“KISS HIM Kate,” the crowd roared. Well, in their defence they had been standing outside Buckingham Palace since what must have felt like the dawn of time.
They had foregone all the action at Westminster Abbey and a morning lounging in the park in front of a big screen for the chance of a prime spot in front of the royal snog. They wanted the money shot and they wanted it now.
“Oh, wow,” said the newly titled HRH Duchess of Cambridge formerly Kate Middleton as she stepped onto the balcony in her ivory gown. She was followed by her new husband the Duke of Cambridge, henceforth known in Northern Ireland as Baron Carrickfergus in his bright red Irish Guards tunic.
The Queen, in fetching primrose yellow, walked quickly to the other end of the balcony leaving the newlyweds to take centre stage. The groom’s father Prince Charles lifted up a flower girl to give her a better view of the crowd. The bride’s parents peered out happily at the thousands crammed into an area the size of a football pitch.
“Kiss! Kiss!” the crowd insisted. And perhaps it was a nod to the recession but the couple ended up providing a twofer kissing deal. The first peck was so perfunctory, even a press photographer who risked a lynching for standing on a ladder in the middle of the crowd managed to miss it. “I only got the post-kiss moment,” he berated himself.
The second kiss was slightly more of a smooch and the crowd went wild. “Now, that’s what I call a kiss,” said a red-faced American woman to her young daughter. Those with binoculars swore William went a bit scarlet after the second kiss. His new wife just flashed that dazzling smile and waved at everyone.
And not that odd, posh wave beloved of seasoned royals, either. It was the normal wave of a delighted young woman on one of the most memorable days of her life.
Because as the commentators kept reminding us yesterday, William and Catherine were just like any other normal couple on their wedding day. Apart maybe from the planes flying in Battle of Britain formation over the palace.
And from the fact that the groom drove his new wife from the palace to nearby Clarence House in his daddy the Prince of Wales’s eco Aston Martin. And the fact that their nuptials were the cause of a street party outside 10 Downing Street.
And apart, of course, from the millions watching on TV. As normal as you’d expect, then. And, by the looks of them, every bit as happy.