We do, we do

It's almost like the big wedding in your neighbourhood. Everyone's keeping their date with Will and Kate today as the world collectively says er… “we do”

April 28, 2011 08:22 pm | Updated September 29, 2016 02:40 pm IST

A horse drawn carriage is driven past London's Westminster Abbey after taking part in a dress rehearsal for the royal wedding between Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton.

A horse drawn carriage is driven past London's Westminster Abbey after taking part in a dress rehearsal for the royal wedding between Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton.

“The Royal Household invites you To Watch The Wedding Of Prince William And Catherine Middleton, April 29, 10 a.m. London Time” trumpets the Royal Channel on the official royal wedding website. So you can play tea party, dress up and nibble on scones and pat your lips clean with serviettes, it doesn't matter that you might be in a different time zone.

It's a royal circus and as long as you are not ex-Prime Minister Blair and his wife who did not curtsy to the queen, you are all invited. The event has been touted as the wedding of the decade and of course comes with a lustful, King Henry VIII-sized bill of 80 million pounds.

The past two months the media has been on royal overdrive – royal wedding, royal couple, royal cake, royal guest list, royal horses, et al.

And now with the impending wedding and the tizzy that it has sent our nation into, can it only be a hype fuelled by the media?

“This wedding is the biggest interest in the country right now and could be ranked in terms of public interest along with the IPL. This is a global event and I think it is an event that people world over are interested in, irrespective of having been ruled by them or not,” says Rajiv Bakshi, Vice President, Marketing for Discovery.

“I cannot wait to watch the wedding; I want to see what Kate Middleton is going to wear. This is going to be the event of a lifetime. I don't much care about the imperialistic yoke we might bear, this is about pure entertainment for me,” says Rosemary Kurian, a marketing executive.

The wedding seems to have the most arbitrary Indian influences. The Middletons' Indian grocer is on the guest list, and the baker of the wedding cake is married to Kishore Patel. The guests will receive gifts of soft woollen scarves with the Union Jack printed on either side which have been spun in Ludhiana.

Psychology professor, Ann Geo says, “This whole media fuelled charade has two takers. One is a segment of society who still nurse a Raj hangover and the other are young adults who are taken by whirlwind romances and fairytale weddings. Most people view this as a moment that will go into history books and coupled with all the gossip and prince-commoner romance, it has a certain mass appeal. Right from what she is going to wear to who is on the guest list and what the flavour of the cake is, everyone is interested.”

We spell colour with a ‘u' and seek out missionary schools to send our children to, seems like our colonised past has left with us more than we would like to agree with.

And catering to this obsession are hotels and restaurants that are screening the wedding live with high tea, hats and the works. Chef Manu Chandra at the Olive Beach has organised a spread that goes hand in hand with a dress code.

You may either be an anglophile or a hopeless romantic looking for your Disney-ever-after — but you're living vicariously through the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

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