By Maria Puente, Ann Oldenburg and Olivia Barker, USA TODAY
The prep work is about to pay off: In less than 12 hours, Kate Middleton gets a husband, the U.K. gets a new princess and the world watches what's being dubbed the wedding of the decade.
By CARL COURT, AFP/Getty Images
Kate Middleton arrives at the Goring Hotel in central London.
By CARL COURT, AFP/Getty Images
Kate Middleton arrives at the Goring Hotel in central London.
Months of carefully managed preparations conclude Friday when Prince William of Wales and his fianc�, Catherine "Kate" Middleton, wed in a ritual blending tradition, pageantry and modernity under the gaze of a billion eyes and millions of tweets.
It has been a little more than five months since the couple announced their long-awaited engagement ? 22 weeks and three days for the PR-canny couple and the palace news operation to dribble out day by day the myriad details of a ceremonial state wedding. Add to that the tidbits British reporters wormed out of their sources, and the countdown to this wedding has driven the anticipation level to dizzying heights, especially in the American and British celebrity media, among the 7,000-strong mob prepared to invade London to cover the nuptials.
The worldwide public interest is understandable: He is a future king, she a future queen. For the British, that's enough.
Yet, Americans also are riveted despite only a handful of well-known-in-America celebrity guests, such as Elton John and Rowan "Mr. Bean" Atkinson.
More accurately, how could you avoid it?
All the major broadcast networks and cable news outlets, plus some less-traditional video venues, are providing coverage of the nuptials live, from London, following the official royal schedule:
? 3:15-4:45 a.m. Arrivals at Westminster Abbey.
? 5-6 a.m. Royal family, royal couple travel from Buckingham Palace to the abbey.
? 6 a.m. Service begins.
? 7:15-7:30 a.m. Carriage procession
back to Buckingham.
? 8:25 a.m. The bride and groom and their families make the traditional appearance on the balcony, give the royal wave.
? 8:30 a.m. Fly-by by the Royal Air Force
and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
And for those viewers who would rather not give up a minute of sleep for this romantic event, networks and cable channels will be reprising the royal doings throughout the day (Oprah Winfrey with live correspondents on the scene) and in prime-time specials.
William and Middleton acknowledged the outpouring of attention in a message posted to officialroyalwedding2011.com on Thursday. "We are both so delighted that you are able to join us in celebrating what we hope will be one of the happiest days of our lives. The affection shown to us by so many people during our engagement has been incredibly moving, and has touched us both deeply."
The couple were seen ducking into Westminster Abbey Wednesday night for a 90-minute rehearsal. Middleton practiced walking down the aisle with her father, Michael Middleton, and bride and groom read through their vows, according to Sky News. Middleton is said to have "squealed" with delight when she saw the decorated Abbey.
There were more breathlessly documented sightings Thursday: Kate leaving Clarence House for another run-through at the Abbey (amid all the last-minute prep work, her groom got some down time in Tuesday when he followed a South London soccer match with pals with a Ducati ride back to St. James's Palace). Prince Harry waving through the window of his car to well-wishers on the street. Camilla Parker Bowles venturing out to The Mall to greet the camped-out crowds.
When asked how she was feeling, the Duchess of Cornwall replied: "We're all ready for tomorrow ? it's wonderful and all very exciting! There's a great atmosphere out here, and it's so nice to meet people and see how the celebrations are getting underway," according to the official wedding website.
Reporters and commentators, such as Barbara Walters, have gone on endlessly about the "fairy-tale" aspects of this wedding and its potential to rival the grand 1981 nuptials of William's parents, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
Still, what stands out about this multi-million-pound spectacle (paid for by the royal family and Middleton's millionaire parents) and $32 million security challenge (paid for by British taxpayers) is its unprecedented modernity, unlike any before in royal history. No longer are stuffy royal bureaucrats solely in charge; the couple themselves have taken significant control.
"Prince William and Miss Middleton are firmly at the helm. The wedding will reflect (their) wishes," Nick Loughran, a press officer for the prince, said in a statement.
"(They) have made it quite clear, right from the start, that they would like their wedding day to strike the right balance between intimacy and providing an occasion that can be enjoyed by everyone," he added.
To wit: The couple played a big role in choosing the music, a mix of trumpet fanfare, hymns and anthems, including one, This Is the Day Which the Lord Hath Made, written by British choral composer John Rutter as a wedding gift. They, too, mostly picked the flowers, which are all native to Britain. The design is a "very natural, romantic look," according to a flower arranger quoted on the official wedding website.
And speculation is growing about the hand the pair is having in crafting their vows after Middleton was photographed leaving her family home in Bucklebury Wednesday with a sheaf of paper visible in the back seat of the car that included the passage "With so much love within our hearts." While the passage could be from a separate reading, it opens the possibility that they might be writing their own vows.
There are only a few important secrets left to learn, probably Friday: What will she wear, where will they honeymoon, and what will the new royal couple be called? Will they be duke and duchess or Prince and Princess William of Wales? Queen Elizabeth II, if she grants a gift of a new title for her grandson, would likely do so Friday morning.
Same goes for the wedding dress designer, who will be revealed only when Middleton steps out of her Rolls Royce at the door to Westminster Abbey shortly before 11 a.m. local time. (On Wednesday, an 8-foot garment carrier spotted at the Goring Hotel, where the Middleton family is staying, was rumored to be carrying the gown.) The palace plans to issue a press release on the designer soon after the service starts. Knockoff artists are already planning to replicate the dress, with one available for purchase Monday for $698 at Nordstrom.
As for the honeymoon, reports on where they will go emerge daily. The latest, according to The Sunday Telegraph, is they're considering a tour of southern Jordan to see the famous ancient ruins of Petra, despite recent unrest in the country where Middleton spent a part of her childhood.
'They're running it'
The prince and princess-to-be just might get their way, as they have throughout much of the planning of their wedding, whether it's the decoration on their cake, the choice of charities to benefit from donations in lieu of gifts, Middleton's choice of younger sister Pippa as her maid of honor, or the music and performers at the service.
Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to the queen who will be commentating on the wedding for Sky News, says Will & Kate are unlike previous royal couples. "They're running it and they're doing what they want to do within reason," he says. "They've been together for eight years, which is unprecedented, they've lived together on and off, which is unprecedented, they've both been to university ? they are a very much their own people, a very modern couple."
Middleton decided on the cake and who would make it, choosing a classic English fruit cake by pastry chef Fiona Cairns, cakemaker to the likes of U2's Bono and Paul McCartney, whose concoctions had been enjoyed by the couple at other weddings. It will be multi-tiered, and the cream-and-white frosting will be decorated with a British floral theme using a traditional technique of intricate piping to create 3-D scrollwork, leaves and flowers.
"She is very much the inspiration behind the cake," says Cairns, who met with Middleton after she was chosen in February. "She gave us her ideas and pictures, drew the list of the flowers. She is in charge and has been guiding us. She's quite hands on and that's good."
William, who turns 29 on June 21, is a strong-minded young man. Middleton, 29, exudes self-confidence as the first middle-class commoner to marry a future king in more than three centuries and the first college-educated bride to marry a future king. According to Arbiter and scores of other royals watchers, the palace minders have relaxed, having learned lessons from the semi-arranged marriage of William's parents.
"He appears to have quite strong views about what he wants and how he thinks things should be done, and it appears to be that things should be more modern and open and accessible," says Rosalind Coward, a British academic and journalist, author of a Diana biography, and a visiting researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. "If he had chosen someone based on all the usual royal protocols, well, she's not from the usual gene pool."
William 'chose' Kate
Indeed, that is the biggest difference ? and authentic fairy-tale aspect ? between this wedding and Diana's wedding and so many other royal weddings dating back hundreds of years: He chose her, says Hugo Vickers, a royal historian (latest book: Behind Closed Doors, about the final years of the Duchess of Windsor) who will be commenting on the wedding for Associated Press TV. "He has complete freedom of choice about whom he marries. This is not a dynastic or arranged marriage, there's nothing arranged about it," Vickers says.
Another major difference, he says, is the palace media operation, which has embraced the digital world by opening Facebook and Flickr accounts and launching multiple royal websites filled with pictures, interviews, speeches, video, interactive maps and other details. The palace even plans to live-stream the wedding on YouTube.
"They've been Twittering!" Vickers says, amused. "What the palace has done since the Princess of Wales was killed (in a car crash in Paris in 1997), when they were (called) out on PR, is that now they are much better at releasing information, staging things, feeding the press. They're not covering anything up" as was done at some previous royal weddings.
And yet today's technology means that locals don't need to head to the (likely rainy) streets to soak up the pomp and circumstance: Every detail can be watched from the comfort of your recliner ? which means that some are wondering if the assembled masses will be as big as they were in 1981.
Of course, the couple are not totally in charge ? their wedding is a state event, after all, says Brian Hoey, a veteran royals correspondent and biographer (latest book: We Are Amused: A Royal Miscellany), who will be covering the wedding for BBC Radio. For instance, he says his royal household sources told him William wanted a semi-private wedding in the more intimate St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where Prince Charles married in 2005.
"But the queen wants her grandson and future king to have a state-occasion wedding and William has gone along," Hoey says. "The queen has the final say in everything."
Adapting to modern times
Politics is playing a role, too, including when it comes to the guest list. On Thursday, in response to mounting public complaints that a representative of Syria would be attending, Prime Minister David Cameron revoked the invitiation to the country, which has seen hundreds of its people killed during the last month in an uprising against the current authoritarian regime.
Among past prime ministers, there's grumbling that former Labor leaders Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are not invited but that former Conservative PMs John Major and Margaret Thatcher are (Thatcher declined because of ill health). Palace officials said the move was not a snub but a matter of protocol: Brown and Blair are not Knights of the Garter (the highest order of chivalry), but Major and Thatcher are.
Still, Hoey says, the queen, too, has adapted to modern times, hosting the midday reception luncheon for about 650 at Buckingham Palace after the wedding. "Normally at a royal wedding, only about 60 people are invited back for what was called the wedding breakfast, just immediate family and other visiting royalty," Hoey says. "(This) is a much more democratic, informal wedding than they've ever had, far less stuffy."
One signal of the couple's approach: They invited leaders of some of the charities William is involved with, such as the Tusk Trust, to the wedding. Charlie Mayhew, founder and CEO of the trust, which aims to conserve African wildlife in a way that sustains local human communities, and his wife, Caroline, will be among the guests in the Abbey.
"It's a huge honor ? it's the first time I've been to a royal wedding and probably my last," jokes Mayhew. He says the prince is genuinely passionate about his charity work, and about Africa. "He is hugely popular and rightly so," he adds. "He's got a wonderful sense of humor, a quick wit, he puts you at ease immediately. He engages in conversation completely effortlessly. He's a pleasure to work with, not stuffy at all."
He and Middleton also are aware of appearances in a time of economic distress in Britain. "One thing they need to do, which is incredibly difficult, is walk a fine line to being sensitive to (the economy) and displays of excess," says Leslie Carroll, an American author of books about royal history (Royal Pains). "But they're damned if they do and damned if they don't, plus pomp and pageantry is fabulous for tourism and morale."
The couple are following some traditions: He gave her Diana's sapphire engagement ring, and she will wear a wedding ring of Welsh gold, a royal family custom dating back nearly a century. He will not wear a ring, a custom among the men in his family, who prefer signet rings.
Another sign of the couple's personal touch: The groom's cake, which has not been customary in Britain. The chocolate biscuit (or cookie) cake, based on a royal recipe and a tea-time favorite of William's, will be made by Paul Courtney for McVitie's Cake Company, famous for its tea biscuits and wedding cakes for royals.
An older bridesmaid
Also a departure from royal custom: An adult maid of honor. Usually royal brides choose young royal relatives as bridesmaids and page boys, as the couple have done, but Middleton also wanted sister Pippa to be part of the bridal party, opposite brother Prince Harry as William's supporter or best man.
"Her sister would have been part of the wedding if she had married anyone else in the country," says Carley Roney, editor-in-chief of TheKnot.com, a wedding website. "It's a wonderful balance, they're not rejecting tradition and they're embracing modern trends."
Modern it may be but this wedding won't lack pomp and circumstance. After all, tradition-minded Brits are acknowledged masters of pageantry.
So there will be antique coaches and hundreds of horses mounted with military riders in scarlet-and-gold uniforms, parading down The Mall as an estimated 1 million people line the street and millions more watch on giant screens set up in major parks.
The BBC's three dozen cameras inside the Abbey will capture every moment as the bride glides down the aisle with her father toward the high altar, as trumpets sound and boy choristers warble. The 75-minute ceremony will feature blessings, hymns and readings, and the couple will recite the traditional Anglican vows from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. (Their vows will be instantly available online for download.) Then they return to Buckingham Palace to wave from the balcony and (probably) exchange a kiss, as two formations of Royal Air Force aircraft roar overhead in what the British call a fly-past.
Then it's time to party: First, politely, at the reception hosted by the queen for about 650 at Buckingham Palace, and then "knees up," as the Brits say, at a dinner/dance gala hosted by Prince Charles at the palace for about 300 of the couple's younger friends and relatives.
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