ICYMI – ROYAL WEDDING VIDEO REPLAY: Space Coast Daily UK Correspondent Reports From Windsor Castle

By  //  May 19, 2018

SPACE COAST DAILY TV SPECIAL PRESENTATION

WATCH: The American actress Megan Markle made history today as she married into the upper echelons of the British Royal Family in a fabulous wedding ceremony at world-famous Windsor Castle in England. (The Royal Family video)

By Special Correspondent Keith Malone

The American actress Megan Markle made history today as she married into the upper echelons of the British Royal Family in a fabulous wedding ceremony at world-famous Windsor Castle in England.

Megan’s groom was Prince Harry, sixth in line to the British throne. His brother Prince William, second in line to be king, was his best man. Megan will now be known as the Duchess of Sussex. Her husband is the Duke of Sussex.

As a former TV reporter in the UK, I have covered many royal occasions and reported live from outside Windsor Castle.

I can tell the readers and viewers of Space Coast Daily that I personally know how the British public love the royal family and I have felt the excitement building in my home country of England these past few weeks as the date approached for Megan and Harry to tie the knot.

Today, massed cheering crowds thronged the royal town of Winsdor as the eyes of the world gazed upon this glittering occasion staged at the home of Queen Elizabeth 11. It’s estimated there were more than 100,000 people in the town.

The future King of England, Prince Charles the Prince of Wales, walked the bride up the aisle in place of Megan’s father, whose sudden illness this past week prevented him from making the journey from USA to England to be at his daughter’s side.

Aged 73 and suffering from a bad heart, Mr. Markle reportedly watched the ceremony from California.

The American actress Megan Markle made history today as she married into the upper echelons of the British Royal Family in a fabulous wedding ceremony at world-famous Windsor Castle in England. (The Royal Family video image)

St George’s Chapel, where the wedding took place, read like a Who’s Who of British Royalty as the ceremony was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Anglican Church of England and aided by The Most Reverend Michael Curry, president of the US Episcopal Church, who gave an address,

“There’s power, power in love,” said Bishop Curry.

It was above all a traditional wedding – the dress, the bridesmaids, the vows, the hymns. Buckingham Palace had made it clear in a stream of announcements that they wanted a different kind of wedding.

And it was the service that marked this out as a modern, diverse wedding for a modern diverse couple: the Kingdom Gospel choir setting toes tapping, a young black cellist, and a breathtaking address from Bishop Curry.

Royal Windsor was bathed in the most glorious English early summer sunshine as pageantry and fashion and colour and glamour was centre stage for this fabulous royal wedding.

One thing the British are renowned for is a royal wedding – and this wonderfully happy event did not let down the tradition of Britain organising royal occasions with style, pomp, grace and immaculate timing.

The American actress Megan Markle made history today as she married into the upper echelons of the British Royal Family in a fabulous wedding ceremony at world-famous Windsor Castle in England. (The Royal Family video image)

An emotional-looking prince and his smiling bride exchanged vows and rings before the Queen and 600 guests.

Megan was wearing a white boat-neck dress by British designer Clare Waight Keller for French fashion house Givenchy.
At the altar, Prince Harry told her: “You look amazing.”

The guests, many of them A-listers, included Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney, David and Victoria Beckham and singer/songwriter Sir Elton John, who later performed at the wedding reception.

Megan had 10 bridesmaids and page boys – including Prince William’s young children Prince George and Princess Charlotte. She wore Queen Mary’s diamond bandeau tiara, loaned to her by the Queen.

Her sculpted white dress was completed with a five-metre veil and embroidered with the flowers of each country in the British Commonwealth.

In her vows, Ms. Markle did not promise to “obey” her husband, while the prince has broken with royal tradition by choosing to wear a wedding ring.

During the service, the couple pledged themselves to one another, saying: “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, ’til death us do part.”

Lady Jane Fellowes, the sister of Prince Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, gave a reading.

Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir performed Ben E King’s soul classic Stand By Me during the service.

After the service, the duke and duchess traveled through Windsor along a route lined by tens of thousands of well-wishers.

History has told us every British royal wedding is a chance for the Royal Family to re-launch and re-invent itself. There may have been trouble in the week before the wedding. But today all that was in the past.

This wedding was about the future, a different future for the Royal Family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: TV reporter Keith Malone, guest writer for Space Coast Daily, has covered many public engagements by the Royal Family during a career lasting more than 25 years. (Space Coast Daily image)

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