Well, the Royal wedding is over, and life returns to normal for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, whatever normal means for them.

One of the things that touched me during the wedding was part of the Bishop of London’s address that all weddings are Royal Weddings.

“In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.”

That got me thinking, a Royal wedding really is not much different than any other wedding. Below are some of the things that happened at the Royal Wedding, which most likely will also happen at your own wedding!

A good bridesmaid is worth her weight in gold

A good bridesmaid is definitely worth her weight in gold. A bridesmaid always on hand to straighten your wedding dress train, make sure your dress doesn’t get crushed, your flowers are looked after during the ring exchange and your lippy is constantly fresh – who could ask for more? I have seen bridesmaids so excited at the prospect of being a bridesmaid all glammed up, and have forgotten all about the poor bride, and left her to struggle along in her dress!

The ushers always get in it in the neck

The ushers guiding people to their seats, sometimes get the short end of the stick with guests not happy about where they have been ushered to sit. I have seen little grandmothers look ready to box down ushers when guided to seats they didn’t like! Rather them than me! Even at Westminster Abbey there was a mild mix up with the seats!

There will always be a few fashion faux pas

There will be always be people at your wedding wearing stuff that just looks so wrong, out of place or just plain hideous. Just pretend you can’t see them!

Wear your wedding dress, don’t let it wear you

We all saw Kate’s Grace Kelly inspired lace covered wedding dress, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. Now whether you like lace or not, or the style of the dress you have to agree that Kate’s dress was an ideal choice for her, in keeping with the understated neutral clothes she normally wears. In picking the dress, pick the one…. the one that you like. Others might not like it, but they are not wearing it!

The more you spend the more things stay the same

Whilst it is true that you do get what you pay for and some corners cannot be cut in your wedding budget without it compromising the day, it has also been said by some people planning their wedding that the W word – wedding – brings an increase in the cost of things. Kate’s dress was reported to have cost £40K, diamond earrings at £15K with Pippa’s bridesmaid’s dress in the region of £20K. The wedding cake estimated to be anything from £10,000 and £50,000. Flowers to fill the Abbey and Buckingham Palace are expected to total between £200,000 and £500,000. The thing about weddings is that people see the overall cost first and don’t necessarily see the hidden background costs. Take Kate’s dress, a lot of that price included the wages of the ladies who painstakingly sew the lace patterns – washing their hands every 30 minutes, the cost of turning other work away in that period, the designer and other helpers sewing the dress in secret – usually outside normal office hours, plus many fittings in private, plus personal delivery of the dress to the hotel the night before and fitting of the dress on the day. The wedding cake, of which there was about 16 tiers of fruit cake, took 5 weeks to make and 5 people two days to put it in situ, not to mention the time to make all the individual sugarpaste flowers.

Either that or there must be a R for Royal or C for Celeb premium price!

Get me to the Reception on Time

If you are having a wedding in two venues – church or registry office and your reception in second place, it is easy to lose a few members of family or guests along the way especially it is time for formal portraits. With all the guests loaded in the back of coaches, and whisked off to Buckingham Palace, the royal couple still just had time for 26 minutes of formals! Proof that time flies on your wedding day!

Do differently

Seeing Prince William and Kate drive from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in his dad’s Ashton Martin car complete with balloons and a just married personal plate was such an unexpected thing for a royal to do – but something totally down to earth and dare I say it…. fun!

Do something that your guests don’t expect, I am sure that they will love it!

Photos: taken off BBC TV