Today, exactly a week after they announced their engagement, royal couple Prince William and fiancee Catherine “Kate” Middleton named the date and venue for what looks to be the wedding of the decade.

April 29, 2011 (Friday)
Westminster Abbey



Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, the prince’s private secretary, said: “They’re on cloud nine like any other newly engaged couple and they’re now getting stuck into organising their wedding. They are completely over the moon – I’ve never seen two happier people which is fabulous.”

April 29 falls on a Friday and the Government has designated it as a bank holiday. It means that there will be two four-day public holidays, two weekends in succession: the Monday after the wedding, May 2, is already a designated bank holiday; and the previous weekend is Easter, which also has two bank holidays on the Friday and Monday.

Welcoming the announcement of the wedding date, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The wedding of Kate and William will be a happy and momentous occasion. We want to mark the day as one of national celebration – a public holiday will ensure the most people possible will have a chance to celebrate on the day.”

Mr Lowther-Pinkerton said: “The couple have chosen to be married at Westminster Abbey on the Feast of St Catherine on Friday 29th April. The couple were moved to choose the venue because of its staggering beauty, its 1,000 years of royal history and its relative intimacy despite its size.”

“They are very much in charge giving us firm direction about the arrangements.”

The Royal family and the Middletons will bear the cost of the wedding, the reception and the honeymoon, although any associated costs such as security, policing and cleaning streets will be picked up by the taxpayer

“The details of who pays for what haven’t been worked through yet but the Middleton family are very, very keen to contribute,” said Mr Lowther-Pinkerton. He added that the Prince and Miss Middleton want their wedding to be “a classic British occasion” and “a classic example of what Britain does best”.

He said the couple and the Royal family want the wedding to be an enjoyable event for the whole country while at the same time being “mindful” of the current economic situation.

As the date was finalised, it also emerged that Miss Middleton is to play a central role as a working member of the Royal family after her wedding.  It is understood she is already considering a request from the charity Starlight, which grants wishes to seriously and terminally ill children to work as their patron or ambassador.

At the weekend Royal aides contradicted widespread reports that Miss Middleton would not be a working princess and that she instead intended to start a family early in her marriage to Prince William.

“Catherine has made it clear that she wants to get stuck into work for the Royal family and that she wants to support her future husband,” said a senior royal aide.

Article: The Telegraph

Related Posts: