Singleton's Across the Pond: Day #38: The one with the two part wedding special!

Two Part Wedding Special: Day 1

Well, we are here, live in London, bringing you a play by play of the biggest event in royal history. That's right folks, we've got tulle, feathered wedding hats, cardboard Queen Elizabeth masks, and royal mounted guards (basically, cops on horses). Have no fear, we will bring you up-to-date info and unbiased local news of the big affair (and by affair, we mean event, not future speculation...oops!). So, without further ado, we bring you Day 1 of the Two Part Wedding Special. Enjoy and remember, you too can have your own royal sick bag commemorating this joyous day.

Union Jack is flying high from every pole - EVERY pole. Will and Kate (coined "Wate" by us - we almost went for "Kill" but Margaret reminded us that we might get arrested for threatening terrorism) are on every channel, every flag, and even on the top of Papa John's Pizza (seriously!).

Love is in the air and today, on Jake's lunch break, we headed down to wedding central to take part in the royal buzz. The scene around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace was like nothing we have ever seen. Within seconds, we were part of the action and waving flags of our own. Shayne was immediately wishing she had been asked to be a bridesmaid and Jake was on the phone with Will asking if it were too late to get an invite. Turns out, we didn't move here with quite enough time to become friends with the lucky couple, cultivate a true 'hug it out' kind of friendship, and score an invite. We came to terms with the fact that we will have to settle for waving flags with the other 8 million people who have flocked to London to become part of history.

As we crossed over the bridge toward Big Ben, with the recently purchased flags of course, we stopped to take a photo and...what do you know...the batteries ran out as we tried to snap picture number one! Just our luck. So, 8 pounds later (that's about 14 bucks!), we had purchased 4 new AA's and were back in action. Our heads frantically turned everywhere as we took in the sights: thousands of people lining every section of the sidewalk, cars and busses honking, protesters making final attempts to get their causes on camera, tents lining every section of grass, media booths set up on stilts and roofs, and the classic - a tailgating tea party. We saw people dressed up as the royal family strolling around, hilarious signs were hanging around people's necks, and cameras were flashing. It was truly invigorating to be a part of this scene. Our favorite sight at the front of Westminster Abbey was a baby girl dressed up as a princess. She was so young and was on her dad's shoulders just waving to everyone around her. Priceless. Sure to be a photo on the news somewhere tomorrow.

We left the Westminster area and headed through the park along the parade route that Will and Kate will go on tomorrow. We ended up at Buckingham Palace and the sights just became bigger and better! Tents were set up everywhere. Some had people living in them as they tried to hold a spot in the front row, others sold hotdogs or crepes, and others were portable toilets! It was insane and wonderful. Jake actually saw one tent get a pizza delivered to it - hopefully, the one of "Wate"s faces. The media booths here at Buckingham were FOR REAL. Three stories high and, in each one, people doing interviews with their backs to the palace - nice backdrop right! Are you ready for this - we were able to look inside and saw Barbara Walters and drum roll please...Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. Yes, it's true, Jane Seymour was there to kick off the event.

We walked down the road leading to the palace and imagined what it must feel like to be Kate Middleton. We wondered, at what point in the day tomorrow is she going to look at Will and say, "When I first met you in the dorms, I never pictured this!"

After our royal walkabout, Jake headed back to work and Shayne immediately went to purchase a feathery hair clip to wear tomorrow. We will not be venturing to this part of London on the actual wedding day, however, we will be watching the whole thing live from a big screen TV at a pub with Margaret, Ben, George, Sophie, and some of their friends.

Stay tuned for Day 2! We are sure to have some great stories live from the heart of it all.

Lesson's Learned: 1) We guess the british DO care about this wedding! 2) There are DEFINITELY not enough porta-potties near the festivities, 3) Souvenir stand batteries are ridiculously over priced (this probably has nothing to do with the wedding).