Okay, I’ll admit it, I was one of the two billion or so people watching the royal wedding. Of course, I wasn’t crazy enough to watch it on a live feed (I had class on Friday at 11am, and I need at least six hours of sleep), but I did watch the six hour DVRed version my mom recorded for me at home.
In the middle of the ceremony, it suddenly dawned on me how the world is becoming smaller and smaller everyday. Yet, there are still (interesting) differences between seemingly similar societies such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
For instance, I definitely learned that how a wedding is run in the U.K. is sometimes quite different. Of course, weddings are conducted differently for different couples; however, when comparing the royal wedding to the more stereotypical, Hollywood, pop culture type of wedding, there were distinctions galore. Children as bridesmaids and pageboys in England? Check. Bride not throwing bouquet? Check. Bride and groom not sharing a kiss? Check. Maid of Honor not murdered for wearing white? Check. Groom not wide-eyed and watching his bride walk down the aisle to him? Check. Seeing the Queen not sing “God Save the Queen” (A wonderful, “huh?” moment worthy, aha! moment for me). Check (I learned this while also learning that the Queen is the second longest reigning monarch, after Queen Victoria).
You might be really sick and tired of hearing and reading about the “royal affair of the century” by now, especially since it happened over a few weeks ago and more U.S. relevant events occurred (bin Laden’s death, although our highly connected generation and society at hand must be over this by now already too). I get it. Enough is enough. I bet some readers right now want to pull out my hair, because it has been several weeks since William and Kate got married (what is her official name anyways, since William doesn’t have an official last name? Just Catherine Elizabeth, Duchess of Cambridge?). People say, “Wow, how sad is it that so much media attention is being diverted away from rising gas prices, the effects of the tornado and other real news, to a wedding half way across the world?”
Why spend so much time on a stupid wedding? What does it have to do with me? Nothing of course, but using the same logic, why not spend so much time on a wedding? The news is brutally honest and harsh — wherever you go, headlines are always fixated on the bad, and it seems to get worse each day. Everyone seems to want the worst, goriest, scandal-laden stories to grab our attention. Why not have something different, hopeful and nice for once in the news? A wedding is perfect. As Dr. Richard Chartres, Anglican Bishop of London, said in his homily during the wedding, “Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.”
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