LONDON — To thunderous applause, Prince William kissed his bride, Catherine Middleton, not once but twice on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after a majestic ceremony at Westminster Abbey that was watched on five continents.
William and Kate, carried along the procession route in the same carriage that brought Diana, Princess of Wales, to her wedding ceremony in 1981, arrived at Buckingham Palace with a pageantry befitting a future king. An escort of mounted cavalry trailed them, followed by the queen in her own covered carriage and Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in an eggplant Rolls Royce.
Singing in the Streets
In the hours leading to the 11 a.m. ceremony, Britons sang in the streets and flooded public spaces.
As elaborately be-hatted guests filed into Westminster Abbey under overcast skies, celebrants lined the parade route. Ashley Hollebone, 29, arrived in London last night from the seaside town of Brighton. He slept in his car, a 1933 Austin 7 — top speed 35 miles per hour — which at 4 a.m. “feels like being in a fridge. But it’s only one night of discomfort. These have been dark, depressing times in Britain and we’ve embraced this. They are a normal couple, go to normal shops and I think people get behind that.”
Craig Herderman, 39, is wearing motorcycle leathers with a Union Jack flag tied around his neck like a cape, which is what he wore driving on the highway from Rochester. “The Mrs. was not happy when I woke up at 3 a.m,” he said, but “it only happens once in a blue moon you can’t not make the effort.”
Louise Ratcliffe, 32, from Leicester, is selling Will and Kate flags, scarves, hand towels, face masks and umbrellas at a dishevelled stand next to one of the two giant TV screens in Trafalgar Square. “We can’t set up properly, people keep buying,” she says. Ratcliffe described the atmosphere as “happy, vibrant — everyone in same mindset. A nice change from the bad economy.” Everything is flying off the stand except Union Jack umbrellas, “but wait until it starts raining.”
The crowd erupted as Prince William and Prince Harry arrived at the Abbey in a two-toned Bentley, William in the striking scarlet uniform of the Irish Guards, followed shortly thereafter by Carole Middleton, the mother of the bride, and members of the royal family.
The bride, who arrived with her father in a sleek Rolls Royce, revealed what the entire fashion industry — and royal watchers worldwide — have been waiting to see. Designed by Sarah Burton, the late Alexander McQueen’s stylistic heir at his enduring label, Catherine Middleton’s v-neck wedding dress was fitted to her trim torso, topped with lace and flowing into a perfectly proportioned long train, with pleats that flattered and didn’t slow her procession into the Abbey. William kept his back to his bride, as tradition dictates, with his brother stealing glimpses at her and her father approaching up the aisle.
The reaction of the jubilant London crowd as the couple were pronounced man and wife was audible inside Westminster Abbey.
Read more at The Washington Post.