The aftermath is clearly visible with everything she touches turning gold instantly. Be it the designer dress she wore, replicas of which have flooded the web making the designer an immediate sensation or getting the famed magazine covers which are usually reserved for superstars of hall of fame. Ever since what was perhaps the most popular proposal of last decade, when Prince William asked his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton to be a royal bride, every aspect of the oncoming wedding from the
wedding dress, the venue to the menu, has been dissected and debated to minute proportions. So has been the possibly tense atmosphere in the Buckingham Palace, about balancing the ostentatious and the ordinary, organising a wedding that reflects the grand regalia without coming across as an insensitive display of mega scale pomp and grandeur especially in the present grim economic climate.
While our own desi weddings which survive by the paradigm of “bigger than thy neighbour” could certainly take a leaf out of the royal book, the general opinion is that the celebrations would certainly be toned down.
Siddharth Kaushal, who is set to become a civil servant, feels that they should not tax the British citizen. “The wedding should certainly be sending a message of austerity as any over indulgence would be in bad taste. Maybe they make the treasury secretary the ‘best man’ as he really is for the nation right now, so should he be for the royal family,” he jokes.
Though not many are convinced about the actual tone of the wedding, which in the end would still be a super lavish affair, despite the noble intentions involved. “Though they will try to be as subtle as possible keeping the current state in mind, it will still be portrayed in a very larger-than-life manner considering it’s the royal family’s wedding,” says Mukesh Christopher, who works for an event management company.
However, as there has and always will be, the middle path lying in grouping the grand wedding and the grand gesture together. Vandita Sharma, wedding planner from Earthquake Creation Event Management Company, suggests showing the family’s softer side to citizens.
“They should make it open to whoever wants to attend or at least organise a royal lunch for citizens. Also, gifts should be replaced with donations for charity which the guests could make in the name of the bride and the groom,” she says, adding that wedding could also be used as a platform to promote upcoming talent, which could then generate employment.
Tikka Shatrujit Singh of Kapurthala thinks that Brits are finding a Diana in Kate and will only look at this as a good omen. “Maybe the wedding could spell the end of economic downturn and bring in a new era of prosperity,’ he adds.