Written by God's Fingers

"Every man's life is a fairy tale written by God's fingers"--Hans Christian Andersen

I have no idea how I am still awake, let alone able to form enough sentences to get a new post up. Then again, this being the very start of the post, I am being very optimistic that it will all make sense once I am finished and not end up looking like Charlie Sheen's 'winning' stand up act.

Let me just start by saying, leading up to the Royal Wedding I had no real intention of staying up all night to watch it. I hadn't given it too much thought in the days leading up to it. The day before something seemed to have clicked inside my head where suddenly I HAD to watch it. I can't really pin point what it was. I have a suspicious inclination that anytime there is a huge royal British event, every Brit is programmed to submit to the excitement and pageantry of said event. The more removed one is from England, the less the signal. I am only one generation removed so I am pretty sure that is why I didn't receive the full signal until the day before. By the time I had left work that evening, I was intent that I would be staying up until three in the morning to at least catch a glimpse of the dress.

I made sure to prepare with the necessary rations. I popped over to Cost Plus to pick up my favorite digestives. I did this because I knew that McVitie's would be making Prince William's groom's cake and I was hoping that by eating a couple of cookies with a cup of my Typhoo tea (with milk and sugar, of course), that I would prove my solidarity to the motherland.

As the night progressed I became more and more fevered with the 'Royal Wedding Countdown'. I watched the wedding of Charles and Diana on one station and the story of William and Kate on another. I even watched the William and Kate Lifetime movie On Demand. I watched programs on the wedding preparations and one on weddings of the Royals from the past 100 years. I was no longer only anticipating the dress, I was fully obsessed with the whole shebang!

Most stations were starting their coverage at 1:00AM PST but I found that MSNBC started their coverage at  midnight!

I tuned in and immediately noticed that American commentators sounded a bit...funny. It took me a minute to realize what it was. It seems that when an American commentator crosses the pond, spends a couple of days in London, eats their cereal with yogurt instead of milk, eats mushy peas for dinner and spends a week drinking tea instead of coffee...they want to develop a false British accent. Every statement that came out of their mouths had a little lift at the end of it. As if every statement was a question. 'And here we have a shot of Big Ben?' Do you not know what Big Ben is? Are you thinking that big clock in the middle of the city might be the Eiffel Tower instead? Is there some confusion?

Luckily the TV host I was watching seemed to settle into her normal way of speaking after a while and gave commentary on every person that walked into Westminster Abbey.

The thing I noticed immediately about the guests was that all the women were wearing wonderful, glorious hats and fastinators. It was awesome! I keep hoping that American women will adopt this trend for special occasions but alas, I fear its not meant to be for us. I can still hope though.

The Abbey was gorgeous! It was like a dream! I loved the trees that lined the aisle as if the ceremony was taking place in an English forest. The scene was made even more romantic with the chandeliers that seemed to drip from the ceiling above the trees.

As soon as the procession to the church started I knew I was sucked in for the whole run. I am a sucker for pageantry and I appreciated the down to the minute ritual of getting everyone into the church.

When I saw William and Harry walk into the church, I cried.

The last time I had stayed up late to watch a royal event took place at the same familiar venue. It was the funeral for Princess Diana and I remember the solemn young men keeping pace behind the carriage carrying their mother to the service at the Abbey. My heart broke for them that day. I was watching them again, a dozen years later and now they were grown up and celebrating a happy day at Westminster. My heart was beaming for them.

I lost my breath when I finally saw Kate.

Her dress was stunning and exactly appropriate for a Royal Wedding. As she was chauffeured up to the church, crowds lined the streets. Union Jacks waved above the sea of people and draped from posts between the trees lining the streets. Although I wasn't physically there, I had a huge sense of pride for this country because it was bouncing out of my television from the people of Great Britain that day. The wedding had restored and renewed a sense of love and patriotism for the British monarchy, and excitement for the new generation and generations to come.

Now that is a fairy tale ending!

(Or for the shorter version of this post, C'est Manifique is pretty spot on with THIS)