The royal wedding is over. All the pomp and ceremony
stretched across several days, as British citizens
celebrated their newest royal personage – Meghan
Markle. Surprisingly the bride is an American citizen.
You could almost call her a colonist since the United
States was originally part of the British Empire.
As of now Megan Markle will be known formally as
the Duchess of Sussex.
I’m not a big fan of royal weddings. I truly don’t care
about what the members of the royal family wore to
the ceremony or how the bride and groom got there.
While arriving by horse-drawn carriage at a stately
church to say wedding vows is fine, it just doesn’t capture
my interest. But this most recent royal wedding
certainly seemed to fascinate people in the United
States. Maybe it’s because we don’t have royalty in
our country. We got over that in 1776.
Things have changed a lot in the past 200+ years
since then. We are a democracy, while the English still
have a monarchy as well as a parliamentary government.
And while there have been a few bumps along
the way, the Brits still seem enamored of their Royals.
This was obvious to anyone who watched television
coverage of last week’s wedding between Prince Harry
and Megan Markle. Crowds filled the area around
Windsor, eagerly hoping to spot the bride on her way
to the wedding ceremony. Surprisingly the weather
was beautiful and balmy.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this column, I am
not all that interested in royal weddings. I did watch
some of the highlights that were televised, however.
Although much of the attention focused on the American
bride-to-be, I was struck by how personable
Prince Harry was. He seemed very comfortable with
the huge crowds there to celebrate his wedding. I was
also surprised by how incredibly good his grandparents,
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, appeared.
Both are in their early 90s and required no assistance
coming into the church and taking their seats. Another
pleasant surprise was how well behaved the large
crowds of well-wishers were.
But the most astonishing thing to me was the reported
cost of the wedding: somewhere in the neighborhood
of $45 million.
Seriously? Obviously security was probably a large
part of the cost. But flying in a hairstylist from New
York to do the bride’s hair could not have been cheap.
I haven’t heard how much the wedding dress cost but
a designer gown doesn’t come cheap either, especially
one with a 16-foot train.
But whatever it cost, the royal wedding went
smoothly. That’s a good thing. I’m just glad our tax
dollars aren’t paying for it. That’s an even better thing!
Photo From Fortune.com