Wedding bells

OK, it's time to admit it, my name is Clare and I am addicted to Euro monarchy. There, said it out loud, although it's still no less shameful.

As any of my good friends and family will confirm, I have a long-held passion for Hello! magazine, a weekly celebrity news magazine published in England. Unlike rival trash mag OK!, Hello! often features stories & pictures about the European monarchies. After many years of hard study I'm pretty sure I could name 90% of the royal families around at the moment.

For anybody in the know, this weekend was a biggie for royal watchers like me; Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden got married. I know, I know, it all sounds toe-curlingly boring & unimportant, but if you are an avid spectactor, this was THE date in the diary. The combination of wedding & royalty was almost too much to bear, it was like a real-life fairytale.

Since the big event at the weekend, I have scoured every last picture I can find on the Hello website and it's fair to say, the blue sashes, cameo pins and tiaras were out in force! Simply jaw-dropping jewels and dresses were on display from the European princesses, with flawless hair & make-up, some to even rival the bride herself, who looked beautiful, yet wore an elegant, simple dress. There wasn't a 'Diana' frill or ruff in sight!




One of the things about being English that I am most proud of is that we have a monarchy which dates back 1000s of years and it sets us apart from many other countries around the world. It is a tradition that I hope continues for many years to come. To many people, especially here in America, the idea of a monarchy is alien and out-moded. But despite the fact that none of these European monarchies have any ruling power anymore, and their actual raison d'etre is purely that of charity worker and national figurehead, they are still much-loved by many people around the world and enable us 'small people' a chance to daydream about the stories we were read as children.

These real-life princes and princesses do, after all, actually live in castles, wear crowns and ride around in carriages. Pure magic! Swoooon.

Now back to my housework!


To see the pictures of the Swedish royal wedding, go to www.hellomagazine.com