Only a few more days until the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Haven't decided if I'll just stay up all night...the BBC America coverage starts at midnight Pacific time...or just see when I wake up, or set the alarm or....
I have found several wonderful bits of info from the specials and websites covering the upcoming wedding that I thought you may enjoy if you haven't encountered them already.
The BBC News has some great features on their website that are well worth a visit. Some of the info includes the exact procession order and schedule, the route the procession will take with a video
a 360 degree tour of Westminster Abbey, other videos about the cavalry, seating plan and 3 different Royal Wedding quizzes. I aced one...Prince & Princess level...got a Duke & Duchess level on another and a Baron & Baroness level on the third...just above the stable boys! LOL!!!
BBC News Royal Wedding Website
I don't know how many of you have caught the special documentary on BBC America: Princess Diana: Her Life In Jewels which was mind boggling. My husband and I watched together. He was a registered English diamond setter for 38 years, having served a 6 year apprenticeship from age 15 in England...and was actually imported into America by a firm of jewelers in San Francisco. So we were very interested in the jewelry. Every time we visit England we spend a week in London and ALWAYS go to the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
The show was wonderful...did you know...the Crown jewel collection includes the 2 biggest diamonds in the world. The largest is 317 carats...the size of a duck egg...called the Cullinan or Star Of Africa which is in the scepter but can be removed and used as a brooch
The other story I found fascinating is about the Cambridge Emeralds seen below
in 1811 when The Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge were visiting Germany, Augusta, the Duchess entered a raffle and won a box of...emeralds! The stones weren't set until the earl 1900s when her niece, Queen Mary inherited them. The queen is shown wearing some of them. Some of them were made into a choker and given to Princess Diana as a wedding gift from Queen Elizabeth II. It will be interested to see if Catherine ends up with those and some of the fabulous jewel suites Diana received as wedding gifts from gulf state arab princes.
Another Royal tradition...wedding bands of Welsh gold. Welsh gold is extremely rare, and the tradition began in the 1920s when the Royal family was gifted with a 2 pound (not carat, pound!!!) gold nugget from the Clogau mine. Prince Albert, later to be crowned King George VI had some of the Welsh gold used to make the wedding band Queen Elizabeth wore. The same nugget has fashioned a wedding band for each successive royal bride and the assumption is that Prince William will continue the tradition.
I found a great and comprehensive website with photos of all the major Royal jewels which is truly astounding! It's a Tudor Wicki called Jewellry of Today's British Royalty and is well worth a gawk...
We still have a few of the William and Kate Royal Wedding items below available at Time Was Antiques. For more info click on the photos.
Plus over 300 items of British Royal Memorabilia. We are flying our British 3 foot by 5 foot flag on Friday and having a bit of a tea party in honor of the Royal Wedding. Cheers and our best wished to the William and Catherine!
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