The. Royal. Wedding.

[Bugbear]

Thanks, EagleJCS and Tim Little, for the descriptions of the uniform and Catherine's arms.

And hope your asparagus grows well, Pleater.

[auld argonian]

The old planes were Spitfire, Lancaster and Hurricane.

Then the modern Tornadoes and Typhoons went over -

No I wasn't watching I just happened to turn on the TV.

As my dad worked on Lancasters, and the old Typhoons and some others when he was in the RAF I expect I got a ghostly poke to turn on to see them.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Sorry..I was thinking "Lancaster" but typed "Lancashire"...probably because I've been listening to too much George Formby lately...

Best

AA

[fluter]

As an engineer I often catch myself sarting off an answer with 'Depends.

Probably not a good idea to answer The Question with 'Depends.

I sometimes do! It's more fun than saying "Well, it depends..."

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I did get a kick out of the shamrocks on his collar. I wonder how citizens of the Republic felt about that.

For most of us (myself included) Prince William's collar insignia a non-event, not merely because the shamrock isn't the national emblem of Ireland, but because the Irish Guards was formed in 1900, and pre-dates independence. The Irish Guards was formed at the insistence of Queen Victoria specifically to honour those Irish who had valiantly served in the Anglo-Boer Wars. Even today a large number of recruits to "Irish Regiments" of the British army (including the Guards) come from the Irish Republic, as do the horses ridden by the Household Cavalry.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

These are superb arms, brilliantly painted.

[Lime]

A word of caution: I wouldn't describe it as being an "Irish title" - apparently some people have been arguing over this for a couple of years now. Carrickfergus, although geographically in Ireland, is in the United Kingdom.

[Mike_Oettle]

For those interested in flags, there was a Georgian flag being waved quite close to Buck House (as the royals refer to Buckingham Palace). It was on the BBC footage, but I didn’t see it at all on the E! channel. (Georgia’s flag is a red cross on white, like the English flag, but has four additional small red crosses, one in each quarter.)
I also spotted one representing Gibraltar, at least one Australian flag, and (also near the palace) a large South African flag. I spotted thousands of Union Jacks (many with the additional inscription Will and Kate), a lot of silly hats with badly worked Union Jacks on them, a great many St George cross flags, a few St Andrew’s crosses (including one that had been sewn onto the first quarter of a Union Jack), and lots of Welsh flags (they could have been waved by folk from Cymru, or they might simply have represented William as a prince of Wales [as opposed to the Prince of Wales, who is his father], or as a resident of Wales [RAF Valley, in Anglesey].)
Kilts were much less in evidence. I believe I saw two among the guests at the Abbey church, and none in the crowds.
Both the York girls, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, seated with their father, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, were badly dressed and had hideous hats on. Beatrice (when she was a girl her mother apparently called her Beetroot) was the one sitting behind the Queen.
It is a royal tradition dating back to the Middle Ages that royal princes are named dukes on their wedding day.
The Prince of Wales does not usually fall into this tradition, because as soon as his parent (in the case of Charles, his mother) becomes the sovereign, the heir apparent becomes Duke of Cornwall.
But you will recall that Andrew became Duke of York on his wedding day. Prince Edward was unusually made an earl but not a duke, but this is apparently because he will be the next Duke of Edinburgh.
Tony Armstrong-Jones was made Earl of Snowdon on the morning of his wedding to Princess Margaret, but Angus Ogilvy chose not to take a title when he married Princess Alexandra, and was only made a knight many years later.
A further tradition regarding titles is that a royal duke is almost invariably also given an earldom and a barony, and that they are distributed around the UK.
William’s earldom is in Scotland, and his barony in Northern Ireland.
Prince Philip was only made a prince of the realm some years after his marriage (having renounced his Greek and Danish titles prior to his engagement to Princess Elizabeth), but on his wedding day became Duke of Edinburgh (Scotland), Earl of Merioneth (Wales) and Baron Greenwich (England).
I watched the BBC news feed live during the day, but when my wife watched the re-run of the E! footage in the evening I watched that with her. The US member of the commentary team was Giuliana Rancic (of Giuliana and Bill), who did not impress me much. The whole E! team was constantly gossiping and giggling, and Giuliana seemed to do a great deal of both. But what struck me particularly was her pronunciation of Buckingham Palace – like so many English placenames, this one also is clipped back, to Bucking’m.
Perhaps it’s just as well she did not read out the Queen’s marital titles as Duchess of Edinburgh, Countess of Merioneth and Baroness Greenwich – I am sure she would have said Green-wich, rather than the correct Gren-ich.
Regards,
Mike

[Bugbear]

Did they ever show Sir Elton in any of the coverage?

[Morris at Heathfield]

I always thought it was pronounced "Bucknam Pellis".

In Dallas and Richardson there's a street called Greenville Avenue, where the St. Patrick's Day parade is held. I'm often tempted to pronounce it "Grenvul".

Oh, and...not long ago I found out my ancestral home was pronounced "Heffle".

[EagleJCS]

Ted, they did on ABC. He was dressed quite conservatively - for him. He wore morning dress: dove grey slacks, a black jacket, white pocket square just peeking out of the breast pocket, a yellow waistcoat with a peaked bottom - not straight across, a standard point-collar white shirt with french cuffs, and a purple tie.

His partner, David Furnish, was similarly dressed, but with a dove grey waistcoat with white trim at the collar and a charcoal grey tie. Hard to tell from the video images.