Ladies a royal wedding question or 2 please.
We've all attended weddings where too young children are given a ceremonious role,be it flower boy, or ring bearer. More often then not it's a disaster in the making. The kid freaks, so dad steps in, takes their hand and walks or carries them, which ruins the photos. It's not cute.
So imagine Kate's anxiety. Her maid of honor is her sister, Bill's best man's his brother. According to this month's Vanity Fair, her 4 bridesmaids are 3(2), 7(1) & 8(1) years old, while the 2 pages are 8 & 10. Making a 3 yo hike the main aisle (a not inconsiderable distance) in a packed Westminster Abbey with a touch of decorum, sounds formidable.
Certainly by now, the children have been shown the Tower, and the pit bad children are tossed into. Nanny has drilled the importance of family honor and the shame of failure into their little heads. If the kids run, they know to keep going, not stopping until at least the coast of France. Yet, somehow it's all going to work out just fine, and the wedding will be beautiful.
What I know of British weddings comes from having seen 4 Weddings and a Funeral twice, so here are my questions. In America, Kate would have asked several girlfriends to be bridesmaids, and Bill would have asked his fraternity brothers to be groomsmen. Is using children as bridesmaids a British, a royal, or personal choice? Or, more hopefully, is bridesmaid, in this case an honorific. Please tell me the kids won't really be subjected to walking the gauntlet?
Just wondering.
Toad
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7 comments:
In British weddings, it's quite common to have very young girls as bridesmaids. Since two of the girls are very young and two older, perhaps they will pair off a younger and older girl to keep things in line, although I've seen 3-year-olds perform remarkably well under pressure. These kids will be rehearsed and re-rehearsed and I don't expect Kate's dress will have a train 25 feet long as Diana's did. Hope I can manage to stay up to watch.
A friend of mine had her Irish Setter as the ring bearer. Sadie was a last minute stand in for her four year old nephew. It seems Wyatt didn't appreciate the fine quality of his custom made three-piece suit, silk bow tie, and spanking new patent leather dress shoes on a scorching August afternoon. We guessed this to be the case after the items were discovered strewn across the lawn twenty minutes before the ceremony started. Personally, I think the dog should have been the first choice.
In photos of my parents' wedding there was a best man, MOH and young children.
The children in the royal weddings are not new to proper behaviour. Some of them have already been in a few royal weddings.
Although...there is video of William being a little monkey at Prince Andrew's (?) wedding.
When he was but three, my younger son was conscripted into service as a page in a cousin's verrrry formal wedding. He was with another three-year old boy and two five-year-old girls. The promise of M&Ms and a remote control race car ensured decorum.
I learn more stuff here. Thank you.
Yes, I can imagine the little ones have undergone intense royal wedding training. And, by having the older ones paired with the younger ones, that should help a bit. I can recall film footage of Prince Williams when he was a page in the wedding of a family member - the camera spent plenty of time on him because he was cutting up a bit, aka being a little boy. :)
There was a documentary narrated by India Hicks (one of Diana's child attendants and the goddaughter of Charles)on TLC last night. She interviewed the now grown children who walked down the aisle with Diana. One woman reminisced about having it drilled into her head that she must not step on the train. See if you can catch a rerun.
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