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JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Quinn Logan on 10/21/2001; 6:29 PM I originally wrote this article for RoyalWatch: The Online Royal Magazine because it was my job as a journalist for that magazine (yes, I still write for it) to cover the June 19, 1999 wedding of my favorite member of the Royal Family, HRH Prince Edward, to his long-time sweetheart, Miss Sophie Rhys-Jones. You may not be too interested in this, as it pretty much details the wedding, but I hope you enjoy it if you read it. ~QL~ JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY HRH the Prince Edward Antony Richard Louis Windsor, youngest son of HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, and Miss Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones, only daughter of Christopher and Mary Rhys-Jones, were married at 5 p.m. London time on Saturday, June 19, 1999, at St. James Chapel, Windsor with family and friends looking on. Sophie was wearing a simple, yet elegant wedding gown designed by her friend Samantha Shaw, who was thrilled to be asked to design a dress for a Royal wedding. Edward looked dashing in his morning suit, and was obviously happy and thrilled to be marrying the woman he loves. The bride and groom were both wearing each other's wedding gifts during the ceremony. Edward had on a gold pocket watch which Sophie had given him, and Sophie was wearing an elegant white and black pearl necklace with matching black and white earrings, which had been Edward's gift to her. In keeping with Royal tradition, there was no "best man" but rather "supporters" who stood up with Edward during the ceremony. Not surprisingly, they were his two older brothers, Charles, Prince of Wales, and Andrew, Duke of York, who were also very good looking in their morning suit. Some of you may recall that Edward acted as a supporter for both of their weddings in the 1980s, so I think it is very fitting and touching that Charles and Andrew returned the favor by being supporters for their little brother. Edward and Sophie decided to have two bridesmaids and two pageboys, equally chosen by them, and not Royal. I had been thinking they may have asked Edward's nieces, Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, to be bridesmaids, but they did not. The bridesmaids were 8 year old Camilla Hadden, who is one of Edward's goddaughters, and 5 year old Olivia Taylor, whose parents are friends of the couple. The pageboys were 6 year old Harry Warburton, son of one of Edward's aides, and 7 year old Felix Sowerbutts, whose parents are friends of Sophie. All four of them, as the Prince of Wales pointed out in his toast, were extremely well-behaved, and they looked adorable in their matching outfits. Two things during the wedding were small causes for alarm and both had to do with the rings. The first was the problems Edward had in getting the ring on Sophie's finger. For a few scary seconds it looked like he was going to be unable to get it over her knuckle, but he eventually did and the couple came up smiling. The second was when Sophie put Edward's ring on his pinky instead of his ring finger. There was a lot of talk over that at first, but a Royal aide pointed out that it is perfectly normal for a prince to wear rings on his pinky and a big deal shouldn't be made of it. Edward just wanted to do what was comfortable, it would seem, and since he was already wearing his signet ring on that finger, this makes sense. As part of the reception after the wedding ceremony, the 500 guests enjoyed a buffet-type feast. First canapes were served in the Waterloo Chamber of the Grand Reception Room at Windsor Castle, and then the guests were moved to the restored St. George's Hall for the dinner. However, things were done a little differently at this wedding. The cutting of the wedding cake, which I described in the last issue, and the toasts, which were made by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew, took place two hours before the dinner, unlike most other weddings, where toasts take place during the dinner, and the cutting of the cake happens afterwards. One notable thing from the toasts: Prince Andrew apparently said something along the lines of "Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, whatever you call an Earl and Countess...it's time to eat!" On the menu was coulibiac, which is smoked haddock baked with rice and mushrooms in pastry, beef stroganoff and a selection of vegetables and salads, followed by fresh raspberries for dessert. There was music at the reception, of course, provided by the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, and a brass ensemble from the London Mozart Players; Edward is patron of both organizations. Music was also provided by the band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines. Ironic, isn't that? The reception was apparently one of the biggest bashes ever held at Windsor Castle, and there was quite the clean-up the next morning! In keeping with Royal tradition, the wedding rings are made out of Welsh gold, although these rings are a little different: they are the first ones to be made from gold found in a now-not-in-use mine called The Prince Edward. The mine was originally called Moel Croesau, but was renamed after the Investiture of the former Prince of Wales, who became King Edward VIII. Among the guests at the wedding were Sir Elton John, Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber and television presenter Chris Tarrant. And the two most noticable absentees were Sarah, Duchess of York and Camilla Parker-Bowles. However, while there was a huge contingent of friends of the bride and groom at the wedding, there was also a large family representation. Some members of Sophie's family were there, including her father, Christopher, who gave her away, her mother Mary, her brother and sister-in-law, David and Zara, her uncle Theo and his wife, and a Miss Cressida Rhys-Jones, who I am guessing to be her cousin (perhaps the daughter of Uncle Theo?). On the Mountbatten side of the family, notable guests were Lord and Lady Ivar Mountbatten, the Lord Brabourne and the Countess Mountbatten of Burma. Not all of the British Royals attended. Noted absentees were Lord and Lady Linley, who are expecting their first child sometime very soon. The Queen and Prince Philip were there, of course, being the groom's parents. So were his older sister, Princess Anne, her husband Capt. Timothy Laurence, and her children, Peter and Zara Phillips. The Queen Mother also attended...I am sure she didn't want to miss her grandson's wedding!...as did Princess Margaret, who is still healing from the scalding she got a few months ago. Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto were also there, as was expected. Also in attendance were the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, with their two daughters, Lady Davina and Lady Rose Windsor, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, with the Earl and Countess of St. Andrew's, Lady Helen and Timothy Taylor and Lord Nicholas Windsor, Prince and Princess Michael with their two children, Lord Frederick and Lady Gabriella Windsor, Princess Alexandra and Sir Angus Ogilvy with their son James, daughter-in-law Julia and daughter Marina. Also there, probably to take some pictures, was the Earl of Snowdon, ex-husband of Princess Margaret, who is still good friends with the Royal family. Foreign Royals in attendance included the Sultan of Brunei, who is a good friend of Prince Edward, Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, the Crown Prince of Norway, the Prince of the Asturias, Prince El Hassan bin Talal and Princess Sarvath El Hassan of Jordan, Princess Rahma El Hassan, Prince and Princess Joachim of Denmark, Prince and Princess Guillaume of Luxembourg, Prince Georg Wilhelm of Hanover, Prince Philipp of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Xenia of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. It had been argued about since the engagement was announced, but no one could have guessed the plan Her Majesty the Queen had when it came to giving her youngest son and his new wife a title. Some had speculated she wouldn't give them one, and they would be known as Prince and Princess Edward. Some were arguing over which dukedom Edward should get. But the Queen out-did us all, and instead, made Edward the Earl of Wessex and Viscount Severn. And now that we think about it, this was a stroke of genius on Her Majesty's part. Edward's initials spell out the word Earl (if you leave of "Windsor" of course!): Edward Antony Richard Louis. It makes perfect sense! So, Edward and Sophie will be known as Their Royal Highnesses the Earl and Countess of Wessex until after the deaths of the Queen and Prince Philip, when they will take on the titles Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. So, Edward will get a dukedom eventually...but not for a long, long time. The wedding itself was an intimate, personal, family affair, just like the bride and groom wanted. The only difference was, it was shown world-wide on television. It didn't matter to them, though. If you watched closely, Edward and Sophie smiled lovingly at each other all through the ceremony, and once, Edward even winked at his bride! At the time, they were just tickled with each other and with the fact that they were getting married...I think the world could have come crashing down around them and they wouldn't have noticed! They are obviously very much in love, very happy together. This will be a marriage that stands the test of time...because the relationship already has. As there is no longer a Royal Yacht Britannia, it was speculated on where the couple would spend their honeymoon. As it turned out, they opted for a four day break at Balmoral Castle in Scotland before returning to their regular working lives. This broke with the tradition of long royal honeymoons, but since they broke tradition in almost every other way, this is not surprising. The new Earl and Countess now reside at Bagshot Park, in Surrey, which is by far the largest and most grand of the homes of the Queen's children. Edward is using it as the offices for Ardent, his production company. In the future, when Edward and Sophie have children...which is something most of us are waiting for eagerly!...their oldest son will take the title Lord So-and-So, Viscount Severn. Any other sons they have will be styled The Honourable So-and-So Windsor. Any daughters they have will be Lady So-and-So Windsor. None of them will be a Royal Highness, Prince or Princess, as was agreed upon by the Earl and Countess and the Queen. This is in keeping with the Way Ahead, and it will be the first time that the children of a son of a reigning monarch were not given those titles. When Edward takes the title Duke of Edinburgh after the passing of both his parents, Viscount Severn will become the Earl of Wessex, and his oldest son, if he has one, will become Viscount Severn. All and all, the ceremony was lovely...as intimate and personal as they could have wanted it, and semi-public too, to keep the rest of us happy. Although it's sad that not many people in Britain watched the wedding on television, it drew high numbers the rest of the world over, and the crowds outside Windsor Castle were obviously delighted in the wedding: they all cheered after both Edward and Sophie said "I will". Many of us had waited five and a half years for this wedding, and by far we weren't disappointed.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: ScottN on 11/2/2000; 3:20 AM Quinn, do you own the Copyright on this? Or does RoyalWatch? If RoyalWatch does, you probably should either: a) get their permission and put a disclaimer that it's copyright and reproduced with permission, or b) delete it. In the US, the more draconian provisions of the DMCA just went into effect, and this is a US website... Let's be nice to Mark.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Mark Morgan on 11/2/2000; 7:22 AM Two things: In US law, unless Royalwatch put a copyright notice on the piece, the copyright is automatically yours. In other words, you have the copyright by default unless somewhere in the publication it says otherwise. Second, on my end I think I don't take a proactive role in copyright enforcement. In fact, I think it might be dangerous for me to do so because I'd lose certain protections against lawsuits. Stupid DMCA. Looks like I'll be filing some paperwork.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Mark Morgan on 11/2/2000; 7:51 AM Addendum: and please, please don't delete the piece! If necessary I have controls in place to hide it if need be, until the issue can be resolved. If it needs to be. Hey, is this page the RoyalWatch you're referring to?
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Brian Carnell on 11/2/2000; 9:44 AM >In US law, unless Royalwatch put a copyright notice on the piece, the copyright is automatically yours. In other words, you have the copyright by default unless somewhere in the publication it says otherwise. If you're working directly for a company as a regular employee typically they own the copyright (most newspapers and magazines have notices establishing copyright over articles). If you were a freelancer you almost certainly retain copyright (typically for freelancers, companies buy first North American serial rights, though there are some exceptions).
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: ScottN on 11/2/2000; 12:28 PM Sorry to raise a ruckus, guys. The posting of the piece in full was just kind of a red flag. We've had debates about this sort of stuff on NitCentral, and it has also been discussed over on SlashDot.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Quinn Logan on 11/2/2000; 3:33 PM Well now, let's see here. The article was written by me and is copyrighted by (a) me and (b) RoyalWatch. Just so you know, RW is a magazine written and maintained by people interested in the Royalty of the world, we do not get paid for it, the editor of the magazine is a seventeen year old kid. I am sure there is no problem with me putting the article here as well, it's not like we get any profit from it, the magazine is merely for fun and to teach people about Royalty. If you want to view the magazine for yourself, please feel free to go to the site. http://www.royalwatch.co.uk CYA, Quinn
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Mark Morgan on 11/2/2000; 8:03 PM I'm sure it will be okay--the copyright notice on that site says that articles are copyright the team, which I'm sure includes you. We're just nervous here in the states because of the passage of the DMCA, a fundamental attack on the First Amendment by large business that make money off copyrighted properties. The DMCA may make it illegal for me to keep taping Buffy and Angel, that's the level of evil the thing is. And it's now the law.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Quinn Logan on 11/2/2000; 10:23 PM I'll tell you what, Mark. Just to be on the safe side, when I contact the editor tomorrow, I will ask him if it's okay for me to have put the article on this site. Yes, the copyright notice does include me, as I am a member of the RW Team. I'm sure he'll say it's okay, he'll probably say something like "it's your article do what you want with it" after all, we don't keep an archive of past issues of the magazine and that particular article was written for the August or September 1999 issue, which was well over a year ago now. But I *will* ask him, just to be sure, and I'll let you know one way or the other what he says, okay? ~Quinn~
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Mark Morgan on 11/2/2000; 11:14 PM Hah! Thanks, Quinn, but I'm not really worried. Although under the DMCA it might be illegal to record copyrighted materials onto my brain's neurons if I could use that to play back later.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Quinn Logan on 11/2/2000; 11:22 PM Well, I just wrote to him anyway...like I said, I'm sure it will be fine. While we at RW do care quite a bit about copyrights, technically the article is still mine. But I'll let you know what he replies when I hear back from him. Won't be at least until tomorrow sometime, because he's in England and is more than likely asleep right now (since it's the middle of the night over there right now, LOL). I'm trying to find some other essays I've written that are actually just mine and no one else's. They'll probably end up being about Royalty, since I don't think I've written essays about anything else in the past few years, but at least I'll be keeping with who I am as a person! Oh, and I plan on putting a link to this site on my X-Men site, because I'm archiving my X-Men stories on here as well. Anyway, gotta go. I'll be back with more essays later. =) ~QL~
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Peter on 11/4/2000; 10:01 AM Quinn, I found your article interesting, but I wonder, do you think it is acceptable for the son of the Monarch, the tenth in line to the throne (I think), to marry a woman of such low character that she was photographed topless in a car with a game show host? I realise Princess Diana was not much better, but at the time of the wedding we knew nothing about how she would go on later. Peter.
RE: JUNE 19, 1999: THE ROYAL WEDDING STORY By: Quinn Logan on 11/6/2000; 1:11 AM Interesting point, Peter, but I don't really want to argue the case with you, especially not here. I will say this: I believe, as someone who has followed the lives of the British Royal Family since I was fourteen years old (and that was nearly ten years ago now), as someone who has read mroe books on them (the current Royal Family) than just about anyone else I know, and as someone who has always admired Edward for being his own person and not conforming to what is *expected* of him as the Queen's son, I believe they are perfect for each other as normal people. Eddy is Royal in name only, and it is totally fitting that he is attempting to live as normal a life as possible, keeping with how he has always felt. I have a website on the ROyals, the first website I ever made, actually, that discusses my feelings about them and all sorts of related topics (from the tabloids to some books written about them to...) if you would like to visit it, please do so. http://members.tripod.com/~royalty01 and perhaps we can continue this conversation in one of the many messageboards there (for instance the Wessex messageboard would be perfect for this kind of discussion). Talk to you later, ~QL (who goes by Duch on that website, by the way)
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