British Royal Wedding Facts and Figures*

World | April 29, 2011, Friday // 18:28
Bulgaria: British Royal Wedding Facts and Figures* A handout picture released by the British Ministry of Defence shows Catherine Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, (L) and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (R) riding in a horse-drawn carriage passing through Horseguards Parade. Photo by EPA/BGNES

*From The Telegraph

By Martin Beckford and Graeme Paton

An estimated 2billion people in more than 180 countries around the world were expected to see reports, photos and TV pictures of the royal wedding, which was covered by more than 8,500 journalists in London alone.

Facebook calculated that 2.8million people in Britain and America alone had written status updates about the royal wedding in the 24 hours before the service began.

In the build-up to the service, Twitter users were posting 237 tweets every second about the royal wedding

An estimated 1,000 miles of bunting was sold to mark the wedding, much of it being used to decorate the 5,000 street parties taking place across Britain.

About 1,900 people were invited to the service at Westminster Abbey, most of whom were drawn from the couple's relatives and friends along with 50 members of the Royal family, 40 members of foreign royalty, 200 politicians and diplomats and 80 guests from the Prince's charities.

Kate Middleton arrived at the Abbey in a Rolls Royce Phantom VI, which had been presented to the Queen for her silver jubilee while Prince William travelled in a specially designed 20.4ft (6.22m) long Bentley.

The train of Kate Middleton's dress measured 8ft 8ins (2m 70cm), while the red carpet laid from the Great West Gate to the Sacrarium in the Abbey was 300ft long.

As well as flowers from Windsor Great Park and the Sandringham Estate, Westminster Abbey was decorated by Shane Connolly with eight 20ft-high trees, six English Field Maples and two Hornbeams.

Music at the service was performed by the Choir of Westminster Abbey, the Choir of Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, the London Chamber Orchestra, the Fanfare Team from the Central Band of the RAF and the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry.

Three of the pieces of music played before the service were also heard at the Prince of Wales's second marriage in 2005.

The couple chose a traditional Church of England liturgy from the 1928 prayer book, known as the Series One form of solemnization of matrimony, but Kate Middleton did not say she would "obey" her husband in her vows.

Following the service, the 10 bells of the 1,000 year-old Abbey were rung in a "full peal" lasting more than three hours, in which no sequence of sounds is repeated.

150,000 copies of the Official Programme were being sold by Explorer Scouts and Cadets in central London at ?2 each, but it was also available to download as a PDF from Apple's iBookstore.

At 1.30pm a flypast was scheduled to take place consisting of a Lancaster, a Spitfire and a Hurricane as well as two Tornado and two Typhoon fast jets.

In total about 5,000 Met officers were due to police the royal wedding including 900 lining the route of the procession from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace. By midday at least 18 people in central London had been arrested for offences ranging from breach of the peace to possession of an offensive weapon.

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Tags: royal wedding, Britain, UK, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Catherine Middleton

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