Prince William has been attending to royal duty in Australia, while Kate has been handling last-minute wedding details in England.

The Prince  was spotted in  Australia earlier today.  He was in  north Queensland visiting towns that had been devastated by a cyclone last month.  The prince  braved the  intense Australian heat, flying overhead in a Blackhawk helicopter to survey the damage.  He is currently on royal duty touring areas of Australia and New Zealand that were effected by the flooding.  He was greeted by many well wishers, and even commented  that He might  have a honeymoon in Australia.

Meanwhile, the dress Kate wore during  a fashion show  at St. Andrew College  was sold at a recent auction.  The dress was original meant to be a skirt, but Kate  decided other wise, a caught the eye of Prince William. The dress was sold  to a retired investment banker who collects star memorabilia.

Spotlight Wedding: Prince Charles & Lady Diana

This is a new feature I would like to introduce, we’ll use it as  a way to countdown to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  For  the next few weeks, we will be spotlighting some  of  Royal  weddings of the past.

Let’s start with: Prince Charles and Diana Spencer.

Their wedding was described as The Wedding of the century and a real fairytale. Of course, now we know that  their relationship was any thing but a fairytale.   Just like with  all the media attention  about Prince William and Kate Middleton, it was the same for Charles and Diana.  Their faces were on everything form specialty plates and mugs. collectible coins and of course, the day of their wedding was declared a national holiday.

Prince Charles knew Diana  in passing, but they didn’t become involved until about 1980.  To many people  it seemed like Diana was a perfect match for the prince. She was already a member of the Church of England, a must as being a catholic is a no-no if you want to be in the British royal family. They were engaged (in secret) a year later and married later the same year on July  29th, 1981.  Kate Middleton’s engagement ring is the same one that Charles gave to Diana.

The Wedding of  The Century.

That’s what the press dubbed it. Their wedding  was at  St. Paul’s Cathedral instead of the usual Westminster Abbey.   About  600, 000 people waited along the processional route for a glimpse of the prince and princess. Also the wedding was broadcasted throughout the British Commonwealth and was viewed by about 750 million people.

Diana wore a silk taffeta dress  designed by Elizabeth and David Emmanuel.  The dress was embroidered  with 10,000 pearls and accented with lace, it also had 25 foot train!  She was escorted by her father, John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer.  However, Charles wore a naval commander suit, a tradition carried by most of the men in the British Royal Family.

Charles and Diana’s entire wedding can be viewed on YouTube, below is  a video of the couple after the wedding ceremony.