Against The Odds, A Royal Wedding Worth Watching

I belong to a generation of Americans for whom the idea of not only a royal wedding but a royal marriage was largely established by Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their staid ceremony and their seemingly joyless marriage (aside from the births of their children) made marrying into the royal family look less like a fantasy than like a march into oblivion — a grudgingly accepted transformation into a wealthy but hollowed-out target for photographers hoping to catch you at your worst.

Even William and Kate's wedding in 2011, while a considerably happier affair, wasn't particularly surprising. It felt — from on the street outside — like a beautiful but utterly traditional event. Perhaps even beautiful it was utterly traditional, but carried out with some