

I wasn’t going to do it. Everybody in the wedding industry has been talking about this wedding for weeks. I have smiled and I’ve shaken my head, and I’ve even rolled my eyes a few times. But yesterday, it hit me that this might be the only time in my lifetime I will get to watch something like this, something that will bring so much of the world together for a few hours to celebrate something other than our success, to think about something good and pure and lovely, to smile and cry and be curious and be happy all together.
It’s a little like that coronation scene in Return of the King, a little like I imagine things will be when Jesus is crowned Lord of All, when the Bride is brought to her Groom in the culmination of a courtship that has spanned all of time into eternity.
So I did it. I got up (with a little help from my Pete) at 5:00 a.m. for my silly reasons – wanting to see that dress (oh, I love it – I am so glad it wasn’t a ghastly horror to set trends for all my future brides!), plain curiosity, watching Prince William (who I have always prayed for – he is my age) with the girl he loves; and I got up for my serious reasons – taking in the pomp, relearning the meaning of ceremony, investing a little attention in the industry I’m entering with my photography.
Piper was sleeping on the couch, and we woke her just as the bride got out of her car, telling her that we were going to watch a princess get married.

It was a Disney wedding to Pip, and she had us in laughs and wonder at the same time as she watched. While Kate and William were exchanging vows, Pip repeated William’s full name (William Arthur Phillip Louis) as “Huey, Dewey, and Luey,” just before we explained to her what the vows were about.
“They’re making a promise to be married, to love each other and stay together,” I told her.
“Yeah,” she said, “Just like Lumpy and Roo in Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, when they made a promise to be BEST FRIENDS, so they could play together!”
You betcha, kid, that’s exactly it. She made me cry, knowing what a promise is for – at age three. Really, she was just my excuse to cry, because when I’m not behind a camera working a wedding, I absolutely bawl at weddings. Tears for the mom, tears for the bride, tears for the mom that wasn’t there, tears because everything was just so darn big and important and pretty, all at the same time! It can really overwhelm a girl!
I love how she could get Prince William to crack a smile, and I loved how Harry was sneaking glances during her processional and telling William that he was gonna be amazed when he turned around. I love how they wanted to look at each other when she got to the altar, how they really meant the vows that they repeated, how nearly everything in this wedding was true, and true for them.
And I couldn’t get over Kate’s face – she was so composed, but so very real, and she couldn’t hold her smile back! She was so totally there, it flabbergasted me – it was her wedding day, and she really, really enjoyed it!
But while Kate might be enjoying her wedding day, Bredon was a little put out with the whole deal. But he’s a boy, and I suppose I should expect that. (He got up on his own just as Pip woke up, hollering at us to get him out of his bed “NOW!” I think he wanted to watch Sports Center with Dad as he usually does.)

I pulled out my camera during the down time toward the end of the ceremony, and shot a few photos off my new laptop (which has a Very Nice Screen, if I do say so myself) – I have to put out a HUGE thanks to the cameraman at The Royal Channel for the angles he panned during the wait – the the cathedral came off unbelievably beautiful with the added window reflection on my screen, and he aimed for the bells so I could capture the fairytale sound of dreams coming true on my own camera.
Still, I have to admit, I would have loved to be standing in THIS crowd, with one of THESE lenses, capturing the high resolution photos and shooting the wedding for real.

This week has been difficult for me, with the massive tornado damage in the deep South juxtaposed against a world event focused on love and life and beauty, a juxtaposition mirrored in my own life as I’m continuing to understand why I take pictures the way I do, choosing to view what is true and lovely and of good report, choosing not to dwell on the awful without shutting my eyes to it. Sometimes I wonder how long there will be good things left in the world to dwell on, how much longer the world can hold all its sorrow.
I think I am learning to live in the middle, a stranger in a strange land that makes less and less sense to me the more I learn of God, looking for the things of my heart-home, the joy, the peace, the life, the love. It is such a strange tension, and it calls for a strange, strong trust that allows me to cast my cares on Him, knowing that He cares for me, for all of us.
It is a gorgeous day here – I have all the windows open after two weeks of South Carolina heat and humidity. It will be back, I know, but for today, I get to breathe it in. So, Happy Royal Wedding day – I wish you something beautiful today.