ETA: Mad Hattery is back up at its normal address! Hooray! Wedding posts will be transferred there ASAP. 
http://madhattery.royalroundup.com/
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The site is down; refreshing the page won’t help. (As it’s a traffic overload/bandwidth usage problem, it might actually hurt!) In the meantime, get your hattery fix at:
http://madhatteryannex.blogspot.com/
Spread the word!
Welcome to the RWEK Royal Wedding Live Post!
Feel free to chat about the wedding here — once this post reaches 250 comments, I will start a second one. The site has been running a bit slow under the heavier-than-normal traffic load — if you see an error message, please be patient and try to reload the site.
Also look for me chatting about the wedding at Mad Hattery and on Twitter!
Celebrate the Royal Wedding at Royalty with Ella Kay!
Can you believe that we’re only a few days away, everyone? I will be opening a special post here for discussion of the wedding on Friday morning at:
7 AM London / 3 AM New York / 12 AM Los Angeles / 5 PM Sydney
I will not be blogging here, but I will be in the live post at Mad Hattery! and probably also on Twitter. However, you’re all more than welcome to converse here, and I’ll try to keep an eye on the thread lengths to decide when we need new ones (probably around every 500 comments or so!). And, as a reminder, you can watch the wedding on YouTube at the official Royal Channel!
Now that the Instrument of Consent has been signed, it’s official: we’re having a royal wedding next week! Ahead of the big day, we’re finally getting a few more details about the guest list. Between the Windsor clan and their foreign guests, the 29th promises to be a majorly regal affair. But for William, most European royals are also family members — so today, let’s take a look at how some of the anticipated royal guests are related to the royal groom…
The Margrave of Baden and The Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Aside from the Windsors themselves, the closest royal relatives of William’s at his wedding will be two descendents of Prince Philip’s sisters: the Margrave of Baden (pictured above, with the margravine) and the Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Maximilian of Baden is Prince Philip’s nephew – his mother was Philip’s sister Theodora – making him William’s first cousin once removed. He will reportedly attend with his wife, Valerie, a Habsburg descended from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria-Hungary. Philipp of Hohenlohe-Langenburg is William’s second cousin; he is the grandson of Prince Philip’s sister Margarita.
Only a little more than a month now until the big wedding, royal watchers! And that, of course, also means that it’s only about a month until we learn which title William will receive on his wedding day. Most experts on the subject tend to believe that the Queen will give her grandson a dukedom as a wedding present, which would mean that we’ll be calling William and Kate the Duke and Duchess of Somewhere as they kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Even though Prince William is a grandchild of the monarch, it does seem likely that he will receive a dukedom, owing to his proximity to the throne. Some have suggested that William will get an earldom instead, in part because that’s what Prince Edward received when he married Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999. However, Edward received both the earldom and a promise that he will receive Prince Philip’s Edinburgh dukedom after Charles becomes king.
The mechanics of that are a little complicated, but not that difficult: after Philip dies, Charles will inherit the Edinburgh title, as he’s Philip’s eldest son. When the Queen dies and Charles becomes king, the dukedom will merge with the crown – which means that Charles will then be free to bestow it on Edward. (This plan is one of the reasons that Edward has become so involved with the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme over the past few years – he and Sophie are currently in the Caribbean on a tour related to the scheme.)
But even though one day Prince William will become the Duke of Cornwall (as the heir to the throne), and then the Duke of Lancaster (as king), it does seem likely that he will be given a dukedom in the meantime, in part because it will provide Kate with a title other than Princess William of Wales. So, which dukedoms are available? Many – and the Queen can always create any title she wishes, so it’s possible that the couple may receive a brand-new dukedom. But most bets are on one of the traditional royal dukedoms for Wills.
