And so, less than five months after the big Crown Princess wedding in Sweden, the time has come for William and Kate (or Catherine as Clarence house called her in the announcement).
Unlike Daniel and Victoria, there won’t be a year and half of engagement time. The couple will marry next year in the spring or summer. Incidentally, would it have been so hard to set a date before sending out the announcement? One hopes that the health of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh holds up until then, anyway.
As William isn’t yet the first in line, Kate’s position won’t be the same as Diana. There is already someone in that spot. Furthermore, unlike Diana, she has grown up in a time where there aren’t all that many secrets left regarding the Family, as well as being quite a bit older than Diana was. The twosome will start out living in Wales, due to William’s training, so a bit more space than just hanging about in London.
I’ve already read comments that it was smart of them to wait until now, to avoid making the mistakes of his parents. Who certainly were good examples of how not to act in a royal marriage, no?
It can be debated again and again how/where/how much she should have been working prior to marriage, but with the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh being well past retirement age, and Charles and Camilla approaching retirement age… There should surely be enough work to hand around.
With the Olympics and the Diamond jubilee coming in 2012, this seems like the ideal time to have a royal wedding. The Queen will surely have to foot a large portion of the cost, given the current cuts in everything, but it should also be an event bringing in the cash to Britain.
An engagement is a happy occasion. Even when one says yes to living on diaplay for the rest of her life.
Best of luck to them both.