A Royal Wedding

Royal Wedding – London – April 29th, 2011

Just in case you forgot, today marked the wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William – a huge affair which has been hyped up by the media for weeks, and which has seen journalists flock to London from all corners of the world.

Finally, the day arrived, and I have to say, despite being one of the cynical types who didn’t quite see what all the fuss was about, I was converted almost as soon as I got into central London.

At Victoria Station, the crowds began to arrive.

On the way to Westminster:

There were a lot of snazzy cars around (more than usual), many with personalised registration plates:

A quick Google search tells me this is David Beckham’s car.   A man who I can only assume was their driver was sitting outside a Pret to the left of the shot.  He must have been waiting for them during the wedding service.

Soon after I took the pic below, I heard the woman stop a policeman in a panic saying she was one of the guests at the wedding itself, and didn’t know how to get to Westminster Abbey:

I wondered if she was making it up, after all, these kind of events do tend to bring the weirdos out en masse.

Example – this man:

He also claimed he had an invitation to the wedding and was running late, yet he was happy to pose for a photo, along with the so-called invite:

He then pulled out a photo of himself and Kate Middleton..

..except this wasn’t Kate Middleton, and if it were, then why on earth was she travelling on the Tube with him.  He seemed so chirpy, so I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was lying! He asked me to send over the pictures I took and he gave me his email address, so I will.

This part of Westminster was too crowded to get any kind of decent view.

There were a lot of tourists around who they were clearly loving it.  I can’t think of any comparison to the Royal family in any other country.

The flags were out in full force – I’ve never seen anything this patriotic before in London.

Next to all the crowds at Westminster, this man stood in the corner advertising for a Cafe, as though it was a normal Friday afternoon:

He seemed totally oblivious to the crowds, which I had to laugh at.  I almost wanted to ask him if he knew there was a big wedding about to take place.

I loved this:

He was listening to radio coverage of the wedding on an old-school radio.

Next to Westminster Abbey:

Some tat being sold:

Yes, they’re replicas of Kate’s engagement ring.

Heading over to Buckingham Palace:

Again, the crowds were pretty big here, but look.. it’s William and Harry leaving to go to Westminster!

Full view both : )

The band were playing the Star Wars theme tune among others.

People sat in cafes watching wedding coverage on fuzzy screens.  It seemed funny when just a few minutes away the actual service was taking place:

More tat being sold, for ridiculous prices:

Some of the plastic/paper flags were being sold for £5 before the wedding.  As soon as the service was over they dropped to £1.

More people trying to get a glimpse of the ceremony on TV:

They needed streaming TV on their phones :D

I’ve never seen photographers sending off their pictures and shielding their laptop screens from the sunlight before like this:

Thousands of people congregated at Hyde Park where giant screens were put up to watch the ceremony:

There was a lot of flag-waving, singing and cheering, and everyone was so happy and smiley.  I haven’t witnessed that kind of sentiment in London before on this scale.

Over at Green Park, the entrances to St James’ Park were blocked off due to overcrowding.  The Royal couple were due to come out on the balcony which everyone clearly wanted a glimpse of.

Nope, there was no chance of getting to Buckingham Palace.

Regent Street was surprisingly quiet:

RAF planes which flew over London after the ceremony was over:

Pretty much every store in some streets had some sort of association to the wedding:

By the time I was going home, the papers had already printed coverage of the wedding – impressive!

Now, I’m no huge fan of the monarchy but I have to say, it was all a lot of fun and the cheerful atmosphere and excitement really brought people from all backgrounds and ages together, both Brits and foreigners. OK, so people might say it was over-hyped and a waste of tax payers’ money, but whoever experienced the ambience cannot possibly deny that the vibe was fantastic and unlike anything many generations of people have seen before in this city.

In any case, we got a national holiday out of it, so what’s there to complain about? : ) When’s Harry getting married?

(All digital pics taken with either 24-70mm f2.8, or 50mm f1.8.)