Saturday, April 23, 2011

Royal Wedding Dress


As The royal couple prepares for their wedding, speculation is rife about 'the dress'. And so it has always been.
 
As the potential monarch of England, Princess Elizabeth was expected to put on a royal show on her wedding day despite the bleak economic outlook of the country which affected her as much as anybody else.

Fortunately, even governments seem to get a little sentimental at the mention of a wedding. To make a bride feel special during this period of recovery, each bride received extra clothing coupons. In the case of Princess Elizabeth, it was extra two hundred coupons.

With the material coupons in his hot little hands, Mr. Norman Hartnell, the designer of the dress, looked around to see where he could purchase that special material to make that special dress.

The bride’s mother begged him to please buy the satin from the famous silk worm farm at Lullingston Castle, right here in England. But powerful figure as she was to everyone else in the country, she could not prevail on Mr. Hartnell.

In his considered opinion the material recommended by the Queen Mother might be good enough for the train, but as far as the rest of the dress was concerned, nothing but a fabric from a Scottish firm would do.

No sooner did he make his decision public, then a nasty rumour began to circulate. It seemed that the material being provided by the Scottish firm had been spun by, ‘enemy silk worms’ that might very well have come from a country that had had been warring with the allies just a few short years before.

Patriotic anger reached such heights that for a while it seemed that the wedding might have to be postponed altogether. But rising to the occasion, Mr. Hartnell was able to reassure the nation that the material had, indeed, been spun with the help of friendly little silk worms of Nationalist China, and not an enemy country at all.

On the wedding day the bride arrived looking like all brides are meant to look, radiant and happy. As for the dress, like so many royal dresses, it ended in a museum.

And, it seems, despite Mr. Hartnell’s ingenuity as a designer, the Bride’s Mother did know best. Like all good housekeepers, she knew a good fabric when she saw it. Mr. Hartnell’s dress might have looked well on the day, but it didn’t keep half as well as it would have, had he bowed to her wishes and stayed with her choice of fabrics.


Based on 'Wedding Your Way' found at Amazon and Smashwords.







Friday, April 22, 2011

Wedding Cakes


For many people a wedding is a time for self-expression, not to say, showing off. In particular, the wedding cake tends to be the medium through which they tell their stories.

Policemen have been known to cover their wedding cakes with badges and other symbols of their activity. Cricketers’ cakes are full of bats and balls. And as for royalty, it’s almost like a photo album.

When the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip married in 1947, their wedding cake was covered with plaques of her many castles as well as indications of the couple’s lifestyle.

The cake itself was 9 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds, and turned out less expensive than it could have been.

It seems that an inspired group of Australian Girl Guides send a most unusual gift to the couple, in the guise of all the ingredients necessary for the wedding cake.

In all, the ingredients that went into the three-tiered cake included fifty-seven pounds of different types of flour, over one hundred pounds of dried fruit, over one hundred pounds of different types of sugars, twelve dozen eggs, thirty pounds of butter, an awful lot of nuts and spices, and one bottle of the best brandy Australia produces.

That the queen was delighted with this wedding gift was not to be wondered at. This was 1947 and everything was inclined to be a little bit scarce.

After the wedding, the queen showed her own appreciation to the Girl Guides, by sending them one of the layers of the cake.

The other layer was used to cut up at the wedding itself, while the third tier was kept for the christening of Prince Charles.

While most of us have believed that the number of layers of cakes at the wedding are more or less dependent on how many guests are to be fed, it appears that there is yet another symbol associated with the wedding cake. According to the most recent authority, the bottom layer of the cake represents the couple as a newly created family. The top layer represents the two individuals as a couple. And the layer, or layers in between, represents the children to come.

Based on the book. 'Wedding Your Way', found on Amazon and Smashwords.







Saturday, April 16, 2011

Naming Ceremony for Siblings

Conducted a naming ceremony for two siblings, couple of years apart in age.

Four Godparents chosen included relatives and very good friends, and were chosen to be Godparents for both children. The challenge was to differentiate the two ceremonies in some way to make them memorable.

Consequently we had two ceremonies joined by a general introduction and a general conclusion, with two individual ceremonies in between.

Each ceremony ended with a symbolic ritual. In the first case we had the Godparents tossing rose petals at the child. In the second ceremony, the celebrant included a water ritual.

In both cases, children from the gathering were asked to come up and assist in the rituals. As almost all naming ceremonies include a large proportion of children, this was a very active and popular part of the ceremony.