In which I am a sucker for a royal wedding

I don't know why--so many of them end in disaster, don't they? I was twelve when Princess Diana was married, and of course, I got up at three in the morning to watch the whole thing from beginning to end. I was absolutely mesmerized. It was a walking fairy tale, and I was horrified when I later found out how much of a sham the whole thing was. But it made such a lovely picture, didn't it? And I enjoyed Fergie's as well, although naturally it didn't have quite the same pomp. (Prince Edward's wedding and Prince Charles' second marriage really didn't score at all on the glam-meter, although that's probably for the best.)

But this weekend Europe got to enjoy the biggest royal wedding since Charles and Diana, and I missed it! Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden married her commoner-boyfriend in an elaborate ceremony that apparently cost something like $3 million. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a snafu with the rights to air it, and loads of people--like pretty much everyone in the US--missed out. I for one would have been more than happy to spend Saturday tucked up on the sofa with cinnamon rolls and tea, our family's traditional royal wedding breakfast, and watched it all unroll. I did get to see a short clip on YouTube, and what struck me was how utterly besotted they both look. I hope they are always this happy--it was charming to watch them together.

And as a side note, how progressive is Sweden? Their succession is based upon primogeniture, but not male-dominant primogeniture, which means that Crown Princess Victoria outranks her younger brother. As a system, primogeniture has flaws to be sure, but until someone figures out how to perfect it or gets rid of hereditary privilege altogether, at least women have an equal shot in Sweden. Got to love that!