1. Автор : Трушина В. В.

2. The wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London.

3. Prince William, second in the line of succession to Queen Elizabeth II, first met Catherine Middleton in 2001, whilst both were studying at the University of St Andrews.

4. On 16 November 2010, Clarence House announced that Prince William, elder son of the Prince of Wales, was to marry his long- time girlfriend Catherine Middleton "in the Spring or Summer of 2011, in London".

5. They were engaged in October 2010 while on a private holiday in Kenya; William gave Middleton the same engagement ring that his father had given to William's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales—an 18-carat white gold ring with a 12-carat oval sapphire and 14 round diamonds.

6. On 23 November 2010, Clarence House announced the date for the wedding as 29 April 2011 (Feast Day of Saint Catherine of Siena) and the venue as Westminster Abbey. St James's Palace announced on 5 January that the ceremony was to start at 11:00 local time and that the bride would arrive at the Abbey by car rather than by carriage (the latter is the traditional transport for royal brides.) The route planned was along The Mall, through Horse Guards Parade, and down Whitehall to the abbey.

7. The cost of the wedding was reportedly £20 million. The Australian newspaper Herald Sun estimated AU$32 million for security and AU$800,000 for flowers. Credible estimates of the cost of the special public holiday allowed for the wedding vary between £1.2–2.9 billion Offsetting this, the wedding was estimated to have generated a £2 billion boost for UK tourism.

8. The first list, consisting of about 1,900 people, attended the ceremony in the abbey. The second list of approximately 600 people were invited to the luncheon reception at Buckingham Palace, hosted by the Queen. The final list, containing about 300 names, was for the evening dinner hosted by the Prince of Wales.

10. The bridal dress, designed by English designer Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, was made of satin and featured a lace applique bodice and skirt. The lace bodice design was hand- made using a technique that originated in Ireland in the 1820s called Carrickmacross, which involved cutting out the detailings of roses, thistles, daffodils and shamrocks and applying them to the ivory silk tulle individually. These lace appliques were hand- made by the Royal School of Needlework, based at Hampton Court Palace.

11. Prince William wore an Irish Guards mounted officer's uniform in Guard of Honour Order with a forage cap, rather than the bearskin hat. As a serving Royal Air Force flight lieutenant who also held the equivalent Royal Navy rank of lieutenant and Army rank of captain in the Blues and Royals, William could have chosen to wear the uniform of any of these junior officer ranks.

12. The wedding ring of Catherine is made from Welsh gold.The ring was created by the royal warrant holder Wartski, a company with roots in Bangor, Gwynedd, north Wales. Prince William chose not to receive a wedding ring at the ceremony.

13. On the morning of the wedding, William was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus, with Catherine becoming Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge after the wedding. This is in line with the practice of granting titles upon marriage to royal princes who did not already have one. The titles also have symbolic meanings—Strathearn is close to St Andrews, Fife, in Scotland, where the couple met as students, and Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland. Combined with his existing titular link with Wales and his becoming Duke of Cambridge in England, his collective titles link William to each of the four countries in the United Kingdom.

14. The wedding cake had a strong British floral theme, using elements of the Joseph Lambeth technique. It was an eight-tiered traditional fruit cake decorated with cream and white icing and 900 sugar paste flowers. The cake designer Fiona Cairns was chosen in February 2011 to create the wedding cake. The chocolate biscuit cake was made from a Royal Family recipe and was specially requested by Prince William.

15. The wedding had been subject to threats of violence and disruption. In February, security agencies, including MI5, identified "dissident Irish republican groups" as possible threats. The group Muslims Against Crusades announced plans for a "forceful demonstration" at the wedding, calling the Royal Family "enemies to Allah and his messenger". They later announced the abandonment of their planned protest.