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Hi, everyone!
I’ve been thinking long and hard for the past few weeks about the blogs I run and how they’re organized. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to fully transition this site into a place just for reviews and editorial entries, but I don’t want to deprive all of you who have been such responsible and respectful commenters at this site for the past few months.
So … after quite a bit of consideration, I’ve opened a new satellite RWEK location for general royal discussion. This will allow the royal conversation at the blog to be directed toward any (respectful) topics you’d like, and it will be organized so that you’ll have a new post to comment on each week (helping to cut down on the overwhelming scrolling on entries). You’ll also be able to use avatars, and you’ll be able to log in with either an existing (or new) Google account or with an Open ID account.
In the meantime, I’ll be posting occasional essays and reviews here — and you’re more than welcome to comment on those if you’d like. But the everyday discussion would move to the other site. The discussion site will be linked from this page as well.
Thoughts? I’m hoping this solution will help to reorganize my resources a bit without making you all feel like you’ve been kicked out, which is not my intent! I’ve enjoyed having you here, and I want to be able to continue to provide you with a platform for your royal discussion. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have in this post, and I’d love to hear feedback from all of you on this proposition.
This Friday, Prince Albert of Monaco will finally relinquish his bachelorhood when he weds South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock in both civil and religious ceremonies. We can assume the members of the Grimaldi family will be in Monaco for the festivities, but what about the rest of Europe’s royals? With a wedding chock-full of royal guests on the docket, it’s time for another pictoral royal wedding guest list!
(A quick note: some of these guests are presumed to be attending but have not formally confirmed that they will be at the wedding — this list is compiled from official confirmations as well as media reports of attendance. Grain of salt, of course!) 
The Monegasque Princely Wedding
Friday, July 1, 2011 (civil wedding) and Saturday, July 2, 2011 (religious wedding)
religious ceremony streaming live on the official wedding website
5 PM CET (Monaco) / 11 AM EST (New York)
Click below for the guest list in pictures!
Yet another milestone today for the Duke of Edinburgh: the longest-serving royal consort in British history turns 90! Happy birthday, Your Royal Highness!
The Queen marked today with a special birthday present: she appointed her husband Lord High Admiral of the British navy. You can read the press release explaining the honor here. Philip’s birthday was also honored with a 41-gun salute in Hyde Park and a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London, as well as with more modest gifts, like the handmade card and ear protectors given to him this morning by Action on Hearing Loss (formerly known as the Royal National Institute for Deaf People).
But the biggest celebrations will come this weekend. After the family gathers on Saturday for the Queen’s Annual Birthday Parade — which is always held in June, even though her birthday is in April — they will assemble again on Sunday at Windsor for a special service in honor of Philip’s birthday. Members of foreign royal families are expected to attend; as he was born a prince of Greece and Denmark, Philip has many continental royal cousins.
Exciting news, everyone! I’m partnering with the BBC to give away a copy of a DVD copy of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton! Here’s the Amazon blurb about the DVD, which goes on sale today:
The royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton will be a event to remember for a lifetime, and BBC Video will have the official commemorative DVD of the event on sale just four short weeks after the April 29 event! This wonderful keepsake will capture all the pomp and pageantry of the historic occasion like no other memento. The DVD will include the complete ceremony plus a highlights from the official BBC pre- and post-wedding coverage. Lovers of the crown will want to own the official commemorative DVD of this most delightful of events, the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
If you were planning on snapping up a copy of the DVD, here’s your chance to win one for free! 
This giveaway is limited to US readers only — apologies to those from other countries! I’ve got a giveaway scheduled for this summer that will be open to readers worldwide.
Here’s how you can enter: Comment on this entry, telling us what your favorite part of the royal wedding was. To earn two additional entries in the giveaway, you can post about the giveaway on your blog and/or tweet about the giveaway. (Please only comment once on this entry — if you’ve blogged and/or tweeted, please link your blog/Twitter account in the same comment.) That’s a total of three possible entries per reader! The winner will be chosen at random.
Entries must be received by midnight on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 (that’s one week from today). Good luck, everyone — and watch this space for my review of the DVD soon!
Quick note: comments in this entry should be restricted solely to giveaway entries — all other comments will be deleted. You can continue to chat about royal news in the other open posts on the blog!
