A Royal Wedding Tea Party

I don't know if I remember actually watching Princess Di's wedding, but my moms said I did. What I do remember is about fifteen years of seeing the princess with a big poofy gown carrying an armful of flowers. I remember seeing dolls, plates, stickers, and magazines with the princess bride. So, when Prince William and his fiancee Kate set the date, I planned to do something memorable with my little girl. One of my best friends is from Great Britain, so we decided that a wedding watching playdate sounded perfect.

Somehow along the way, I got a little bit too excited about the whole thing, and it turned into a Royal-wedding-watching, prince-and-princess-crown-creating, child-friendly, perfect-little-tea-party playdate. The youngest two attendees (one four-months old, the other two-weeks old) slept most of the time. The other seven kiddos (ages two to four years old) had fun putting on princess and prince (aka: Power Ranger and Buzz) costumes, making sparkly crowns (with veils added to the girls' crowns,) and snacking constantly on all the tea-party finger foods. Some of the kids enjoyed watching the wedding, but mostly, they played.

Ema, Simone, Jennifer and I enjoyed our adult time and stretched the morning to naptime while we enjoyed dainty treats and tea. Some of the treats we had with English tea were scones and jam, Scottish shortbread, English tea biscuits (cookies), mini quiches, ham and cheese spirals, cucumber sandwiches, crown-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries, and wedding mints.

Watching the wedding was entertaining and sweet. I was impressed with the classy lace dress Kate Catherine chose. I was surprised by the bright yellow Queen Elizabeth chose, but next to the red military uniforms and the gold robe on the clergy, it didn't seem so outrageous. What was crazy was the variety of hats on all the ladies. I think the kids were mesmerized by it, even if they didn't watch all of it.

Will was at school during our wedding party, but I packed him all the fun finger-foods in his lunch, so he still got to taste all the goodies. We recorded the wedding (five a.m. our time) and Will came home from school and hurried through his chores so he could watch the recording. I must say I was really surprised that he sat through the ceremony and even hushed everyone so he could hear all the words. I didn't expect such enthusiasm from a seven-year old boy.

Maybe my kids will remember watching a magical Royal wedding ... just like in all the fairy tales.