Prince Harry and his bride, the former Meghan Markle, dressed in a Givenchy wedding gown and with Queen Mary's diamond bandeau tiara pinning her lengthy veil to her hair, are nowenjoying the first of two receptions at Windsor Castle following their gospel music-inflected royal wedding where they said their vows before a watching world and tens of thousands on hand outside castle walls cheering them on.
After months of hype and hope, plus the family turmoil of the last few weeks, their royal wedding went off without a hitch Saturday under brilliant skies at ancient Windsor Castle amidst moving scenes of grace and unfettered joy and the magical pageantry that only the British royals can conjure.
Hundreds of their friends and relatives watched them say "I will" inside St. George's Chapel, and huge crowds outside the castle walls watched the ceremony on giant screens or lined their carriage route to wave and cheer.
And the kiss? It was brief but meaningful, as they stood at the top of the steps of the west doors of the chapel and acknowledged the crowds before boarding their fairy-tale carriage.
Their hour-long, unprecedented wedding ceremony featured royal and Anglican tradition infused with American gospel music and an American Episcopalian preacher who delivered a rousing address that quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr about love and fire. It was the sort of sermon rarely heard in Anglican services, let alone royal ones.
It was a signal of sorts: This wasn't a typical royal wedding, and they won't be a typical royal couple. A prince of the United Kingdom has wed a woman who would have been considered unsuitable just 10 years ago: American, an actress, divorced, biracial and older than the royal groom.
Now she joins a 1,000-year-old monarchy steeped in history, tradition and rigid custom, struggling to maintain its relevance by adapting to a more flexible definition of how to be a modern royal. She could be one of the new royal stars who can help them do that, as she adapts her American self to them.
The couple invited 2,640 people to watch them and their guests arrive at and depart from the chapel, including 1,200 people nominated by authorities in nine of the United Kingdom’s regions, as well as charity workers, local school children and employees of the queen.
The 600 guests who attend the ceremony now are mingling at a reception in St. George's Hall in the castle, hosted by Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, where they will nosh on "bowl food" and get a taste of the lemon elderflower wedding cake (by an American baker) that contains, among other ingredients, 200 Amalfi lemons.
In the evening, 200 guests will move to Frogmore House nearby on the castle estate to enjoy a sit-down dinner hosted by Prince Charles the Prince of Wales, Harry's father and the man who stepped in for Meghan's absent-and-ailing father to walk her part-way down the aisle to the altar.
#ROYAL WEDDING 2018: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially married
![#ROYAL WEDDING 2018: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially married]()
Reviewed by Joss Ken
on
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Rating:
Posts
No comments: