Planning pomp and pageantry for royal wedding
Source: Agencies |
March 10, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
FIFTY days and counting down. Behind the scenes hundreds are hard at work to make sure the April 29 royal wedding is a day to remember - not just for Prince William and Kate Middleton, but for Britain.
As the date nears, the machinery that makes a British royal event look, smell and sound like nothing else is kicking into gear.
It is also around this time that the couple will start thinking about how the service will go - and in the case of Kate and William, it may be the time it dawns on them that billions worldwide will watch them as they stand at the altar, said wedding planner Sarah Hayward.
"Around the 50-day mark is quite a dangerous time for a couple planning a wedding," Hayward said. "Generally it's been pretty frenetic up to that point and because it is a point at which things should be done - because it is a dotting of i's and crossing of t's moment - (it) means there's time to actually think about things and possibly panic."
Events on this scale are planned to the second, but many arrangements are carried over from one big event to another. The people behind it will have access to plans for big events like Prince Andrew's 1986 wedding to Sarah, Duchess of York.
Nonetheless, palace staff are doing things any wedding planner might - though with the added task of figuring out how many seconds should pass between the carriages.
"Probably the least busy will be Kate and William themselves," said Hugo Vickers, a royal historian. "You can be quite certain there will be a mass of things going on."
Among tasks will be chasing RSVPs from anyone with the temerity not to answer right away. Based on who is coming and who isn't, that will then lead to the protocol-fraught job of making sure that reigning monarchs - like the King of Norway - get a better seat than, say, a deposed monarch, like the ex-king of Romania. Sometimes it gets tricky with politicians who, while more powerful, might not rank high enough to sit up front.
Then there is the dress - a designer has likely been chosen, but there must be repeated fittings to make everything perfect.
Hayward said this is the moment to make sure everyone involved in the wedding knows where they are meant to be and when - a bit like a running order for a TV program. An apt analogy, since the camera will beam the event to the world.
As the date nears, the machinery that makes a British royal event look, smell and sound like nothing else is kicking into gear.
It is also around this time that the couple will start thinking about how the service will go - and in the case of Kate and William, it may be the time it dawns on them that billions worldwide will watch them as they stand at the altar, said wedding planner Sarah Hayward.
"Around the 50-day mark is quite a dangerous time for a couple planning a wedding," Hayward said. "Generally it's been pretty frenetic up to that point and because it is a point at which things should be done - because it is a dotting of i's and crossing of t's moment - (it) means there's time to actually think about things and possibly panic."
Events on this scale are planned to the second, but many arrangements are carried over from one big event to another. The people behind it will have access to plans for big events like Prince Andrew's 1986 wedding to Sarah, Duchess of York.
Nonetheless, palace staff are doing things any wedding planner might - though with the added task of figuring out how many seconds should pass between the carriages.
"Probably the least busy will be Kate and William themselves," said Hugo Vickers, a royal historian. "You can be quite certain there will be a mass of things going on."
Among tasks will be chasing RSVPs from anyone with the temerity not to answer right away. Based on who is coming and who isn't, that will then lead to the protocol-fraught job of making sure that reigning monarchs - like the King of Norway - get a better seat than, say, a deposed monarch, like the ex-king of Romania. Sometimes it gets tricky with politicians who, while more powerful, might not rank high enough to sit up front.
Then there is the dress - a designer has likely been chosen, but there must be repeated fittings to make everything perfect.
Hayward said this is the moment to make sure everyone involved in the wedding knows where they are meant to be and when - a bit like a running order for a TV program. An apt analogy, since the camera will beam the event to the world.
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