Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton Broke Royal Traditions

Prince William and Kate Middleton were engaged in October 2010 while on a holiday in the African country of Kenya.
William is said to have given his love – Kate the same engagement ring that his father Prince Charles had given to his mother, Princess Diana several years ago.
Clarence House announced in later November last year that the official date for the wedding will be the 29th of April 2011 and the venue will be Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey is traditionally the church of choice for royal weddings. Hence we can confidently say that the couple has stuck with tradition on this one, but there are several other areas where the wedding has broken with royal traditions.
The areas are:

1. The royal bride – Kate Middleton will be breaking the royal tradition by arriving at Westminster Abbey by car instead of by a carriage which has been the normal and traditional transport for all royal brides for several decades now.

2. The second major break with royal tradition comes as a result of Prince William’s actions, which sees him having his brother, Prince Harry as a best man. According to historians this is clearly not in line with the royal family’s tradition. According to the normal tradition, the groom’s best man is supposed to be and has always been a supporter. Interestingly, Kate Middleton also went on to choose her sister Pippa Middleton as maid of honor.

3. According to the tradition, it is only the Archbishop of Canterbury who is the Church of England’s most senior cleric who takes charge of all royal wedding ceremonies in England. But today we see the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton defying this tradition. Instead of the Archbishop of Canterbury being in charge of the wedding the job went to Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London and a close friend of the Prince of Wales.

29th April 2011, the date of the wedding was declared a public holiday throughout the United Kingdom.