BYOT -- Bring Your Own Tiara
Well, last week I decided that the only way I could sit through the televised wedding of Flight Lieutenant William Wales and Cathrine Middleton, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was to have a formal tea party. Frankly, as interesting as the display might be, I needed some reinforcements-- tea with sandwiches, pastries, fruit, and sherry-- to get it through the prerecorded broadcast, at the more sensible hour of 8pm rather than 3am. So, I invited friends over on a BYOT-basis (Bring Your Own Tiara) and we had an intimate time watching all the cars, carriages, uniforms, dresses, and hats, arrive at Westminster Abbey. Considering I had just finished my behemoth Comprehensive Design Studio final two days before, tea sandwiches were about all I could construct at that point, and I needed a strong dose of high camp with scones, thank you very much.
Alas, no one bought a tiara, and we didn't get around to conferring campy titles and enomblement on each other as I had hoped. Frankly, it felt like I was watching the Duke Atredes rather than the Duke of Cambridge get married, as abstracted from reality it seemed beyond the basic commitment of two people to partnership. One commentator online said they thought they were watching science fiction or fantasy, how outlandish the uniforms and pageantry seemed--which I can see from the seemingly arbitrary choice of bright red uniform as honorary Colonel of the Irish Guards with blue riband of the Order of the Garter, versus less colorful Royal Air Force uniform for groom. (When he isn't gallivanting around in regalia and honorary military uniforms, he co-pilots a search-and-rescue helicopter, sometimes under the callsign "Billy the Fish". Yes, really.) Since you weren't there with us cackling over our teacups, you'll just have to ask me what my noble styling would be according to the "royal name meme" (which like other name memes, seems to reveal more about you than you probably should online).
So we stuffed ourselves with The Official Tea Sandwiches We Always Serve (by long-standing treaty with caprine, the Cultural-Attache of There), fruit tarts, scones and more, and quibbled over what vehicle was what in the nearly endless the procession of Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Daimler cars from various palaces. We nearly lost it when we saw the collected European royalty in attendance dispatched by party buses from Buckingham Palace, or saw the canopies of eight English specimen trees relocated to the thirteenth-century nave just for the occasion. A few cups of Earl Grey, an eclectic Samurai Chai Mate Tea blend from Teavana, and my beloved Bristol Creme sherry shared with friends, and I felt content and amused with our absurd colorful world.
Alas, no one bought a tiara, and we didn't get around to conferring campy titles and enomblement on each other as I had hoped. Frankly, it felt like I was watching the Duke Atredes rather than the Duke of Cambridge get married, as abstracted from reality it seemed beyond the basic commitment of two people to partnership. One commentator online said they thought they were watching science fiction or fantasy, how outlandish the uniforms and pageantry seemed--which I can see from the seemingly arbitrary choice of bright red uniform as honorary Colonel of the Irish Guards with blue riband of the Order of the Garter, versus less colorful Royal Air Force uniform for groom. (When he isn't gallivanting around in regalia and honorary military uniforms, he co-pilots a search-and-rescue helicopter, sometimes under the callsign "Billy the Fish". Yes, really.) Since you weren't there with us cackling over our teacups, you'll just have to ask me what my noble styling would be according to the "royal name meme" (which like other name memes, seems to reveal more about you than you probably should online).
So we stuffed ourselves with The Official Tea Sandwiches We Always Serve (by long-standing treaty with caprine, the Cultural-Attache of There), fruit tarts, scones and more, and quibbled over what vehicle was what in the nearly endless the procession of Bentley, Rolls-Royce, and Daimler cars from various palaces. We nearly lost it when we saw the collected European royalty in attendance dispatched by party buses from Buckingham Palace, or saw the canopies of eight English specimen trees relocated to the thirteenth-century nave just for the occasion. A few cups of Earl Grey, an eclectic Samurai Chai Mate Tea blend from Teavana, and my beloved Bristol Creme sherry shared with friends, and I felt content and amused with our absurd colorful world.