Copyright 2010 Mario Testino
Royal watchers hoping for an extravagant spring wedding for Prince William and Kate Middleton are bound to be disappointed. The ceremony will be modeled after the 1947 “austerity wedding” of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, not the lavish event in 1981 for William’s parents Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, according to royal aides. “It will be done properly and well, but not in an ostentatious and lavish manner,” an aide told The London Evening Standard’s Jonathan Prynn. “In 1981 a lot more people were invited to the wedding. The route to St. Paul's was also longer than it is to the abbey. It was undeniably a bigger wedding.” President Obama may not even be invited, according to the Standard, because William is not first in line to the throne.