Will & Kate

All right... so who was up with me at 3:00am (or shortly thereafter) on Friday to watch Will & Kate's wedding?

I know some of you were!!

I wouldn't have missed it. And it certainly did not disappoint! :-) All three of my sisters came over and spent the night so that we could watch it together. Keith was in Ottawa on business so he did not have to deal with all the wedding fuss, jitters and giggles that were going on in our house.

Now...in the weeks and days leading up to the wedding, I'd been hearing about fascinators. Totally knew that they would be all the rage/talk of the day and within about 3.4507937264869 seconds of turning the TV on and watching live coverage that morning, I knew I was right. Fascinators everywhere. AWESOME-NESS!!! LeeAnne and I (much to Heather & Vanessa's perturbment!) decided we needed our own fascinators and quickly fashioned them out of paper dinner napkins and hair claws. We looked...SMASHING! The laughs and giggles we got out of it were priceless! :-) Although again, Heather and Vanessa were decidedly unamused by our antics. What.evahhhh!!

We drank carafes of coffee (no tea in china tea cups for us... we needed the java jolt!) and enjoyed chocolates and cherry scones. Now that's breakfast! :-)

Just before 6:00am our mama-bear arrived and joined us to watch the ceremony. We elected to watch it upstairs in bed. Much more comfy! :-)

Max slept through the whole thing in his own room. He watched a bit of the coverage before he went to school in the morning.

Here are my thoughts on Will & Kate's wedding.

1. I thought the entire wedding was absolutely DREAMY! Elegant. Tasteful. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Lovely. It definitely lived up to the hype and excitement! I'll admit it - I'm such a sentimental sappy romantic...where else in "real life" (not movies) do you have the chance to watch such a grand wedding of pomp and circumstance and not have it come across as  ridiculously "tacky" and "pretentious"? No where.  It's exactly what you expect for royalty.

2. The young maple trees lining the aisle in the Abbey. DELIGHTFUL! I think that was one of my most favourite details of the entire wedding. Springtime is my most favourite time of year, especially when the light green leaves start coming out on the trees. I just thought that was such a simple yet brilliant touch. And when you think about it...what an impossible job to start decorating a magnificent building such as the abbey. The trees didn't detract from the setting....they complimented and completed it.

3. Pippa's dress. STUNNING! I have a feeling she would probably look lovely wearing a paper bag if she had to...but that dress was seriously amazing. I loved everything about it. I predict that style could become extremely popular in the next while, especially for destination weddings involving the beach.

4. Kate's dress. PERFECTION! Now while I absolutely adored Pippa's dress....it was too plain and simple for Kate to wear. She looked so elegant in her choice...it's classic and timeless.  Love love loved it!!! I hope this starts a new trend of wedding dresses....I think we're due for a shake-up in styles again. I can't imagine how much work went into the design of that dress. It looks deceptively simple. Did you notice that no matter what Kate was doing, she and the dress looked amazing? When she's was standing still....when she was walking (just loved how it moved and flowed with and around her)....when she was sitting in the carriage....it didn't matter....the dress just looked FABULOUS and so did she! I wished I could have seen her shoes....I'm all about the shoes...I was hoping for a peek of them. Did anyone see them?

5. The Guests. FASCINATING! We had a blast watching all the guests arriving for the three hours leading up to the wedding. As you can imagine, we had our own running commentary going on non-stop about what the ladies were wearing. Fascinators or hats? Or nothing (oh the horrors...those few ladies received low marks from us!) The colours....the styles.....the shoes..... So much fun! The Queen in daffodil yellow (loved it!), Kate's mother (such a modern mother-of-the bride...she nailed it!), the princesses Beatrice & Eugenie...wow!...their hats! LOL! Not sure that I loved their choices of hats and dresses...but they were certainly fun to watch! And the lists could go on. Wasn't it fun that there wasn't just one or two colours being worn? It was a rainbow.  

6. The Wedding Ceremony. TOUCHING! I found it refreshingly simple and beautiful. The music was incredible and the words and comments shared by the priest were touching and applicable to everyone.

7. The Page Boys. ADORABLE! Those two little pageboys.....Loved them! The little bridesmaids were delightful as well...but I'll be honest. I had eyes mostly for the two little boys since I have a little boy right about their age. I just loved watching them in their little uniforms. :-)

8. Favourite moments of the day... I think my most favourite moment of the day was when Will & Kate were leaving the abbey together and going outside through the doors....hearing the bells....the the roar of the crowds outside and....I don't know...but that was the most touching moment for me. I also liked hearing them say their vows. I had no idea what Kate's voice sounded like before this so I was looking forward to hearing her. And of course the balcony kiss(es). ;-) But even more than the kisses....was when the two of them were leaving the balcony...Will looked straight ahead (probably like he's been taught to do all his life!) but Kate looked back and stole that last glance at the crowd (see below). I thought that was awesome!

9. Being Tired. And after this was all over with....I realized how tired I was. The dragging-my-butt-all-day kind of tired that not-even-coffee-could-help kind of tired. I'm sure it didn't help that LeeAnne and I didn't get to bed until 12:30am on Friday morning and then were up at 3:00am...but still. We both said that Friday felt like "New Years Day" years ago when we were MYF age and staying up all night. I had a 20 minute catnap at about 4:30 in the afternoon and that helped to take the edge off and I had my second wind for the rest of the day/evening/night. Funny how that works! :-)

Thanks to LeeAnne for snapping pics to remember this fun early morning. I didn't pick up my camera once. Can you believe it?! :-)

And finally, I know it's past but you can still have fun with this. In honor of the royal wedding that was held on Friday, figure out your royal wedding guest name. Start with either Lord or Lady. Your first name is one of your grandparents' names. Your surname is the name of your first pet, double-barreled with the name of the street you grew up on.

Mine is: Lady Adeline Skipper-Streicher.

HA!!