Will and Kate Plus Me (...and two million other people)

As you all know, the Royal Wedding occurred Friday! It was soooooo awesome to be here in London to experience all the festivities. Everyone here at the Centre was all excited last night as we planned where we'd go and when we'd leave. Some people were die-hard and got up at 5 or so this morning and go to Buckingham Palace or Westminster or somewhere along the processional route and get a good spot, which they did. I'm a little jealous because they got way better sightings and pictures (hopefully they'll share!), but I don't think I could've handled standing there for 8 hours. 

The night before, a group of us actually went to Westminster area just to cruise around and check things out. It was our first real night in the city and it was really fun! We walked out of Westminster station and Big Ben and Parliament were RIGHT THERE. So cool. That was one of my first big "I'm in London!" moments.  We walked over by Westminster Abbey, which was crowded and saw the media camped out across the street, as well as plenty of other people. Afterward we walked alongside the Houses of Parliament and then went back by Big Ben and the bridge over the Thames to see the London Eye better. Sorry I don't have any group pics. I'm never the one that takes those on my camera, but I'm working on getting pics from everyone! (PS, I made a Flickr account --kdockum-- where I'll post all my pics for you to look at since it took me over an hour just to upload the ones in this post...I haven't put them there yet, but will soon!)

 Quintessential London

  

 

Westminster Abbey by night

Media hub across from the Abbey

The main entrance, where Will and Kate arrived

 

London Eye patriotically lit up for the wedding!

 Big Ben and me!

And now for the Royal Wedding!

The day of, I decided just to go with the 8am group (which turned into 8:45 thanks to breakfast). We got there by 9:15 so not bad. Buckingham wasn't that crammed yet so we were only 3- 4 deep from the street, but boy did it get crazy later. We were actually trapped there since they barricaded everyone inside the mall by the palace and all the surrounding sidewalks. I knew the tentative schedule of events at Buckingham, so I anxiously watched the minutes tick by as we stood there. Will and Harry were supposed to leave the palace about 10:10 or 10:15, but they actually ran behind schedule by about 20 mins. No one cared though. There was great fanfare and the Royal Guard and a military band marched over to the palace in full force and lined the drive for their departure. The Queen and a duke followed shortly. We actually couldn't see them exit the palace and leave in their fancy cars because we were on the opposite side of the palace from the route that headed to Westminster. However, we did see their cars come through the gate on the way to come pick them up, but there were no royals in them then so it was sad. The group: Corey, Scott, Hannah, myself, and Shelisa. Jason was also there, taking this photo.  However, Kate in her vintage Rolls Royce Phantom we did get to see! It was so exciting. I got a video of her passing by (Forthcoming!). The cars drove quick so I only saw a glance but I could see the veil and the lace and that she was so gorgeous!  That was definitely the highlight at Buckingham for me.  Pippa and the kiddie entourage also passed by right before Kate and her dad. Within a few minutes we they started broadcasting the ceremony at Westminster over some loudspeakers in the mall. We wanted to try and go to St. James's Park nearby to watch it on a big screen but as soon as we headed away from Buckingham we realized that was a bad idea because of the crowds and since the police had blocked everything off, hence we were trapped at the palace (as if that's a bad thing!) so we went back and stood in the crowd till it was over. So we didn't actually see any of the ceremony, but oh well. We couldn't hear the audio as well once we got back, but we could hear the crowd cheer when they did the vows and such so we kind of knew what was happening. I still want to watch the ceremony though. Don't erase it off your DVRs!  We tried to get a spot to see the carriage processional come back to the palace but couldn't get anywhere close. We waited another hour or so from their arrival till the royal family appeared on the balcony for Will and Kate's kiss(es). A bobbie had told us that after the carriages arrived they'd collapse the barricades, so they let everyone into the street, right up close to the gates to see the balcony part. Shelisa and I went out into the street and started wading through the crowd, but we realized the view was actually worse the closer you were! At least it was from the side we were on. It was crazy and you couldn't really see well since there were bodies and heads and people on shoulders everywhere, but I did get a couple of out of focus pictures where you can see Will and Kate, Charles, and the Queen!

 

Buckingham Palace from the side where we stood just across the road

The Queen Victoria Memorial and more of the driveway in front of the palace front

Royal Guard

Royal Guard preparing for Will and Harry's departure

 

Buck Palace with the Royal Standard flying

View into the mall with the media boxes in the back 

 

Beefeaters/Yeoman Warders

Gotta have your commemorative royal family face masks!

Fancy carriage on the way to pick up members of the royal family from Westminster

Patriotic crowd cheering and singing God Save the Queen after the wedding ceremony

THE balcony -- too bad my pictures with them on it are nowhere near this good

Throngs and throngs of crowds! The little rectangular boxes are viewfinders with double mirrors to see above the crowd

Will & Kate and the Royal Family -- zoom in!

 

After the fam left the balcony, the Royal Air Force did a flyover, which was cool, too. After that things were pretty much over, so we headed out of the mall with the masses and walked over to Victoria Station a few blocks away to catch the tube home. We got off at Notting Hill, one of the stops right by the Centre and on the way back we walked past Cafe Diana, a cute little cafe that is an homage to the Princess of Wales, just like it sounds. The walls are covered with pictures of her. As we walked by though, the place was decked out more than usual with streamers, little banners of British flags, and there were a couple of TVs playing news coverage of the wedding. Since we hadn't actually gotten to see the ceremony, we poked our heads in the door for a minute and watched the replays, then the owner or a worker invited us in, so we popped in a sat for a while. The little cafe had other people inside celebrating, so it was a fun atmosphere to be in. We left to go home, but on Bayswater we saw a guy with a newspaper, the free one at all the tubes stops, The Evening Standard, with Will and Kate walking down the aisle on it. It was a special rushed wedding edition that they put out a few hours after the wedding. So we asked him where to get them, and he said Queensway station, which is just at the other end of Bayswater from Palace Court. We rushed down there and grabbed our commemorative copies. It has like 40 pages of pictures and articles about the wedding! They even put out another batch later that had a picture of their kiss, so I have two commemorative April 29, 2011 Royal Wedding newspapers. So there you have it, my Royal Wedding experience. Extra! Extra!