The Lede: Live Updates: The Royal Wedding

From the opening fanfare to the final photographed kiss, The Lede tracked Friday’s royal wedding in London between Prince William, the son of the heir to the British throne, and his longtime girlfriend, Kate Middleton.

Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Phew!

The wedding went off without much of a hitch — save for a fleeting, the-royals-are-just-like-us moment of ring fumbling — and the parties are just getting started across London, but The Lede is signing off from live blogging.

However, coverage and commentary continue at global.nytimes.com and at nytimes.com, where every aspect of the nuptials will get their due, from the economic context of the celebration to the fashion sense of the guests to the influence of social media on the wedding.

Indeed, Twitter users seemed to show their royalist stripes, posting messages about the wedding in numbers that appeared to dwarf those during previous short events of its kind.

At 10:00 Eastern time, as Lexi Mainland reports, each of the 10 top trending topics on Twitter were wedding-related, including “Grace Kelly” “Pippa” — her sister — “they kissed” and the hashtag #proudtobebritish.

Shane Richmond, the London Telegraph’s Head of Technology, said in a blog post that the royal wedding was being mentioned around 67 times per second on Twitter during the height of the pomp and circumstance. On Facebook, he wrote, the newlyweds were the subject of 74 postings every second.

As the conversation continues, Times readers also submitted digital reams of photos of their celebrations.

Francesca SegreFrom a wedding-viewing party in Singapore, Francesca Segre submitted this photograph to The Times and wrote, “Harry’s Still Available. He’s Mine!”

My colleague Eric Wilson has posted his review of Kate Middleton’s dress. (Spoiler alert: he loved it.)

Here’s an excerpt:

The gown was a triumph not merely because it was pretty — or flawless, actually, a dress that is destined to create a global demand for long lace sleeves. This was also a significant fashion moment, because the design of the dress, the selection of its designer and even the degree of secrecy that surrounded its preparation seemed remarkably well calculated to project a specific image about Ms. Middleton. That is, she represents a new breed of the British monarchy, one that is respectful of its boundaries and traditions, but is not stuffy and off-putting to the general populace.

As many have now observed, one little bridesmaid — 3-year-old Grace Van Cutsem — may have warmed the hearts of British Republicans with her well-timed frown during the balcony kiss. She also cupped her ears to drown out the fanfare.

Here’s the lovely moment, with frown in the lower left.

James Hill for The New York TimesThe royal kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

Of course, for most who watched the wedding, the balcony scene was a fitting end to a day of pomp. An interactive graphic takes a crowd’s eye view of the moment, and allows for digital zoom to get a close look at the new couple.

Christine Haughney/The New York TimesNick Priest dressed up as the Queen.

A post-wedding scene from London, courtesy of Christine Haughney:

The kiss on the balcony only marks the beginning of royal wedding festivities for Londoners.

Nick Priest who works for Canada Life Insurance came to watch the festivities dressed up as the Queen with a pale blue suit, strings of pearls, a gray curly wig and a multicolored tiara. His friends and sister Kathryn dressed as Elizabeth 1, Henry VIII and two corgies. But after the kiss, the friends planned to spend the day drinking at pubs with royal names.

“It’s the beginning of the day,” said Mr. Priest as his friends compared their celebrations to new drivers who just got their licenses.

Christine Haughney/The New York TimesCat Davies and friends.

For some royal watchers, the wedding celebrations will last all weekend. Cat Davies and her friends Amy Bachem and Jamie Mumford came from North London to drink in pubs with the scones they made at home. They planned to spend the afternoon partying in SoHo at street parties before heading home and making their own fish and chips. This is the first day of partying in a four day holiday weekend. The friends already had spent time making their own paper bunting to wear during the ceremony and all dressed in red, white and blue.

They were still on a post wedding high from watching the ceremony.

Said Ms. Bachem, “I loved it. I nearly cried.”

Shawn Rabideau, the wedding planner, has some final thoughts about the dress:

The biggest question leading up to the royal wedding had been who will Kate Middleton be wearing, and what would the dress look like?

I had the honor of attending many show’s during Bridal Fashion Week and when I walked into the Priscilla of Boston showcase one dress stood out, it was adorned in lace and I immediately said to myself THAT is the dress she will wear.

She did not actually wear Priscilla of Boston but rather a dress designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.

Regardless, Kate Middleton’s dress was nothing short of princess-like. Perfectly tailored, adorned in lace with no doubt hand sewn detail in essence it was sophisticated, elegant, chic and certainly a trend setter in its fairy tale design.

Some have said they are disappointed her dress was rather plain compared to Princess Diana’s. We should not forget this is not 1981, when silk, satin and flouncy sleeves were in style. We should also not forget Kate is not trying to be Diana. Kate is her own woman who is graceful and elegant. And one thing is for sure she will be a positive trendsetter among so many horrible fashion trends currently out there.

I see her bringing class and classic back in an era of tacky and tasteless.

And as far as Pippa’s dress; that too is beyond words. It was one of the most classic and beautiful bridesmaids dresses I have seen in a very long time. And what with the color? I thought the choice was splendid and in no way did it take away from Kate.

I do believe we will see a positive turn in wedding fashion and that’s something I am excited for!

John F. Burns notes that the guests in Westminster Abbey included some notable absences:

For all the hubbub that surrounded the arrival of the 1,900 guests at Westminster Abbey – the cheering of the crowds for the royals, and for the celebrities – there was a strong undercurrent of unease about some of the more notable absentees. The guestlist included David Beckham, Elton John, Guy Ritchie and sundry other household names from the sports and entertainment industry, as well as lesser-known figures best known for being famous for being famous; among these might be listed Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, a socialite staple of Tatler and Hello magazines and a friend of Prince William and Prince Harry, but most notable of late in the tabloid coverage for having had her nose reconstructed by plastic surgeons in the wake of a sustained cocaine habit.

The invitees also included the ambassadors of North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe, among nations not known for their respect for the values that sustain Britain’s long tradition of democracy and civil liberties. Syria’s ambassador, at least, was disinvited at the last moment because of his government’s brutal crackdown on protesters in recent days, and Bahrain’s Crown Prince chose of his own accord to stay away, frankly acknowledging that he didn’t want the event to be marred by street protests against the crackdown there on protesters seeking an end to the Gulf state’s royal autocracy.

But the absences that attracted most attention were those of Britain’s two immediate past prime ministers, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, an omission that was taken by many commentators in Britain’s newspapers as an act of spite by some in the royal court who judged the two men insufficiently respectful of royal protocols and traditions, and even of Queen Elizabeth II herself. The unhappiness with Mr. Blair, of course, hearkens back to the events that followed the death in a Paris car crash of Princess Diana, Prince William’s mother, when Mr. Blair pressed the Queen to fly back to London from her summer retreat in Scotland and join in the tumult of public grief, telling the monarch that the perception of standoffishness could do lasting damage to the monarchy. Mr. Brown, it is said, irritated the Queen by turning late for appointments, and by signaling in other ways a latent republicanism of a kind that has strong roots in his native Scotland.

But by far the most notable absentee, of course, was Princess Diana herself – the place she would have hoped to occupy at William’s birth taken now by her erstwhile rival in Prince Charles’ affections, the former Camilla Parker-Bowles, once Prince Charles’ secret lover and now Duchess of Cornwall. She sat three places away from Queen Elizabeth in the abbey, serene in countenance, stunning in an ivory-and-champagne colored silk coatdress by one of Britain’s best-known couturiers, Anne Valentine, and secure, so the royal court says, in the affections of Princes William and Harry, who are said to love her for all she has done for their father. While the British public remains strongly opposed to Camilla ever taking the title of Queen, according to opinion polls that have remained consistent on that issue for years, she appears to have achieved a reconciliation of sorts with the Queen, who is variously reported as having called “that wicked woman” and “that much misunderstood woman” – and perhaps both – during the years when her relationship with Charles was dooming his marriage to Diana. As for Diana herself, whose funeral was the last of the great royal events in the abbey, 14 summers ago, there was Friday’s Page One headline in the tabloid Sun, Britain’s most widely-circulated daily paper. “Mum would be so proud”, it said.

Stephanie Rosenbloom/The New York TimesA guest outside the Lyon in a British-inspired vest.

Back in New York, the celebration peaked with the much-anticipated Buckingham balcony kiss and wound down shortly after, as Stephanie Rosenbloom reports:

At a table in Lyon’s dining room, four girlfriends — two Brits and two Americans — were in New York to celebrate their birthdays — which happened to coincide with the royal wedding. Former neighbors, they used to gather every Friday night in Redwood City, California to share some wine. But today they reunited in New York at Lyon at 5:30 in the morning.

“Sleep is overrated,” said Teri Spanner, of Los Altos, California.

Kate Phillips, of London, brought the women some of the best royal wedding swag in the joint: William and Kate masks.

Stephanie Rosenbloom/The New York Times Royal wedding masks.

Diana Modica of Palo Alto, California (whose head was topped with a black feather fascinator), made them all beaded Union Jack pins. Kimberley Farrar, who is British but moved to Redwood City, California 11 years ago, showed hers off. The red, blue and white beads glinted in the morning sun.

Her favorite part of the wedding? When Kate and William waved from the front of Westminster Abbey. “It was a very natural wave,” she said.

Ms. Spanner, on the hand, said her favorite moment had little to do with the royals.

“It’s that I didn’t have to watch this at home at 3 in the morning by myself,” she said. “I have two boys. My husband and my kids could care less about this. How great is it that I’m here in New York with three of my dearest friends watching this, doing the whole British thing? I’m digging it.”

When William and Kate appeared on the balcony, patrons in the dining room at Lyon began pounding the tables, clapping and shouting: “We. Want. The. Kiss!” “We. Want. The. Kiss!”

In London, people made bets on how long the kiss would last. At Lyon, guests estimated it endured for a fleeting 2 seconds. A few royal watchers were surprised.

“They’re English,” someone muttered.

But William snuck in a second kiss, the restaurant erupted in squeals and applause.

“Another one!”

But with the wedding over, the crowd began thinning at Lyon.

Kate Mascaro, an editorial director for Flammarion publisher in Paris, stepped out onto the sidewalk.

She had decided to celebrate the wedding at Lyon “because I think it’s rare that you have those magic moments in life,” she said. “Everyone has a little bit of princess inside them.”

On the street, a man in a top hat and tails strode by. He was at least the third to do so in the last few minutes.

As Ms. Mascaro put it: “a chance to celebrate something regal is rare today.”

Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesLeft Princess Beatrice of York with her sister Princess Eugenie of York.

Shawn Rabideau, the wedding planner, observes that what makes this ceremony stand out from many others are the hats that seem to stand up on their own atop the female guests’ heads.

Here’s a slide show of notable headgear.

As Mr. Rabideau writes:

Much a buzz today has been the hats, fascinators and the dress of the guests attending the Royal Wedding.

But first let me say how very handsome Princes William and Harry looked in their military uniforms. Super regal and beyond words.

I’ve noticed many questioning the way the guests are dressed, particularly the woman. Protocol states nothing too stuffy and shoulders covered. But the real buzz has been the headwear — the hats and especially the fascinators — and quite frankly they are fascinating!

One thing we must remember is this is a morning wedding and a luncheon reception; therefore, the dress will be more subdued and far less formal. Fancy gowns would be tacky and not proper. However, these hats are works of art!

They tilt and twist and look as if they are going to topple off the locks of the ladies wearing them. These in their own right make the overall look of the ladies dressy, sophisticated and memorable.

I highly doubt many of us watchers will remember the actual dresses worn by the ladies, but we will forever remember the feathers and hair styles they were attached to.

Photographs by Ravi Somaiya for The New York Times

Ravi Somaiya reports from an anti-royal gathering in London, where the crowd was matched by the number of media massing to observe the scene, which veered between serious criticism of the monarchy and good-natured pokes at the royals:

Jennifer Verson, an artist, protesting the wedding on Friday.

Jennifer Verson, 43, an artist, had painted her face and that of her daughter Ella, 3, as zombies, as a protest, she said, against the arrests of anarchist activists in London leading up to the wedding. “This is a tragic time,” she added. “This is a symbol that we’re the walking dead until there is full democracy.”

Ella, said Ms. Verson, “also wants to participate in public protests. Don’t you?” she asked her daughter who was sat in her stroller, holding a placard which read “princesses are pigs”.

Ella responded only with the word “mummy”. Ms. Verdon looked up at reporters and said “she does”.

Ms. Verdon said she had explained the royal wedding to Ella, and said her daughter disagreed with the event.

After a moment’s thought she added that Ella “can be whatever she wants,” said Ms. Verson. “As a feminist it has been very hard for me because people are giving her princess outfits from age three, and she’s having Disney shoved down her throat.”

At the party organized by the group Republic, which campaigns against the monarchy, dozens of people gathered wearing T-shirts with slogans like “Citizen not Subject” and “Subject to No-One”. A jazz band played, and people whooped as the group’s executive officer Graham Smith thanked William and Kate for “doubling our membership since November,” and suggested the monarchy might end by 2025.

In an interview Mr. Smith said that “if you’d asked people in America 30 years ago whether they’d have a black president, they’d have said no. These revolutions can happen fast.”

When asked whether William and Kate’s popularity, evidenced in streets filled with ardent supporters near the palace, would set his cause back, Mr. Smith said “people thought that about Charles and Diana too, and look what happened.”

“Ultimately,” he said, “when all the hoo-ha dies down they are just not very interesting celebrities. It will fade.”

Alison Banville, a freelance journalist, stood nearby with a banner that said “Dictators Welcome,” a reference, she said, to the attendance at the wedding of ambassadors from countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia which, she said are “not bastions of democracy.”

“I am here to celebrate republicanism on a disgraceful day,” she said.

To the left of a table strewn with leaflets for membership of Republic, Charlie Kiss, 45, handed out flyers. “I’m always happy when two people celebrate their love for each other,” he said. “My problem is with the power of the monarchy and the way it distorts the British government,” he said, citing Britain’s un-elected and partly hereditary house of lords among other anachronisms.

Mr. Kiss handed one of his leaflets to a woman, who declined to give her name when asked, but merely said ‘revolution’.

James Hill for The New York TimesThe royal couple kissed on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

After the kiss came the military flyover to put an end to the proceedings, as John F. Burns observes:

Although Prince William wore an Irish Guards’ uniform for the wedding, forsaking the royal blue tunic he wears to work as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force’s search-and-rescue wing, the R.A.F. had the consolation of having -– at least in a sense — the last word. The final public event of the wedding was a Royal Air Force flypast, with aircraft of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight accompanied by state-of-the –art combat jets flying up Pall Mall, the great parkland boulevard that runs up to the palace from the direction of the Whitehall government district, and over the palace balcony where Prince William, Cho is the memorial flight’s patron, together with his bride Catherine (as she will henceforth be called, at her request) and other members of the royal family were gathered to salute the crowds.

For the BBMF, whose initials are stencilled onto the flight helmets of its pilots, the flypast was more than a celebration of a wedding. It was, too, for the aircrew, a celebration of survival. The R.A.F., like all of Britain’s services, faces drastic cutbacks as a result of an eight per cent across-the-board cut in the country’s defense budget, ordered last year by Prime Minister David Cameron’s government as part of an austerity program aimed at cutting Britain’s $1-trillion national debt. For months, aircrew at R.A.F. Coningsby in Lincolnshire, base for the memorial flight awaited word on whether their squadron would survive the cuts. But in the end, the value of the squadron as a promotional and recruiting tool won the day. The squadron – its pilots drawn from the men whose full-time job is flying the R.A.F.’s modern fighter jets, including Tornados and Typhoons –will continue, this summer, with their schedule of dozens of airshows across Britain.

While the flight’s Spitfires and Hurricanes have survived along with its sole Lancaster bomber, other R.A.F. squadrons have not. All of the service’s Hawker Harrier jump jets are to be scrapped, along with the Ark Royal, Britain’s only serving aircraft carrier. Henceforth, the R.A.F. will be relying for its frontline combat jets on the Tornado and the Typhoon, otherwise known as the Eurofighter, two each of which flew up the Mall behind the Lancaster and its twin outriders, a Spitfire and a Hurricane. A thousand miles to the south, Tornados and Typhoons have been deployed in recent weeks in the air war over Libya. But for today, theirs was a ceremonial role, and an opportunity to remind the young helicopter pilot standing with his bride on the palace balcony that, with the Irish Guards tunic shed, he will be returning after his honeymoon to his regular work saving lives for the R.A.F.

As coverage of the royal wedding appeared to subsume other news stories on Friday morning, the Guardian’s Web site has come up with a clever way to give readers the option to avoid coverage of the marriage altogether.

On the upper right corner of their Web site, users who would rather read about the aftermath of deadly storms in the American South or unrest in the Middle East should find a button whose text reads: “Republicans click here.”

To get the wedding coverage back, click again, or as the site instructs: “Royalists click here”

More from Twitter, courtesy of Lexi Mainland, who writes:

Many royal watchers on Twitter have been talking about the newly married couple’s wedding bands, or lack thereof in Prince William’s case.

For a moment during the ceremony, the world seemed to hold its breath as William appeared to have trouble getting Kate’s wedding band, made from Welsh gold, on her finger.

The Twitterverse was also crying “knucklegate” about William’s wedding band and wondering why it was absent from the ceremony.

But most people said the lack of a groom’s ring, a personal choice on William’s part (he wears a signet ring), was his own prerogative:

The couple appeared on the balcony of Buckinham Palace along with their families and exchanged a first dignified kiss on the cheek — later adding another on the lips — as they waved to the crowd that has packed the Mall.

Immediately following their second kiss, a group of World War II-era war planes flew overhead, followed by another group of modern jets.

Associated Press

As we await the balcony appearance, some photos to help with those inevitable comparisons to the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

Ashley Gilbertson/VII Network for The New York TimesMolly Davis, 35, from Brooklyn, and Amanda D’Aquila, 31, from Midtown watch the Royal Wedding in Times Square.

While Stephanie Rosenbloom is downtown in New York having an English breakfast, several Times photographers are roaming the streets of Midtown. Many from the city and abroad gathered in Times Square to watch the wedding.

Ashley Gilbertson / VII Network for The New York TimesTourists from London watch the wedding in Times Square.

Meanwhile, downtown, Stephanie reports on breakfast, English-style:

Breakfast is being served. (But no alcohol — New York law says none can be served before 8 a.m.)

Applause broke out throughout the restaurant as William and Kate stood at the mouth of Westminster Abbey, about to depart.

At a table at Lyon, a group of colleagues awaited their big English breakfasts.

“She’s smiling!,” said Tim Blaquiere, a business manager for Thomson Reuters’ quantitative analytics group as he watched the Queen make her exit. “What? That’s a big deal! She doesn’t do that.”

He said he and his friends would have signed up for one of the city’s pricier breakfasts but had a feeling they would be too stuffy. They plan to go to work after they eat, but Mr. Blaquiere said hopefully, “I’m convinced I’m going to have a glass of Champagne before we go to work.”

He added: “We benefit from the fact that our bosses and our bosses bosses are English.”

An impressive English breakfast platter arrived as William and Kate climbed into a carriage. Mr. Blaquiere looked down at the bread, beans, eggs, ham and sausage. “The full monty,” he said, and smiled.

Penny Bradley, an owner of Lyon, finally had a moment to exhale.

But she still has a full day ahead before she sleeps. “I think we’ll go through till midnight,” she said.

The restaurant plans to start showing the wedding again at 9 a.m. and throughout the day.

“I love the spectacle of it all,” Ms. Bradley said. “I enjoyed them singing ‘Jerusalem.’ It’s such a stirring song. It gets everyone going.”

Sipping a mug of coffee she added: “I don’t mind “God Save the Queen’ either.”

Stephanie Rosenbloom/The New York TimesAn English breakfast at Lyon.

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, The Times’s royal wedding watcher with a royal title, saw in Kate’s handling of the wedding good signs for her noble future:

I’m very proud of the new Duchess of Cambridge. She is very dignified and at ease with it all. I think she’ll do a great job.

Pool photo by WpaWell-wishers at Westminster Abbey.

The crowds may not have been as large as they would have been without a four-day national holiday, but many still lined the road from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace, craning for a view and snapshot of a passing royal or two.

Christine Haughney, reporting from the streets of London, found some grumbling crowds who offered a counterpoint to all the online accolades for the dress and the celebration:

A wave of disappointment washed over the bars of Old Compton Street with complaints that Ms. Middleton’s dress was too plain, the maid of honor, Pippa, is stealing the show and Beatrice and Eugenie look like drag queens.

Daniel Orszewski, the 31-year-old head of styling for Top Shop, leaned back in his booth at G-A-Y Bar, sipped Champagne and expressed his concerns about Ms. Middleton’s fashion choice saying that the dress was too plain.

“I thought Pippa looked better,” he said, dressed in a tight, black Union Jack T-shirt. “I thought the lace looked too fussy. The overlay on her head looked like a curtain.”

He also wished Prince William had done something about his receding hairline for his wedding day.

“With all of his money, why doesn’t he get a hair transplant. He looked gorgeous until he took his hat off.”

Mr. Orszewski said he had lost much interest in the royal family after the death of Princess Diana. But he said that while Kate and William were “not a glamorous couple — they’re not like the Beckhams,” he liked how normal Kate and William can be.

“Diana was a really good connection between the public and the royal family,” he said.

His interest had been renewed in the royal family with the latest wedding. He said that Ms. Middleton showed that a commoner could join this family and even hold out some romantic hope for him. “There’s still time to marry Prince Harry, and Kate’s brother is quite sexy.”

The harshest fashion commentary was restricted to Prince William’s cousins Beatrice and Eugenie. When Scott, the manager of G-A-Y bar said they looked like drag queens, he was met with a chorus or agreement.

“They look like Southern Belles,” he said.

Stephanie Rosenbloom/The New York TimesSean Kavanagh-Dowsett, an owner of Tea and Sympathy in New York.

As most New Yorkers wake up to a Friday morning of sun and work, the hardcore royal watchers Downtown have been celebrating for hours, their heads firmly in London’s cooling late-morning clouds and full of auspicious feelings.

My colleague Stephanie Rosenbloom reports from an anglophile corner of Greenwich Village:

“This is going to be the year of the hat,” declared Maura Geils, the broker who became my unofficial viewing partner.

The bar area of Lyon is so packed that the waitresses are having to practically scramble along the floor with their trays.

“I’m a snappy dresser,” said Ras Menelik, who came to view the wedding in a blazer, red polo hat and ascot. “Red is predominant in the Union Jack and also red for courage.”

Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett, an owner of Tea and Sympathy, located down the block, joked that “for the first time since 1945 the French and English are working together.”

“The real heart of all of these events in the U.K. — things like street parties– it’s all about community,” said Mr. Kavanagh-Dowsett, who was wearing a Union Jack tie and a Paul Smith suit customized with white buttons. “It’s about celebrating young love.”

“It’s also been a great opportunity for us Brits to teach the French how to cook,” he added.

Around 5 p.m. today, Glenn Tilbrook, the lead singer of Squeeze, will perform in the nearby park.

As for Tea and Sympathy, the restaurant will open earlier than expected, at 9 a.m. Look for Mr. Kavanagh-Dowsett’s London taxi, which he plans to park outside. Also, he says it’s green: it runs on used cooking oil from his other restaurant, which serves fish and chips: A Salt and Battery.

Keystone/Hulton Archive – Getty Images

Shawn Rabideau, a wedding planner watching the royal nuptials for The Times, shares these thoughts about grandiose weddings in austere times:

As I sit watch the guests arriving I can’t help but remember watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer back in 1981. That was a wedding that was filled with the utmost pomp where no expense was spared. So much has changed since then: the economy, war, trends, styles.

No wonder this wedding is a bit different. The pomp and circumstance have been toned down. By all accounts this wedding seems just as flashy and expensive. But it is in fact much more subdued, while remaining regal and royal.

For instance, the fact the royal family chose a morning wedding makes it much less formal and therefore less costly. One doesn’t need to deck the church from nave to steeple in floral especially when you have a venue such as Westminster Abbey where very little décor is needed. However, the trees with the lush lily of the valley are not inexpensive, but add a regal royal touch. Placing expensive blooms in key areas is always a great tip especially for a bride on a budget.

Catherine’s dress designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen is clean, simple and elegant with its lace overlay, sleek lines and simple veil. Being much simpler than Princess Diana’s dress makes this wedding ceremony far less formal yet not any less special.

And let’s not forget the guests’ attire; military dress, morning coat or lounge suit for the men, and for the ladies dresses with sleeves a must and a stylish hat or fascinator will style the dress without making it too stuffy.

The largest expense isn’t necessarily the less formal and less costly reception where canapés and Champagne will be served, but rather $32 million in security is the largest part of today’s royal nuptials. For my clients, security is rarely needed and therefore almost never a part of the budget.

So although it seems this wedding is over the top, it certainly is far less expensive than some think. But no less royal.

They arrived in separate cars but are now departing in a single, red and gold carriage drawn by four white horses.

Hundreds of cameras point at the newly married couple as Prince William puts on his hat and gloves, helps his newly noble wife into the carriage and the ground procession takes off toward Buckingham Palace.

My colleague Lexi Mainland, who is watching Twitter, reports that along with talk of the dress, a strongly trending topic is how the wedding has affected people’s feelings about the royal family.

Below is a representative sample, with most claiming to have been warmed by the celebration:

Of course, not everyone was so heartened, and many on Twitter remained staunchly anti-royalist:

Clarence House, the private office of Prince Charles, has posted links on its Twitter account and on the official royal wedding Web site to background and details about the service, the dress and other wedding facts and figures.

Christine Haughney, reporting from London, finds that the wedding has improved some people’s view of the royals, but others remain indifferent:

Carmel Southall, who was fighting through crowds near Trafalgar Square, brought her husband, two sons and their girlfriends from Bristol for the celebration. She painted a Union Jack on her left cheek, carried a flag, and dressed in red, white and blue for the day. She clutched a royal wedding program she purchased and said, “We feel we have been invited.”

Ms. Southall said she had been a fan of the royals because Diana’s sons were similar in age to her 27- and 22-year-old sons. But this wedding was “bringing the royal family into the 20th century.”

She said, “We need figureheads we can relate to. They’re quite human.”

Even in the typically boisterous Old Compton Street, Brits are silently and eagerly watching the royal wedding. At G-A-Y Bar, Benji Davis, the manager, sipped Champagne and gazed at one of the TV screens. “It looks beautiful,” he said. Charli McGrane, dressed in a Sex Pistols-style William and Kate T-shirt was more concerned with how nervous Kate Middleton must be. “She must be shaking,” she said. “I’m pretty sure she would be shaking.”

But patience is running thin with some Old Compton Street revelers. A double-decker bus waits outside to fill with partiers after the ceremony and guests cheered during the vows.

“Is the ceremony over yet?” one reveler shouted from Old Compton Street.

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, who is giving commentary from a noble perspective for The Times, writes of the proceedings:

Great dress and in very good taste! Very romantic, sober, chic. But it is the first time I have seen a best man stand right there the whole time. And no ring for William? How odd.

I wish they showed more of the other royals present. The only one a got a glimpse of was the Queen of Denmark and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesKate Middleton arrived wearing an Alexander McQueen dress designed by Sarah Burton.

People appear to be loving the dress, if early posts to Twitter are any indication.

A couple of typical examples:

But what about an expert opinion? The Times’s Eric Wilson provides this instant analysis, as well as some details, on the dress:

Kate Middleton arrived in what commentators on TLC are describing as one of the ultimate wedding gowns of all time. The dress, designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, was selected “for the beauty of its craftsmanship and its respect for traditional workmanship and the technical construction of clothing.” There will be a lot of deconstruction of that dress and that statement over the next several hours, not to mention Ms. Middleton’s choices to wear a tiara before entering Westminster Abbey and to dress her bridal party, including her sister, in white.

For now, here’s a few details released by Clarence House:

The lace applique for the bodice and skirt was handmade by the Royal School of Needlework, with individual flowers hand-cut from lace (in shapes of roses, thistle, daffodils and shamrocks). The dress is made of ivory and white satin gazar with a skirt in the shape of an opening flower. The satin bodice, narrowed at the waist and padded at the hips in a McQueen signature, is based on Victorian corsetry. The back is finished with 58 gazar and organza covered buttons.

The veil, made of ivory silk tulle with a trim of hand-embroidered flowers, is held in place by a 1936 Cartier tiara, lent to Ms. Middleton by the Queen. (It was bought for her mother by the Duke of York and presented to Queen Elizabeth on her 18th birthday.) Ms. Middleton’s earrings — shaped like oak leaves with a pave set diamond acorn suspended in the center — are by Robinson Pelham. The shoes are also by McQueen.

So now that we know what she wore, how does it stack up against what could have been, as seen in this Times interactive feature?

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesKate Middleton and her father, Michael Middleton, made their way to Westminster Abbey.

Photos are beginning to come across the wires of Kate Middleton. Above is an early look at a dress that we’re likely to be seeing and hearing a lot more of in the coming hours, days and years (as it is copied and worn on decidedly less pomp-filled occasions.)

John F. Burns, watching on British television, saw a subtle hint of an auspicious future for the royal couple:

One among many hopeful portents for Kate’s future as a royal came when Ed Gould, the headmaster of Marlborough College, the private school in Wiltshire that she attended as a teenager, stopped to talk to the BBC on his way into Westminster Abbey.

Marlborough was founded in the mid-19th century as a school for the sons of Church of England clergy, and while more congenial now than it was on its foundation, it is no country club, or at least wasn’t under the tutelage of Mr. Gould, a rugged former rugby player who was known to the pupils as “Scary Ed” for his tough disciplinary ways, including expelling recidivist smokers and any pupil found taking even mild drugs.

One of Kate’s fellow students was my 27-year-old daughter Emily, who was a field hockey teammate of Kate and her younger sister Pippa, and remembers Kate now as “the most perfect” girl at the co-ed college, gifted in the classroom, the school’s outstanding female athlete, and an absentee from secret smoking and drinking parties on the college roofs.

Much the same view was voiced by Mr. Gould. Asked if he had any memory of Kate misbehaving herself, Mr. Gould replied: “If she was, she obeyed the 11th commandment. She was never found out.”

Kate borrowed her tiara from the Queen, and many royal watchers have noted that her engagement ring, once worn by Princess Diana, was her “something blue” today.

Tiiara was presented to the Queen on her 18th birthday. It had been a gift to her mother from her father 3 wks before he became king.Fri Apr 29 10:15:53 via webSarah Hughes
skyhughes

It’s official! Prince William and Kate Middleton are now married, and take on the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Stephanie Rosenbloom reports from a viewing party in New York:

Kate Middleton is walking into the church. The woman next to me just patted her heart and sighed.

The royal wedding is about to begin and I’ve snared a front row seat — at a bar.

I’m in downtown Manhattan at Lyon, the cozy oak-paneled French (gasp!) restaurant in Greenwich Village owned by a British expatriate and a French man. Outside in the blue light of dawn, Greenwich Avenue — lovingly referred to as “Little Britain” by certain New Yorkers — is wrapped in bunting. In the blue light of morning, Union Jacks dangle from storefronts.

While the neighborhood has yet to fully rub the sleep from its eyes, Lyon is a twitter as it kicks off a day-long English-style block party to celebrate the wedding of the century. Early bird anglophiles are here to rub elbows, clang beer mugs, and soak up the royal pomp and circumstance (there’s a television in the main dining room and a large screen at the bar). Women are streaming into the restaurant in dainty dresses and heels. Many are sporting wide brimmed hats, or tiaras and veils.

Lyon’s hearty fare typically includes dishes like spicy barbecued duck wings and tripes gratinees, but today there’s a traditional British menu ($39 prix fixe for breakfast and lunch). Romance is in the air — and so is the smell of bacon. On offer this morning: an English breakfast platter complete with fried eggs, sausage, black pudding, mushrooms, roasted tomato, fried bread and, of course, a pint of beer.

Lyon’s owners, Penny Bradley (requisite feisty Englishwoman) and Francois Latapie, are ready for a day as long, if not longer, than that of William and Kate.

“We know we’ve got a packed house,” said Ms. Bradley (in outrageous Union Jack platform heels) as she and her son Jack (in Union Jack vest) finished some last minute preparations. Nearby businesses will be opening their doors over the next few hours. For instance, Tea & Sympathy — another eatery under the auspices of a British expatriate — plans to open at 10:30 a.m.

We may be in downtown Manhattan, but as they say in London: bloody marvelous.

The wedding service has begun: “We are gathered here …”

The Examiner has a great interactive version of the wedding program, for those who would like to follow along.

Eric Wilson notes some innovations on the royal red carpet:

The fashion credits being released by Clarence House are unusual in their details, right down to the beading on the Queen’s yellow crepe wool dress by Angela Kelly, hand sewn “in the shape of sunrays.”

I suppose this is part of the modernization of the royal family for today’s culture of red-carpet commentary. On TLC, they’re showing slow-motion video of Kate Middleton getting into a car.

And on Twitter, Eric writes: “The dress by Sarah Burton of McQueen is beautiful. Really elegant says Elizabeth Emanuel.”

Sarah Lyall has confirmed that the wedding dress was designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.

Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesPrince William waves as he arrives with his brother Prince Harry at the West Door of Westminster Abbey.

Now that Prince William has arrived, John F. Burns gives a bit of background on the symbolism of his dress uniform:

One of the day’s surprises has been the announcement that Prince William will be wearing the scarlet uniform of the Irish Guards, of which he was appointed honorary colonel-in-chief in February, and not the Royal Air force tunic he wears in his day job as an R.A.F. search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, based at the R.A.F.’s Valley base at Anglesey in northwest Wales. Partly, that may have reflected an aesthetic judgment, that the scarlet tunic would be more telegenic than the sober blue of the R.A.F.

But as with much else about the wedding, there was doubtless a measure of politics involved in the decision – the politics of state, as well as the politics of inter-service rivalries. As a personal matter, William may have been to keen to flag his close relationship with the British Army, having taken his initial military training at Sandhurst, Britain’s equivalent of West Point. The state politics revolve, most obviously, around Britain’s evolving relationship with Ireland, north and south, 13 years after the Good Friday agreement that laid out the blueprint for peace in the six northern counties of Ulster, where a sometimes testy, but overall resilient, shared power arrangement has seen republicans and unionists, Catholics and Protestants, sitting in government together now for four years.

Next month, Queen Elizabeth II will make the first-ever official visit to the Irish Republic by a British monarch, and event of totemic importance in the reconciliation between the two countries. The last British monarch to visit the southern part of Ireland was George V in 1911, when the whole island was part of Britain. Having Prince William wear the uniform of an Irish regiment undoubtedly carried a message to the Irish, even if it wasn’t entirely welcome among diehard republicans. In a Twitter feed posted on the BBC website, Dave Finn offered a taste of the dyspepsia. “They’d be doing me more of an honour if they respected our independence, however well meaning their gesture may be,” he wrote. “It’s not any chest-beating republicanism on my part, just a matter of simple recognition that they don’t own us anymore.”

No question, the Irish Guards have a close association with the British Crown, and with the Protestant-majority counties that make up most of Northern Ireland. Founded in April 1900 on the orders of Queen Victoria, the regiment commemorated the Irishj sopldiers who fought for Britain in the Boer War; later on, they fought in many of the bloodiest battles of World War I in France, including the Battle of the Somme in 1916. One of the 2,300 men of the regiment who were killed was John Kipling son of Rudyard, the “poet of the empire”. But although the Guards recruit mainly in northern Ireland and Irish neighborhoods of major British cities, they still draw volunteers from the Irish Republic, notwithstanding an Irish statute that makes that technically illegal.

The Guards exist alongside the Royal Irish regiment, and between them make up the only remaining Irish contingents in the British army. Both have been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and gave Irish soldiers one of their proudest moments when Colonel Tim Collins, commander of the Royal Irish regiment’s battle group, spoke to his troops in Kuwait on the eve of the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003m and his Homeric sentiments led to the speech being posted in the Oval Office when George W. Bush was president. “If you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory,” the colonel said. “If you harm the regiment by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer. You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest, for your deeds will follow down through history”. Col. Collins is now retired, and a frequent commentator on military matters on British television.

Isaac Spring, 18, from Oxford, draped in a union jack flag, had woken up at 5.30am to secure a spot on the parade route. Britain he said “has come together.” Though he supports the monarchy, he said that he had made the effort to celebrate “because William and Kate are young. There’s obviously a lot of respect for the Queen, but she’s perhaps not such an inspirational figure to my generation.”

Stephanie Rosenbloom/The New York Times

Meanwhile, at a live viewing party in New York, Stephanie Rosenbloom spotted the above shoes on the feet of Penny Bradley, the British ex-pat owner of Lyon in Greenwich Village.

Kate Middleton has been spotted on her way to the abbey, and her dress is lace. Thoughts on the designer? Tweet us at @nytimes

Sarah Lyall has this instant analysis:

Rumors have swirled for weeks over The Dress. Many have speculated that Sarah Burton, creative director of the late Alexander McQueen’s fashion house. This morning, the buzz about Ms. Burton has heightened.

The Queen’s is making her way to the abbey past cheering crowds. She’s wearing a yellow hat and a yellow coat and waving in a very dignified manner.

Left, Dan Kitwood/Getty Images; center and right, Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesFrom left: The House of Commons Speaker John Bercow and his wife Sally Bercow; The Beckhams; and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (in blue).

As expected, the best pre-wedding show can be found atop the heads of many of the guests. So many amazing hats!

Dylan Martinez/ReutersA marching band of guardsmen parade along The Mall before the wedding of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton in central London on Friday.

Many were getting in on the act, even if they were not among the very few to be granted an invitation to the wedding itself as my colleague Ravi Somaiya is discovering:

Hugo Millington-Drake, 21, a student, walked down Parliament Street in a full tuxedo, with bow tie, and a bowler hat.

“If I wasn’t invited I thought I would at least dress up,” he said, adding that he had been separated from other formally dressed friends. Mr. Millington-Drake said he did not usually attend royal events, but “everyone is here and it’s an excuse to drink Pimms at 8am. And it’s the fairytale — the commoner becoming princess. Actually, I hate that word, commoner, but you know what I mean. These two are really in love, unlike Charles and Diana.”

Martin Meissner/Associated PressPrince William waves as he arrives at Westminster Abbey.

Eric Wilson on the prince’s garb:

Some details on the gentlemen’s attire: Prince Charles is wearing a Royal Navy dress uniform with a blue sash and numerous medals, while Prince Harry will wear the uniform of a captain of the Household Cavalry. Prince William, the groom, is wearing the uniform of the colonel of the Irish Guards — a red tunic with a gold and crimson sash and gold sword slings. He is not carrying a sword.

From the official description, “The tunic, in Guards’ Red, features the Irish Guards’ distinctive arrangement of buttons in groups of four. The buttons feature the Harp of Ireland surmounted by the Crown Imperial. The arrangement of buttons on the uniform denotes the Irish Guards’ position in the Order of Battle as the Fourth Regiment of Foot Guards.”

As for the wedding ring, the couple announced that Kate Middleton’s ring has been made by Wartski, the same jeweler that provided the wedding rings for the marriage of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005. Ms. Middleton’s ring was made of a piece of gold given to Prince William after the engagement. Prince William himself will not wear a ring.

Prince William arrives with his brother, Prince Harry, both in dress uniforms. They remove their caps as they enter the abbey.

Photos to come shortly.

The big question television commentators are asking: what kind of dress with Mrs. Middleton wear, and who will be the designer. As we await word, Eric Wilson reports on what the mother of the bride, Carole Middleton, will wear: a dress and coatdress by Catherine Walker, a favorite designer of Princess Diana. He writes:

Mrs. Middleton’s choice is a sky blue wool crepe coatdress with satin piping and passementerie at the waist and cuff, over a matching silk shantung day dress with short pleated sleeves and pleated pockets. That sounds like a lot of detail, but it will probably play well on television.

John F. Burns reports from London that despite the excitement, the crowds around the abbey may fall short of royal weddings past, perhaps because Friday has been declared a national holiday and many have left town:

Much will be made in Britain and elsewhere of the size of the crowds that line the streets of central London for the wedding, as a totem, of support for the monarchy.

One early sign that they might fall shy of the most ambitious projections of a million or more people came with the relatively light traffic on the London underground trains heading into the “exclusion zone” the police have declared for the event, barring all non-official vehicle traffic from the area.

At 7.30 a.m., at the height of what would normally be the morning rush hour, seats were available in almost every underground train.

Working against the kind of crowds that massed for the weddings of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981 and the wedding in 1947 of the then Princess Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip was the fact that the government has declared a four-day public holiday, the second in two weeks including the Easter weekend. Many among the better-off among London’s seven million people have gone abroad for Easter breaks, or to weekend homes in the country. Others will doubtlessly choose to begin their long weekends with a lazy morning in front of their television sets.

But whatever the turnout, the wedding has already shown the extent of the bedrock support for the monarchy in Britain, despite 25 years in which it has been sorely tested by the divorces and indiscretions of the royals. Excitement has been building for weeks; acres of newsprint have been dedicated to every last detail of the wedding arrangements, and more than 5,500 street parties are planned across the country. To be sure, there has been an air of metropolitan disdain coming from certain quarters, prominently reflected in the country’s two principal center-left newspapers, The Guardian and its weekend stablemate The Observer.

The Observer ran a boldly republican editorial in its editions last weekend editorial last weekend. “In the run-up to their big day, Prince William and Kate Middleton have shown a poise and dignity that will probably strengthen public fondness towards the monarchy this week. Their more fawning and sycophantic supporters will help republicanism more,” it said. “This newspaper wishes the couple the personal contentment and stability that all newlyweds hope for. May their marriage be long and glorious; we wish them a happy future. But Britain’s future is best served by striving to shape a truly meritocratic and open society and that has to include the way in which we choose our head of state. Meritocracy and monarchy is one marriage that just doesn’t work.

The Guardian greeted its readers on Friday with a sober, if not dyspeptic, warning. “After the hysteria, infantilisation and general disproportion that so often surrounded royal events towards the end of the 20th century, a proper sense of proportion about where this wedding stands in the national scheme of things in the 21st century would be very welcome and reassuring””, it said. “ The monarchy’s place in the British people’s sense of patriotism is contingent. Nothing should be taken for granted”.

But the Guardian’s own poll, published on Monday, suggested that many Britons remain more wedded to the monarchy than the editorials – or the people lining the streets in their Union Jack top hats, red-white-and-blue nylon wigs, and William-and-Kate lapel buttons — suggested. In answer to the question “Do you think Britain would be better off or worse off without a Royal Family”, the poll, conducted by the ICM organization, found 63 per cent who answered “worse off”, 26 per cent “better off”, and 11 per cent who “didn’t know”.

Photographs by Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Outside Westminster Abbey? Attending a royal wedding party at a pub? At your neighbor’s home?

We want to see your photos today from wherever you are royal-watching. Submit your photos here and show us what you see: http://submit.nytimes.com/royalwedding

The guests are arriving, hats in abundance, and my colleague Eric Wilson sends this first instant analysis of the styles on display:

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images David and Victoria Beckham arriving at the Westminster Abbey.

The coffee pot is brewing, the telly is set to TLC and I’ve got a Wills & Kate commemorative mug all ready to go. I may be just waking up, but I’m pleased to see Stephen Jones, the busy milliner, there to help identify the guests (yes, that was Anya Hindmarch under that big straw hat). Now just waiting for confirmation of The Dress!

Mr. Jones was asked why so few women seem to be wearing fascinators, those silly little clip-on hats, just as Victoria Beckham arrived wearing a Philip Treacy style. David Beckham, in a Ralph Lauren suit, appeared more styled with his hair slicked back.

“People aren’t going to a cocktail party,” Mr. Jones said. “They are going to a royal wedding.”

My, those royals have been a secretive lot. It’s quite impressive they’ve been able to keep the identity of Kate Middleton’s dress designer quiet for so long, especially in this day and age of cell phone scrutiny. A mere 12 hours ago, the English media went absolutely bonkers at a possible sighting of Sarah Burton, the Alexander McQueen designer, dashing into the Goring Hotel, where Ms. Middleton is preparing for her grand walk down the aisle. Actually, it was a woman whose entire head was covered in a trapper hat, but she was wearing a shiny belt and ballet flats that have been identified as the same ones Ms. Burton often wears, so you can draw your own conclusions.

Meanwhile, Chlesy Davy, Prince Harry’s girlfriend, arrived wearing a pale emerald Alberta Ferretti top and skirt with a neatly twisted neckline. Other designers to look out for: Akris announced yesterday it would be dressing Charlene Wittstock, the fiance of Prince Albert of Monaco, in a light gray coat and dress. Giorgio Armani, who dressed several royals for a dinner on Thursday, will also dress Lady Frederick Windsor in a navy cocktail dress and short coat, and People magazine reported on Thursday that some of the bridal party will be wearing dresses by Nicki Macfarlane.

Today’s coverage will come from:

John F. Burns

Foreign correspondent for The Times who will be reporting from London, giving context and background on the festivities.

Sarah Lyall

London correspondent for The Times. She has written about a wide range of social topics from education to celebrity culture. She is tweeting at @sarahlyall.

Ravi Somaiya

London correspondent delivering vox pop and other reaction to the day’s pomp from the London street. He’s tweeting at @ravisomaiya.

Eric Wilson

Fashion reporter for The New York Times and a frequent contributor to its On the Runway blog covering the styles and fashions of the royal wedding, including the big reveal of Kate Middleton’s gown. He is tweets at @ericwilsonnyt.

Stephanie Rosenbloom

A staff reporter for the Style section of The New York Times will be live blogging the British ex-pat/American scene from Lyon on Greenwich Avenue, where the royal wedding is to be celebrated with a block party. She is tweeting at @stephronyt.

Christine Haughney

Staff reporter on the Metro desk reporting from London. She is tweeting at @chaughney.

Shawn Rabideau

For over ten years Shawn has worked in all aspects of the event production and design industry. Through the past decade, Shawn has been involved with and overseen the production and design of numerous private events for such clients as Kenneth Cole, Paige Davis, Bethenny Frankel, Jennifer Lopez, Star Jones and Barbara Walters. Her will be reporting from New York. He is tweeting at @ShawnRabideau.

Prince Dimitri

Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, also known as Dimitri Karageorgevich, is founder, president and creative director of the jewelry firm bearing his name, “Prince Dimitri Company”. He was formerly senior vice president of the jewelry department of the Sotheby’s auction house. He has attended his fair share of royal weddings but will be watching and commenting, along with the rest of us, on television.

My colleagues in London have hit the ground running this morning. Ravi Somaiya reports on Twitter that he’s already in “can’t-move-arms crammed in front of parliament and the abbey” as a marching band entertain the crowds.

He and John Burns set the scene, as viewed by the British press:

Newspaper headlines feted the wedding on Friday with words like “storybook” and “fairytale” — terms that were applied in earlier times to the marriage of Charles and Diana in 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, an event that also seized the nation with enthusiasm.

“The transition of Miss Middleton from a young woman from the Home Counties to being our future queen is the stuff of fairy tales,” said the conservative Daily Telegraph.

Queen Elizabeth II announced Friday that Prince William would assume three new titles to be shared with Miss Middleton — the Duke of Cambridge, the Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus. A dukedom is the highest rank in British peerage.

In daily parlance, Miss Middleton will be known after her marriage as the Duchess of Cambridge, but she will also have the titles the Countess of Strathearn and Baroness Carrickfergus.

But some struck a note of caution. “These are tough times for millions of British people,” The Guardian newspaper said in an editorial. “This is not a day for demented princess worship or for in-your-face state extravagance. Even if it was, the recent past inevitably casts a shadow over the occasion. As far as dream royal weddings are concerned, Britain is a once-bitten-twice-shy country.”