Hi hi everyone! I’m back from my little Calistoga getaway–I’ll chat about with you all next week. I can’t tell you how exhilarating yet sadly nerve-wracking it can be to be completely without Internet access for three days. But what wonderful posties have been filling up our little blog, eh? Thank you so much Jenny, Jody, Karen, Mari and most importantly, Alix for managing everything so beautifully in my absence.
But even in my little cocoon up in Calistoga, I heard rumblings from England about a ROYAL WEDDING. Â Yeah yeah, I’m sure this Will and Kate wedding thing is all that and a bag of crisps, but as far as royal wedding go, really, there was only one wedding in my mind.
Prince Charles and Lady Di.
Yup. I was completely obsessed with them in 1981. Completely and utterly obsessed. Instead of spending my Saturday afternoons at the roller rink trading puffy stickers* with my friends during the slow songs, I would spend hours cutting up my Dad’s Newsweek magazines and adding all of the photos of Lady Diana to my scrapbook. Whenever my parents would have cocktail parties, I would shyly come down and annoy their kind guests for a half hour with my Royal wedding scrapbook. Fortunately drunk people are really tolerant of scrapbook toting kids.
I even watched and recorded on my Dad’s Betamax the TV movie of Charles and Diana’s romance starring Catherine Oxenberg.
And of course I got up at 4:00AM on Wednesday, July 29th to watch the Royal Wedding. Here are a few facts that I still have rolling around in my brain from my early eighties obsession with the Royal Wedding in no particular order:
- Princess Diana rode in a glass covered coach
- Diana didn’t get to choose her own bridesmaids or flowergirls
- She did pick her engagement ring, which was the biggest one she was offered
- She had to wear flats because she was so close in height to Charles
- Kiri Tekanwa sang at the wedding
- Diana didn’t promise to “obey” (right ON!)
Oh and I would have given my Raggedy’s life to be one of those flower girls.
IÂ remember the rush of seeing her wedding dress for the first time and swooning knowing that a girl could wake up one day as a “commoner” and go to bed a princess. Truly magical.
Sigh…
Yes, yes. We know how it ended. My scrapbooks were tossed somewhere after riding lesson and before senior prom and Charles and Diana went their own ways. But I will always remember this young lady and how she grew up to be a princess.
* Of course we’ll do a post on puffy stickers! It’s just a matter of time!
A friend of mine growing up had the Chuck and Di dolls! Yep, the three-foot-tall porcelain Franklin Mint Charles and Diana wedding special. They stood in a cabinet in their dining room, and let me tell you: no girl wanted to break the law of display dolls and play with those things like I did, but I think the cabinet was probably locked.
As if I didn’t love you enough Jody. I would have KILLED for those dolls. KILLED!
I think I might be one of the few people who still likes her dress. It’s sculptural and regal. I love how it wrinkled on the way to the church and then it looked as if she was emerging from a cocoon. Love,,,,,