Woman hopes for glimpse of royalty

For most Anglophiles in the north country, the British royal wedding is something to be experienced from afar, perhaps aided by a glut of media coverage and some commemorative heart-shaped donuts from Dunkin' Donuts.

For Lake Placid's Elizabeth M. Edwards, however, the excitement will be much closer at hand. The junior English major is among 20 St. Lawrence University students who are studying abroad in London this semester, and she plans to be among the projected 1 million visitors attempting to catch a glimpse of the royal wedding procession Friday.

"I plan on getting up early with some friends and positioning ourselves along the procession path (from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace). We will need to get up in the wee hours of the morning in order to get situated before the roads close at 6 a.m.," Miss Edwards wrote in an email Tuesday, adding that she hopes to see the couple's public kiss at Buckingham Palace after the ceremony.

"Then we will probably go meet up with more friends to watch the coverage on television either in a pub/restaurant or at someone's house... Many people will also be throwing block parties with barbecues. The streets will be just teeming with people and all of London will be alive."

The royal wedding will celebrate the marriage of Prince William, Britain's heir to the throne, to Catherine "Kate" Middleton and will include an 11 a.m. (GMT) ceremony at Westminster Abbey, a 12:15 p.m. procession by carriage to Buckingham Palace, a 1:30 p.m. reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by Queen Elizabeth and a 6 p.m. dinner at Buckingham Palace hosted by Charles, Prince of Wales. Live coverage of the event will be provided in the United States by BBC America.

The wedding has been compared to the 1981 marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Prince William's parents, and will lead to the closing of a wide swath of city streets and possible disruptions of public transit. Though some of the wedding details may seem extreme to Americans — 1,900 guests, two fanfare teams, a thousand-member predawn dress rehearsal by the military — Miss Edwards said excitement over the nuptials has been mounting in London.

"The anticipation of the wedding has led to a cult-like following. All of the newspapers divulge every minute detail about William and Kate and television programs revolve around royalty," she wrote. "Spas advertise 'Royal' treatments, street vendors sell memorabilia with the couple's faces (cups, plates, flags, coins, tea towels, etc.), and people have begun planning Royal Wedding barbeque parties with their friends... You can even get William and Kate designer cupcakes."

Miss Edwards said she believed that more foreigners than locals would be in London for the wedding and said that opinions about the event were mixed but generally positive among Londoners. She noted that emotions ranged from angst about possible terrorist threats from anti-monarchy anarchists to outrage at the expenditure of tax money for security measures and excitement about profits in the tourism industry.

From a cultural point of view, Miss Edwards said, the experience has been highly educational.