The November engagement of Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle once again brought talk and preparations for a royal wedding to the United Kingdom. The question on Americans’ minds: "are we ready for another one of these so soon?"
Seven years after the biggest media spectacle in recent memory, the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, here we go with another big-time media spectacle, and the fact that Meghan Markle is an American who is marrying royalty, I am sure that there will be a lot more Americans looking to tune in as a piece of America is going across the pond and staying there.
In my opinion, the media thrives on these events while average Americans, like myself, could not care less. I will take a little time to talk about why exactly I believe that the media and others could get such a kick out of royal weddings.
Royal weddings go back hundreds of years, but the real spectacle and pomp and circumstance really did not become popular until 1981 with the wedding of Prince Charles, and Princess Diana. According to Business Wire, 750 million people worldwide tuned into the celebration. According to Vogue, 3500 guests attended the wedding.
The wedding was dubbed, at that time, by multiple media outlets as the wedding of the century. Coverage began at 430 A.M. EST. on all three major channels (CBS, ABC and NBC).
According to the New York Times, NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America broadcasted from London during the week leading up to the wedding. Until Princess Diana’s death in 1997, this had to be the most memorable event in London of the 20th century.
In 2010, news began to surface that Prince William was engaged to Kate Middleton. According to Glamour Magazine, the couple met in 2001 while attending St. Andrews in Scotland, they began to date in 2003. Once news of the royal engagement began to surface, the media began to alter their programming for the beginning of 2011 leading up the royal wedding.
I know this because I vividly remember the various cable stations and news outlets focusing more on the preparations and expectations of the royal wedding than any other major news story of that time. When they did focus on something else, they always reverted back to the royal wedding coverage at some point.
The Telegraph reported, an estimated two billion people tuned into the wedding on April 29, 2011. While 23.7 million Americans tuned in, according to T.V.Guide.com. According to Pop Sugar, 1,900 people were invited to the event and a million people lined the streets of London to view the wedding procession.
Thanks to the far-reaching effects of media by this time coverage on most outlets were able to begin Thursday night with non-stop coverage beginning at 4 A.M. EST. The effects of the royal wedding continued well after the event with the popularity of social media.
When you use social media, you upload events to your profile that will most likely always be there, up to 10 years after you upload.
I feel that the reputation of the United Kingdom will be changed as Prince Harry is marrying American, Meghan Markle. When a Britain marries an American, that could help calm any tension between America and Britain. I feel that Britain is coming to tolerate American culture and methods.
According to Time Magazine, Meghan Markle is the first woman of color to marry royalty. Although, she is not the first American to marry royalty, contrary to popular belief. Come May, we will see how much glitz and glamour comes out of the 2018 royal wedding, but if 2011 was any indication, it could be a lot more.
