Private ceremony to public pageant

This month the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be exchanging gifts of tin, the traditional token for a 10th wedding anniversary. Yes, it has been an entire decade since the world paused to watch Prince William marry Catherine Middleton. And pause it did; 29 April 2011 was designated a Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom, prompting bunting and bake sales for 5,000 street parties. The wedding was broadcast in more than 180 countries and 72 million live-streamed the ceremony on YouTube, which was a new world record. The global television audience reached between 122 to 176 million.

It wasn’t a full state occasion but there was still a pleasing amount of pomp on display. There were 1,900 guests at Westminster Abbey while one million lined the route to Buckingham Palace. There was a horse-drawn procession, RAF flypast and balcony appearance. Westminster Abbey’s 10 bells rang in ‘full peal’, without a break, for more than three hours after the ceremony. The Duchess of Cambridge’s now iconic wedding dress, designed by Sarah Burton