FEW WEDDINGS have been planned with such minute-to-minute detail. Below, London Editor MARK HENNESSYoffers a guide for those watching the Westminster Abbey nuptials on television.
8.15-9.45am:The general congregation, including family, friends and celebrity guests such as David and Victoria Beckham, Elton John, film director Guy Ritchie and jockey Sam Waley-Cohen arrive at the great north door of Westminster Abbey.
More than half of the 1,900 invited are family and friends, including John Haley, landlord of The Old Boot Inn, Kate Middleton’s favourite pub in Stanford Dingley. Other guests will represent the couple’s favourite charities.
From 9.50am:Governors-general and prime ministers of Commonwealth countries and the diplomatic corps arrive, along with British prime minister David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
10.10am:Prince William and best man Prince Harry leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey, arriving at the Abbey at 10.15am.
10.20am:Members of foreign royal families, including Queen Sofia of Spain and Africa's last remaining absolute ruler, King Mswati III of Swaziland, arrive from Buckingham Palace.
1 0.20am:The bride's mother, Carole Middleton and her son, James, leave the Goring Hotel, where the entire Middleton family have spent the last two days. They will arrive at the Abbey at 10.27am.
10.25am:Minor members of the British royal family leave Buckingham Palace, arriving at the Abbey at 10.30am.
10.35am: Prince Andrew and his daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie – but not their mother Sarah Ferguson, who has not been invited – leave the palace. Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, along with Princess Anne and her husband, Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence, leave at the same time.
10.38am: Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, leave Clarence House, arriving four minutes later at the Abbey.
10.40am:The Queen and Prince Philip leave Buckingham Palace two minutes later, arriving at 10.45am.
10.48am:The groom will be taken to the tiny St Edmund's Chapel on the south side of the Abbey for "some quiet reflective time", but also to stop him seeing his bride-to-be arriving on the television screens erected inside the abbey.
10.51am:The bride, Catherine Middleton, accompanied by her father Michael, leave the Goring Hotel, giving onlookers the first glimpse of her wedding dress. They will travel in the Rolls Royce Phantom VI that was damaged by protesters last year as Prince Charles and the duchess of Cornwall made their way to the royal variety performance.
11.00am: The marriage service, which will be relayed by speakers to the hundreds of thousands expected to line the route between the abbey and Buckingham Palace, begins.
Unable under Church of England rules to write their own vows, the couple will draw from one of those in the Common Book of Worship and will promise “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part, according to God’s holy law”. Middleton, like Princess Diana before her, will not promise “to obey”.
12.15pm: Now wed, the couple will leave in a carriage procession, escorted by the household cavalry, for Buckingham Palace. They will pass the Houses of Parliament, and the Cenotaph war memorial on Whitehall and on to the Mall.
If the sun shines, the couple will use the 1902 State Landau used by Edward VII at his coronation. But should it rain, they will travel in the glass coach.
1.25pm:Queen Elizabeth and the newly married couple will appear on the balcony at the palace with their families, where they are expected to offer the long-awaited public kiss.
1.30pm: There will be a fly-past by the Royal Air Force and Battle of Britain memorial flight.