No doubt no one who reads this blog will be surprised to hear there is a Big To-Do going on in Old Blighty today: the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton. We are entering into the festivities with great enthusiasm. Which tiara will the bride wear? (We’re kind of hoping for this one, and that she doesn’t completely throw convention to the wind and wear FLOWERS for crying out loud–it’s a royal wedding, flaunt yer diamonds, gel!)
While it doesn’t have a blessed thing to do with Jane Austen, we thought it would be fun to play a royal wedding game we saw on Facebook: what is your royal wedding guest name?
To determine your name, use Lord or Lady (as we are all sons and daughters of peers, naturally), the first name of one of your grandparents as your first name, and then the name of your first pet and the street on which you grew up as a double-barreled last name, hyphenated or not: your choice.
Apparently Mr. Bean is a guest, which makes it simultaneously the geekiest and the coolest wedding of the year.
To make this post vaguely on topic, check out this exhibition featuring Princess Charlotte’s wedding dress from 1817. It’s
The wedding gown worn by the much-loved, but tragic Princess Charlotte (she died after giving birth to a stillborn son, at the age of 21), is the oldest in the collection, and needed the most conservation, requiring microscopic surface examination and 500 hours of detailed hand-stitching in ultra-fine, mono-filament silk threads, almost invisible to the naked eye.
In 1816, it was the height of fashion: empire-line, ankle-length and very much of the Jane Austen period, recalling what we think of today when we read ‘Emma’, which, at the time, had been published a few months previously, and, more recently, epitomised by Gwyneth Paltrow in the Hollywood film of the same name.
Sorry, we can’t help it; they’re just adorable.
AustenBlog 
My royal invitation name: Lady Alexandra Sheltie-Fraser (chose my maternal grandmother’s 3rd given name).
LikeLike
Lady Sandra Samantha-EllenLynn popping in from the Pacific coast before taking a nap, as I will be up at 1am to watch the festivities!
LikeLike
And here’s an even better JA connection (alleged, at least) to today’s festivities. See the eighth paragraph:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/royalwedding/3542925/Prince-William-has-sexy-hamper-for-Royal-Wedding-night.html
LikeLike
Well, you’ll be glad to know she wore a diamond tiara, borowed from the Queen. The dress was lovely, and while the sun could have shone more it didn’t rain.
LikeLike
It was a lovely wedding. Wills looked as though he truly loved her as he looked adorningly at her and always had his hand out for her and he couldn’t stop smiling. He was so not like his father on his wedding day to Princess Diane. Charles was cold and unfeeling. I wish Wills and his new bride all the best.
Now…
Lady Anne Elizabeth requests your presence for the union of …
LikeLike
Actually, isn’t Prince William an indirect descendent of Jane Austen through brother, Edward Austen-Leigh and the Knatchbulls ? All in the family !
Oh, Lady Mary Snowflake requests…I must’ve read the instructions wrong. lol !
LikeLike
Actually, no. The Knatchbulls are connected to the Mountbattens, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh’s family, through the marriage of John Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne to Lady Pamela Mountbatten. But the Mountbattens, Philip excepted, don’t really count as members of the Royal family any more than, say, the Spencers or the Bowes-Lyons do. Lady Pamela, now Countess Bountbatten, is a third cousin to the present Queen and a first cousin to Prince Philip, which doesn’t put her anywhere in William’s line of descent.
LikeLike
Greetings to all from Lady Margaret Abercrombie-Kilmer. (I must say this name game is fun.) Mandy, the royal family connection with the Knatchbulls is actually a good deal more indirect than the one you were hoping for: A great-great-grandson of Fanny, Lady Knatchbull (the oldest daughter of JA’s brother Edward Austen Knight) married the older daughter of Lord Mountbatten, who was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria. But, as I forget which biographer of JA has pointed out, JA would probably have been astonished at even this degree of connection between the Austens and the royal family.
LikeLike
My name would be Lady Lorna Frances-Cunningham.
Someone on a royal message board commented after watching the wedding vows taking place that it reminded them of P&P 1995. I had been thinking the same thing. It wasn’t the wedding or the people at all. It was hearing the Archbishop’s lovely English accent saying the marriage service. He read that one line differently, though. You know the line that’s being said when the camera focuses on the Gardeners. I thought “He’s supposed to say ‘…….First, for the procreation of children’. ” He said something that meant the same thing, but was worded differently.
LikeLike
My name would be Lady Sophie Tina-Princeton. Not so hot.
Anyway, I loved this wedding. Kate was stunning, and it’s so obvious that William adores her. Prince Charles and Diana had an arranged marriage, but it would appear that someone forgot tell Diana about it. But don’t get me started on Diana — I’m not a big fan of hers.
LikeLike
Lady Isabella Buffy-Rosedale here. Verrrrrry high class!
By the way, I had forgotten that Rowan Atkinson was going to be there. Did the TV cameras get him at all? Who knew he was a friend of Charles?
Loved the whole thing. Happy, gorgeous and a lot of fun. Now we have to go back to reality…until Harry gets married!
LikeLike
I forgot to mention that I have the choice of being Lady Anne or Lady Jessica (or supposing I wished to be the wife of the younger son of a peer of the rank of Marquess or above, Lady James or Lady David) Bruce-Barony. I venture to suggest that as the first half of my surname relates to one of Scotland’s most distinguished Kings (albeit the individual who supplied it in my particular case was one of Scotland’s most distinguished cocker spaniels) and the street in question has been there in one form or another for at least 400 years and was the main street of the ancient Barony of Broughton, it is a singularly grand name. If only I had a house with an £8OO chimney piece, a nephew about to make a rash marriage, a grovelling clergyman and the ability to dictate tomorrow’s weather I would be a rival to a certain Lady C de B.
LikeLike