Brides: Why Are We Obsessed with Royal Weddings →
I remember the moment the world got its first look at Kate Middleton's Alexander McQueen lace gown like it was yesterday. On the day of her wedding to Prince William, the future king of England, I was in a conference room in the middle of the night breathlessly covering the event for the magazine website I was in charge of at the time. My team and I, quite literally, squealed when we saw it and then rushed to get our post up as quickly as possible.
Seven years later, I woke up in Los Angeles, where I was vacationing, to watch an American feminist/former Suits star marry my longest-term fictional boyfriend, my ginger prince, Henry Albert Charles David, a.k.a Harry. I was giddy with excitement for both, if only being paid to wake up for one.
I truly won’t soon forget these iconic wedding images: of Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, driving to the church. Or, the vision of Pippa Middleton fixing her sister’s dress with their father by her side, not knowing she was about to make global headlines herself.
But my royal obsession goes back even further than that—to Princess Diana, who wed William and Harry's father in 1981, and Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. It didn’t matter that I was very young for Diana’s nuptials—and not even close to alive for Grace’s—they are part of our collective cultural memory for all time. Thanks to a weekly dose of People magazine, these bridal moments (and dresses) burned into my brain as a pop culture and royalty-obsessed child.