My role in this feature was most enjoyable. In the week leading up to the wedding, I was at Westminster Abbey anchoring World One live. I could witness the build-up of interest, both from the tourist perspective – those who camped out across the street from the Abbey the Monday prior to the wedding – to the international media who filled the stands built for what was to become a spectacle of royal proportions.
Excitement was brimming throughout the city of London. The Union Jacks flying along Regent Street was quite a sight of patriotism. It was almost as if people needed this: something new, a renewal, something with hope.
In the months before the wedding, I got to explore a more fashionable aspect of the royal event. Who would design the wedding dress? What would one wear to the wedding if invited? What are the rules of etiquette surrounding an event of such historic impact? But perhaps the main question on everyone’s mind was: The Dress.
When the late Princess Diana got married to Prince Charles, the dress was seen as the biggest secret in the history of fashion. The designers then – the Emanuels – were under strict orders not to reveal a thing, although it didn’t stop the paparazzi from going to extreme lengths, as usual, to get a single sample of fabric by rummaging through their trash. This time, Buckingham Palace would have none of it. According to Clarence House, it was Catherine’s wish to keep the dress’ details covert until she walked up the aisle.
Rumours of the designer broke about six weeks before the wedding. It seemed Sarah Burton, creative director of Alexander McQueen, was chosen. Of course, the fashion world proper – and those of us outside of it – were working to get confirmation. But even when I called my sources at McQueen, they were tight-lipped. The dress was being made behind the secure walls of Buckingham Palace. Only a fleeting glimpse of the designer was revealed the day before the wedding as she was bundled out of the car into the Goring Hotel where Middleton was staying. I should’ve picked up on the fact that she was wearing a McQueen fur hat.
For me, the most poignant moment was when I first saw Catherine in the car with her father as she made her way to the Abbey. She took my breath away. She looked so beautiful and happy … and that dress. Needless to say, it was exquisite. Glamorous without being ostentatious, both elegant and understated. She was the perfect bride. From moments like Prince William struggling to get the wedding ring onto Catherine’s finger, to the two balcony kisses, and then the almost carefree-ride in Prince Charles’s Aston Martin, this was a day of pure joy. One could not help but smile and wish the young couple the very best, with all the billions of eyes on them.
[CNN Logo] Monita Rajpal hosts the arts and culture programme ‘icon’ each month on CNN International. It airs on Thursday 28 October at 1130 GMT. For full airtimes, visit www.cnn.com/icon
