Royal Wedding Packages in UK and USA from Travel and Leisure, Royal Wedding Mug Available

I am posting an article for Royal Wedding Wednesday with Decor To Adore from an article in Travel and Leisure magazine online of various Royal Wedding hotel packages in the UK and the USA you can take advantage of....I guess.

ROYAL WEDDING PACKAGES IN THE UK AND USA

By Ann Shields for Travel & Leisure

While big, lavish nuptials hold limited charm for me (I eloped, and recommend it for its romance and intimacy), plenty of people are mad for all things wedding, and especially all things William and Kate. Even Dunkin Donuts, friend of the common man, is offering a heart-shaped tribute to the royal couple.

If you’re looking to celebrate the Royal Wedding with something more decadent than a doughnut, we’ve gathered some hotel package options.

In London:
-    The Athenaeum has a $699 Royal Treatment homage to the royal couple.  The package includes overnight accommodations, two spa treatments for the price of one, two tickets to a special Enchanted Palace tour at Kensington Palace, and two afternoon teas for the price of one.  A very sweet detail, literally and figuratively, is that the tea’s menu will feature items made with honey produced by bees in Royal Gardens in Regents Park.  For more information or to book, please visit the Athenaeum.

-    Down by the Thames, the Hilton London Tower Bridge is offering a Royal Wedding package, which features three nights’ accommodations, a bottle of Champagne and selection of scones, then a post-wedding 3-course dinner at the hotel’s Larder Restaurant.  The package runs £999.00 ($1,622 at today’s exchange rate, or $541 a night) and can be booked by visiting Hilton Tower Bridge. 

-    The Milestone Hotel, opposite Kensington Palace, has more than just location in its favor.  Its Royal Occasion package will treat you to four nights’ accommodations with daily breakfast, a ‘Royal Champagne Afternoon Tea,’ a 7-course banquet dinner, two tickets to Kensington Palace, private roundtrip airport transfers, and a wedding souvenir in the bone china.  Rates start at £2,418  ($3,926 at today’s exchange, or $981.50 a night).  For more information or to book, visit the Milestone.

-    The Royal Wedding package at the popular Royal Horseguards Hotel costs £375 ($609 a night, based on a two-night booking).  What you get: overnight accommodations, daily breakfast, afternoon tea on the day of the wedding, and a commemorative item.   Visit the Royal Horseguards to book.

-    The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park (pictured below) is blowing out all the stops with a Tuesday-Sunday extravaganza for the well-heeled Anglophile, their Royal Wedding Tour.  The lavish itinerary includes visits to the ancestral homes of Princess Diana and Winston Churchill, a trip to Westminster Abbey, dinner at Kensington Palace, lunch and a chat with the director of the British Museum, dinner with an unnamed member of the royal family in their townhome (black sheep, no doubt, letting commoners in to sniff around), plus an opportunity to witness Friday’s wedding events from a lofty perch on the ICA’s roof terrace.  For more over-the-top details, please visit the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.  To book, please plunder your coffers (to the tune of $18,120 for one person and $30,146 for two; or $3,020 a night) and call +44 (0) 207 201 3618, or email nhalter@mohg.com.

Your options on the homefront:

-    The Trump International Hotel & Tower, at the corner of NYC’s Central Park, has a Trump Royal Wedding Experience (of course, the Donald would slap his brand on someone else’s wedding) in which you get one night’s accommodations in a suite, and then 5 a.m. breakfast downstairs at Jean Georges.  Monitors will be placed around the dining room so that guests can toast the royal couple with sparkling mimosas.  All this can be yours for prices that start at $1,075.  For more information or to book, please call (212) 299-1000 or visit the Trump International Hotel & Tower.

-    In Denver, the JW Marriott Denver Cherry Creek’s Royal Wedding package includes a room (which our editor calls “some of the cushiest rooms in town”), a 3:45 a.m. wake-up call, and $25 credit towards room service or a breakfast at the hotel’s Second Home Kitchen + Bar.  You’ll also get a ‘Royal Tote bag,’ and Champagne and strawberries. The rates start at $329.  To book, please call (866) 706-7814 and refer to rate code UY7, or visit the JW Marriott Denver. 

-    San Francisco’s Kensington Park Hotel is running a royal wedding package entitled “Shag Like Royalty” the cutesy-poo, randy details of which I’ll spare you.  If you actually are interested in hearing the sophomoric details of the $189 overnight package, please visit theKensington Park Hotel, or call (800) 553-1900.

-    In Miami, you’re more assured of good weather than the royals will be, and in Miami-style, you can celebrate their wedding day by paying attention to yourself.  The Acqualina Resort & Spa will indulge you to a “Royal Treatment” spa package with a two-hour $429 menu of head to toe treatments.  They’ll also put you up for the night for an additional $429.  To book the spa treatment, please call (855) 750-2740.  For more info on the property, please visit Acqualina.

-    At New York’s Waldorf-Astoria (pictured below), booking the one-of-a-kind Royal Wedding package means an overnight in the Royal Suite (there’s only one, and it’s the former residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, playing host/hostess at a cocktail party for 40 with passed hors d’oeuvres and white liquids (no stains!).  Book this package for $20,000 by calling (212) 355-3000.  For more about the hotel itself, please visit the Waldorf-Astoria.

--    The Four Seasons Chicago has another only-one-can-book-it Royal Suite Retreat package, featuring an overnight stay in their Royal Suite, roundtrip Rolls-Royce hotel transfer from the airport or a Chicago location, afternoon tea in the Seasons Lounge, a five-course dinner for two in the Seasons Restaurant, a 24-carat gold facial in the hotel spa, English breakfast in bed on the morning of the wedding, and a Champagne toast to the royal couple.  The package is available for $5,500 a night, and you can book it by calling (312) 280-8800.

-   The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, B.C. is so giddy about the Royal Wedding that throughout the entire month of April, you can participate in all sorts of festivities, including royalty-themed spa treatments, teas, dinners, pastry classes, and picnics.  To see the schedule of offers and events, please visit the Fairmont Empress.

So far, the Royal Wedding donut seems the most sensible item of the bunch.

If you’re thinking of a last-minute trip to London, a search on Kayak.comcurrently turns up fares from New York as low as $662, roundtrip, during the last week of April.

And don't forget we have an English bone china Royal Wedding mug available at Time Was Antiques. To purchase, just click on the photos.

Will and Kate Song by Canadian, My husband the Coldstream Guard and Charles & Diana Wedding china

The BBC website posted a link to a YouTube video of a song a Canadian group wrote...and illustrated...for Will and Kate which is quite cute!
You can click on the link here to go hear it. I especially liked the fun drawings done to accompany the song. Cute! And nice song!
BBC link to Will & Kate song


A question I get asked about my DH is...is it true he guarded the Queen at Buckingham Palace, and the answer is...yes! My husband was a member of the Coldstream Guards, a crack infantry regiment that is part of the Brigade Of Guards. The Coldstream guards are affectionately known in the brigade as the Chilly Rivers.

This is not my DH. When he emigrated to the US he left his photos behind and his sister now has them.  He was from a family of guardsmen and until recently you had to have family connections to join the guards...as well as be over 6 feet tall. His brother was a guardsman as well as an uncle who was a Company Sergeant Major. The idea of being over 6 feet as well as the bearskin hat...which is actually bearskin and weigh 7-8 pounds...was to make the guards look even taller and more intimidating than they already were.


The guards used to find the guard at Buckingham Palace outside the gates that are now closed in front of the Palace. There are 2 guard houses inside which used to be outside the gates. The year my DH was guarding the palace they were hauled inside the gates because of an incident involving an American tourist and a Coldstream Guard...not my DH but a good friend of his. 


The Guardsmen were famous for remaining impassive no matter what, and were purposely trained for this. But, as they were standing outside the gates easily accessed by tourist this was not always easy. Some people made it a quest to get a reaction from a guardsman. One particular American woman was being beyond the norm offensive trying to provoke a reaction. I won't tell you what she did...I would be too embarrassed. But...the guard reacted, was reported and the guards were permanently moved inside the gates.


To explain, if you have ever watched the changing of the guards, you will notice that the 2 guardsmen seem to miraculously be able to know what the other will do and when. BUT...there are tricks involved. Under the pavement where the guards stand is a hollow space that clearly relays sound to the other guard position. Then men are in steel toed boots. When they slam feet or rifle butts it resounds to the other guard to begin a particular maneuver...indicated by a code of heels, toes, slams. Then as they march toward each other, finger signals are given to communicate. SO...on that fateful day, the guardsman telegraphed a quick 2 paces forward and slammed into the American tourist's shins with his steel toed boots.  Sounds terrible, but the provocation was extreme, and when the case was heard it was dismissed with no penalty for the guardsman but an apology, and the guards were moved in.

We do have his patches. There is a Guards Museum in London that we visited about 10 years ago which brought tears to my husband's eyes. It was fabulous! He still wears his guards tie at times and has a Coldstream Guards key fob he treasures.

This is the guards at their inside guards box during a change of the guards.

A current image used as a recruitment poster. There was a reality show 2 years ago of 8 weeks following 6 new recruits through a year in the Guards that was fabulous.


So...you can see why we, at Time Was Antiques are strong supporters of England and English antiques, collectibles and British Royal Memorabilia!


We just found a box in the warehouse of items from the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana in 1981 that have been stored since 2002 when we closed our actual antique shop to go exclusively online. I had wondewred where they had gone! We have bone chinamugs and plates from Chinacraft, a division of Caverswall, England on e of the foremost manufactureres of royal commemoratives.

The interesting thing about these designs is they include Highgrove, the organic estate of Prince Charles. They were a numbered edition of 5,000 and each one of the mugs and plates are separately numbered. Pretty cool!!!  To see more photos and info of the mugs and plates at Time Was Antiques, just click on the photos.


Have a great day, a cup of tea with a friend and cheers!