Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton
The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. William was second in the line of succession to the British throne. The couple had been in a relationship since 2003.
Date
John Hall, Dean of Westminster, presided at the service; Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, conducted the marriage; Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, preached the sermon; and a reading was given by Catherine's brother, James. William's best man was his brother Prince Harry, while Catherine's sister, Pippa, was the maid of honour. The ceremony was attended by the bride's and groom's families, as well as members of foreign royal families, diplomats, and the couple's chosen personal guests. After the ceremony, the couple made the traditional appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. As William was not the heir apparent to the throne at the time, the wedding was not a full state occasion and many details were left for the couple to decide, such as much of the guest list of about 1,900.
William and Catherine first met in 2001. Their engagement, which took place on 20 October 2010, was announced on 16 November 2010. The build-up to the wedding and the occasion itself attracted much media attention, being compared in many ways with the wedding of William's parents in 1981. The occasion was a public holiday in the United Kingdom and featured many ceremonial aspects, including use of the state carriages and roles for the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry. Events were held around the Commonwealth to mark the wedding; organisations and hotels held events across Canada,[1] over 5,000 street parties were held throughout the United Kingdom, and about a million people lined the route between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace on the wedding day.[2] The ceremony was viewed live by tens of millions more around the world, including 72 million live streams on YouTube.[3] In the United Kingdom, television audiences peaked at 26.3 million viewers, with a total of 36.7 million watching part of the coverage.
Honeymoon[edit]
Despite reports that the couple would leave for their honeymoon the day after their wedding,[235][236] Prince William immediately returned to his work as a search-and-rescue pilot, and the couple did not depart until 9 May, ten days after their wedding.[237] The honeymoon destination was initially kept secret. Although the press speculated that they might be headed to locations such as South America, Jordan, and Kenya,[235] the couple ultimately decided to honeymoon for 10 days on a secluded villa on a private island in the Seychelles.[237] On the morning of 21 May, a spokesman for St. James's Palace announced that the couple had returned to the United Kingdom.[238][239] The length of the honeymoon was limited by William's RAF duties and the couple's official scheduled tour to Canada and the United States later that summer.[237][240]