I can't explain why the Royal Wedding brought tears to my eyes this morning. But wait, before I get started with this blog post I have to put in some disclaimers. I know that not ALL women feel the same way about this. Please don't take offense if weddings are not your thing. I'm not casting aspersions on your femininity. Likewise, please don't insinuate that there is something trivial or flighty about those of us who were excited about the wedding. Isn't variety awesome? We can all like different things. Your thing doesn't get better just because you make my thing look stupid. (Yes, I got pshawed by some ladies at work today.)
The easy explanation for the fervor over today's event is that all girls love a fairy tale wedding. Most of us grew up with a mental filiing cabinet full of wedding ideas and plans stored away until needed. Love that, hate that, that could work...... Colors, dresses, table settings, flowers...... I just went through this with my daughter. She definitely knew what she wanted when she saw it. A bride planning her wedding is like a general laying out battle plans. The fact that my daughter is an engineer brought an added level of planning detail to the party, you should see her spreadsheets.
The easy explanation for the fervor over today's event is that all girls love a fairy tale wedding. Most of us grew up with a mental filiing cabinet full of wedding ideas and plans stored away until needed. Love that, hate that, that could work...... Colors, dresses, table settings, flowers...... I just went through this with my daughter. She definitely knew what she wanted when she saw it. A bride planning her wedding is like a general laying out battle plans. The fact that my daughter is an engineer brought an added level of planning detail to the party, you should see her spreadsheets.
Many women will try to copy as many of the wedding details that their pocketbooks can handle, or settle for a reasonable imitation. Etsy is a website for people to sell their hand-crafted or vintage items. It's a really cool site. Their daily e-mail today was titled "Get the Look" and was filled with items to help brides mirror Kate's look today. At the very least Kate's choices today will set wedding trends that new brides will find hard to escape for years to come. But you can't match the magic of today. I mean Westminster Abbey ?
For me the "dream wedding" is definitely part of it, but it's not the whole answer. It was also about the monarchy. I love history. One of my favorite books of all time was a history of the kings and queens of England. Fascinating stuff, political intrigue, wars, affairs. William is descended from a long line of men and women who were true, bold, conniving, ruthless, brave, stupid, every adjective you can name. Through it all they have endured and the Brits love them. It's sort of contagious. I got goosebumps when William and Kate stepped out of the church and the crowd went crazy.
Another reason this wedding really got to me is how obviously in love the couple was. I don't care what kind of a wedding you're witnessing, that's powerful stuff. I think Diana would be proud that her boy married for love and not out of duty after all she did to raise them as normally as she could.
So as my husband complained about me watching the wedding this morning I reminded him of the snoozefest called the NFL draft that he watched last night. Weddings of those in direct line for the throne of England just don't happen every day. Cut me some slack. I don't think 2 billion people tuned in to see if Detroit finally made a good draft pick. To each his/her own.
My sisters watched it - I forgot!!!! My maiden name was Spencer originally from Ireland many generations ago - we are very very distant rellos to Diana's family so I should have been watching - just having seen both my girls married has made me more knowledgeable as to whats involved and appreciate the whole thing - my wedding was at the court house and reception in the back yard with both our little girls present...but even i can change
ReplyDeleteI didn't weep...but I did smile a lot..it was pretty damn cool.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this, I kind of felt silly for being so excited about the wedding. I too love the history of it, but geez anything so lovely and positive has got to be a good thing, politics aside.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lovely wedding. My favorite line from the ceremony was that all weddings are royal weddings. I loved all the wonderful hats worn by the ladies.
ReplyDeleteThey really are a beautiful couple.
MC - Be happy you're from that side of the family and not that stuffed shirt Charles' side.
ReplyDeleteYDG - It was pretty awesome.
FM - Agreed. We're not silly. We're romantics and God knows the world needs as many of us as it can stand. Oh.... and historians too... we're historians too.
Mom - That's what it all comes down to. That moment when you look into each other eyes and promise to live the rest of your lives together as one. Powerful stuff no matter who's doing the marrying.
I read this right after you wrote it, but was short on time. And now, quite a few days later, I can still say this is/was a post to love for a long time.
ReplyDeleteBest thing of all was getting to read, and so seeing/realizing, a LOT of us anticipate other people's reactions and values and objections.
It's not entirely a waste of time. I mean, it's probably really good practice in empathy.
When it's a required detour to reach the part where you get to finally talk about your passions and interests or, more simply, your point of view, well ... it's revealing (to me, at least). There'd be no reason to start out with disclaimers or positioning or acknowledging that there are lots of subtleties at play if people were a little more able to assume that.
I'm one of the 'weddings are not my thing' women. What an idiot I'd be to think anyone else should feel that way. The beauty and pageantry and romance and ritual of other people's weddings are some of the greatest joys of cultures and peoples and nations.
And besides, it's really sweet that you own so many interesting personality facets.
I think that's enough.