Confessions of a Royal Wedding Junkie
An “Anglophile” I’m not. My fascination with the lives of the historically famous extends to all periods of history and all parts of our world. It’s a curiosity that grips me, especially when there is an event attracting the public’s attention to the extent the recent wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has. It started months before and, as the date grew closer, became a rising crescendo approaching the level of a worldwide obsession. I must admit that I, too, was becoming as caught up in the crescendo as everyone else.
Would Harry keep his beard for the ceremony or would he be clean-shaven? After all, if he wore his military uniform, protocol requires that uniform dress calls for beardlessness. Who would give the bride away? And, above all, what would THE DRESS look like? Not since Princess Diana married Prince Charles had there been so much conjecture about a wedding dress. Would Harry don a wedding ring?
What about Queen Elizabeth? Would she break with her traditional stoic expression and manage a smile? Was this going to be another parade of outrageously gorgeous hats and beautifully attired wedding guests? And on and on.
What transpired on the big day was like a lovely dream. The bride was strikingly beautiful. And THE DRESS. For me, the only way to describe it is that it was beyond perfect. The children in the wedding party looked and behaved like little angels.
Every detail of the event had been chronicled in magazines, newspapers and “Special Editions,” even including Tyrone and Storm, the two Windsor Gray horses drawing the Ascot Landau carriage through Windsor after the ceremony. Later, the newlyweds sped off to the reception with the bride in a ravishingly beautiful evening gown and her handsome prince transporting her, not on a white steed but at the wheel of his vintage Jaguar convertible.
After weeks of eagerly reading about the royal wedding and hours of listening to TV experts discussing it, I thought my fascination had been sufficiently satisfied. The wedding itself had gone off perfectly. Now we could return to dealing with the world of reality.
Two weeks after the wedding, I was in Dulles International Airport on my return from my granddaughter’s college graduation. I stopped at a newsstand to pick up USA Today, my favorite reading matter when traveling by air. And then I saw it. USA Today had a Special Commemorative Edition of the Royal Wedding of Harry and Meghan — 39 pages of photos, descriptions, analyses and predictions. I succumbed. I bought it, boarded my flight, and settled down to more enjoyable hours reading about this beautiful fairytale come true.
