I've Got A Bad Case of Royal Wedding Fever!
I'll admit it - I'm obsessed with every little detail of the upcoming royal wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle (who I loved on Suits before she started dating Harry). I stalk Google and the royals' social media accounts for the latest news. Who will design THE DRESS? What will it look like? I can't wait!
If you read my previous article about royals-related streaming content to watch, you know there is an actual reason for my obsession.
Family at Windsor Castle
From the time I was 8 until I was 12, my family lived in Wales for my father's job. That's a magical age to live in a land of princes and princesses. I had my very first camera, a Kodak Instamatic, and snapped pictures as we traveled around touring our temporary home. Looking through them now, it seems that half the photos I took had some kind of connection to royalty or royal history. Britain is steeped in it.
Buckingham Palace
In 1981, while we were still living in Wales, was when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. The wedding was enchanting to a starry-eyed ten year old girl. I was the perfect age to fall in love with the fairytale, and avidly followed all the wedding details.
Royal Wedding Scrapbook
I even made my first ever scrapbooks of the royal wedding of Charles and Diana, carefully clipping and saving newspaper photos. Twenty years later I would be working in the scrapbook industry making scrapbook pages with beautiful decorative supplies, but these first scrapbooks were made with simple books with construction paper pages and glue sticks.
Royal Wedding Scrapbook
I have two whole scrapbooks full of newspaper clippings from the wedding itself. A third scrapbook is about half full of clippings about the birth of Prince William and some things about the Queen. (We returned to the U.S. before Prince Harry was born.) I also accumulated a major collection of royal wedding souvenirs, including a binder, Coke bottle, notebooks, pin, postcards, leather bookmarks, playing cards, and commemorative coin.
Royal Wedding Souvenirs
The new princess quickly became one of my idols. Even after coming home to the U.S. I continued to follow her and the growing princes. I will never forget where I was when I learned the unspeakable news of Princess Diana's death. My husband and I had stayed up all night practically holding our breaths while watching CNN as it became increasingly obvious that the news about the princess was bad. Even though we already suspected it was the case, the confirmation of the news took my breath away. It didn't seem possible.
Place de l'Alma
The past two years, during visits to Paris, I've visited the impromptu memorial to Diana at Place de l'Alma over the tunnel where the fatal accident occurred. It's a moving experience.
Anyway...so given all of this, you can imagine how excited I am about the latest royal wedding! Not only is it one of Princess Diana's boys getting married, but we are finally getting an American princess too. And it's an actress whose work I've enjoyed. This time around, unlike with Prince William's wedding, my daughter understands what is happening and is excited too. And, as a special gift to me, Harry and Meghan are getting married on my birthday!
An event like this definitely calls for a party! So we're planning a royal wedding watch party, and in our next few articles we'll be showing you how you can do it too - easily and on a budget! So come along and join the party...we're going to have a royally good time!
Click to read the whole royal wedding tea party blog series!
