The Royal Wedding madness

Royal Wedding kemarin memang salah satu event yang ditunggu tunggu, dan berlangsung Sabtu kemarin. Royal Wedding celebration ini dibahas dari berbagai macam aspek: berita utama, politik, fashion sampe adiknya Kate:) Saya sendiri nonton di TV cable dan gonta ganti channel yang muncul sama semua...memang hampir kebanyakan dari kita yang tiap hari mendengar berita reguler dan entertainment channel yang seputar itu ituu aja, rasanya real life fairy tale story ini membantu menyemangati kita untuk melihat hal dari sisi yang positif, like watching happy ending story. There is this good feeling after watching it

Salah satu team KINDERPLAYS yang kebetulan tinggal di Inggris (kadang bertugas menjadi supplier alat alat pesta KINDERPLAYS) cerita via tel mengenai event tersebut, dan saya memintanya untuk sharing cerita dan foto. Eek, she enjoyed the Royal Wedding weekend lives!

Apa saja persiapannya?

Semalam sebelum acara @seasideview and friends menyiapkan bekal:  chicken sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, sausage rolls, chocolate bars, grapes and bottled water siap bertualang ala Lima sekawan! Ga lupa tiga camera, camcorder dan binocular. Obviously with British weather they needed our coats and umbrella.

Berikut ceritanya:

"With the preparation all done, we just had to get dressed in the morning and have breakfast in the morning. I decided to 'dehydrate' myself so I won't need to get into one of the portaloos in the park. We even had time to face-painted a small British flag on on our left cheek but Indonesian at hearts. We've searched for the Union Jack flags the day before to bring with us but we couldn't find any! We left it a little too late and they were sold out everywhere. We did buy exactly the same Union Jack's plastic rings from Accessorize although we didn't tell each other we were buying it. Great minds think alike!

We started our journey at 6.30 am and we were quite surprise that the tube were not as full of people at 7 am as we would have thought but there were more people than usual on a public holiday. We looked like hooligans compared to the rest of people in the tube but we could see that they were going to the same destination with us coz they've got their flags in their bags and we saw some of them were smiling. Silly girls!

We got off at St. James park underground station and joined a crowd of people. St. James park led to the Hyde Park which along with the Trafalgar Square had giant screens to show the wedding procession. These areas would be closed once they reached a certain number to avoid overcrowding. Police were everywhere. We didn't want to sit around watching big telly in the park so we went for a spot outside the Horse Guard Parade. The royals and their guests would have passed this to get to the Whitehall, leading to the Westminster Abbey.

The area was already full of people. Some had camped out the night before and there were tents everywhere. Some of them were older people and they were having their cup of teas. Typical Brits! There were also a family with small children and a couple of men with huge lenses waited at the front row. We couldn't believe to see to a couple who hadn't recovered from a night out. They were sleeping on the grass without sleeping bags or a tent.

We had nearly three hours to wait and the crowds passed the time by cheering at any officers or queen's guards who walked on the road in front of us. The area on the right of the Horse Guard Parade were reserved for a selected group of boy and girl scouts. How proud they were to have an uninterupted view. We were also delighted to see Jon Snow, the BBC news presenter was reporting from our spot.

Before 10 am, the diplomats and royals from other countries arrived in coaches. The crowds were cheering although we can only see figures sat in buses. At 10.20, five minutes late then scheduled, was the moment we were waiting for when a maroon rolls royce passed by. We could see that Prince William chose to wear a scarlet tunic of the Irish Guard which suited him well and Harry was in a Blue's and Royals' officer uniform and his scruffy hair, as usual. Both looked dashing. About five minutes later, the Bridesmaids including Pippa Middleton passed. We thought it was Kate but after zoomed the pictures we could see that it wasn't Kate but her sister. Later on we saw the Middletons, Prince Andrew and her two daughters, Prince Charles and Camilla and finally the Queen was wearing a yellow outfit. The icing of the cake was when Kate and his father passed at 10.51. Everyone had huge grins on our face!

It was difficult to take pictures with only a few seconds between us and at the same time we were too excited to see who were passing by. You can imagine that we were peeking through the Macbook's screen as the professional photographer who had the best spot downloaded his stuff in between. Our picutres weren't even close to his snaps. We also spent time listening to the amusing stories, opinions and gossips about the royals from the old ladies next to us. They also camped out when Prince Charles wedded Princess of Wales. Royals' groupie!

We could hear the procession from the sound system so could follow it along with the programme which were sold for 2 pounds and we had our sausage rolls on our spot so we wouldn't lose our place. The programmes also revealed that the first hymn sung was 'Guide me, O thou great Redeemer' - the last hymn sung at Lady Diana's funeral. Kate followed Lady Diana by not using the word 'obey' and instead she promised to 'love, comfort, honour and keep' in her wedding vows. But unlike her, Kate pronounced William Arthur Philip Louis in the correct order which was a relieved. Lady Diana and Sarah Ferguson pronounced their husbands' names in the wrong order.

I was hoping it wouldn't rain as predicted so the newlyweds would come out in open carriage. I was thrilled that they were with the horse-driven open carriage on their way back to the Buckingham Palace followed by the Queen in Gilded Carriage of Queen Victoria and the parents of the brides in another carriage. The crowds were cheering and waving at them.

With this, the crowds made their way to the Buckingham Palace. The police guarded the barriers and the crowds just grew bigger and bigger. Finally, ten minutes before the couple were due to appear on the balcony at 12.30 pm, the police open the barrier from the farthest end and we had to wait because we were in the front. Well thought crowd management!

We were among the sea of people made our way to The Mall to wait for the Royals to appear on the balcony of the palace. This had been the tradition since Prince Albert's wedding, father of the present Queen Elizabeth. But of course the balcony kiss was the one everyone waiting for, the tradition started by Prince Charles on his wedding to Princess of Wales.

There were a massive roar when they did appear. Prince William kissed her not one, but twice to please the crowds. Moments later, the spitfire from the Second World War and the red arrows fly-past by the Royal Air Force and a Battle of Britain memorial flight. The Queen made her way inside followed by the rest and then they closed the balcony door. That was it!

It took a while to find our way out and we decided to sit in the St James park to rest after nearly six hours without sitting down. We had our sandwiches whilst enjoying other people's costumes. We updated ourselves with Kate's wedding gown which had been kept secret. There were rumours that it was going to be designed by Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Victoria Beckham and it was finally revealed that she chose Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. She's definitely going to received lots of orders! Kate was very hands on the design and chose a more traditional dress with a train of 2.7 meters, 'only' a third of Princess of Wales' which measured 7.6 m. I'm not surprised if she chose to look more modest than her dashing Prince who was wearing red, after all he is a Prince and she is a commoner. Pippa the maid of honour also wore a dress designed by her with a revealing contour. It's a bit unusual for bridesmaid to wear white as the bride should be the only one to wear white on the wedding day. But this decision had been praised because it actually looked in one theme. According to The Times, the lovely fairy tales bridesmaids' dresses were designed by Nicky Macfarlane and when this was announced earlier this week, her website crashed!

Around England, people were celebrating with street parties but to be part of the crowd was quite something for me. Prince William may have been the second to the throne after his father but with his wedding celebrated in this manner, it could hinted that he may well have the next to the throne if his father gave his way to him. They may have spent a lot of money in the middle of deep recession but it was probably a good PR strategy to boost the image of the monarchy after bad press following Lady Diana's death and to appeal to the younger British generation.

So, congratulations to the happy couple and may they lived happily ever after."

Amiin, follow @seasideview for more details, dan buat yang suka barang barang kualitas Inggris, bisa pesen langsung. Ada juga ready stocknya di Jakarta, kebanyakan kaos bayi dan toddlers, bottoms kayak skirt and pants untuk laki laki dan perempuan, sepatu, alat makan dan minum, kaos kaki. Merk ada Tesco, pumpkin patch, Gap sampai Baby GAP available! dan by request bisa dikirim dari Jakarta:) Waktu saya jual online via facebook, jelly shoes GAPnya sudah sold out dalam waktu satu jam! Sukses untuk @seasideview and thanks for being a great team member, can't wait to see you on your next trip to Indonesia darla!