Hello-hello, and welcome to a Wednesday. Things are a tad mad here at The Prepatorium, orders flying out the door, The Wedding less than 48 hours away, tornado warnings.
We begin with a quick look at a new hair color for Gossip Girl star Blake Lively.
Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for TIME
The actress was sporting the new color at “TIME’S 100 Most Influential People In The World” party last night. Below, a closer look at the color and a shot of her with Seth Myer.
Getty Images
The color change is for a film role, the stunning gown is by Zuhair Murad. Unfortunately it seems the long train was a challenge, more from NY Mag’s The Cut:
“Lively’s long silk chiffon train — apparently not intended for fast maneuvering — had become ensnared under the foot of none other than ubiquitous party photographer (and dear friend of New York) Patrick McMullan.
…McMullan, oblivious, walked away — with the train still stuck to his shoe. A second later, Lively’s train had left her gown and was trailing along after McMullan like a four-foot piece of aqua silk chiffon toilet paper. Martha Stewart was the first to recognize the problem. “Patrick!” she demanded. “Give her back her train!” McMullan, still oblivious, turned around and gasped, “Oh, I seem to have stepped on some lady’s train!”
One more celebrity sighting we want to share in honor of a few friends (as always, you know who you are, heh-heh-heh), Mad Men star Jon Hamm was spotted at last night’s Lakers game.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Also seen at the game, actors Jeremy Piven and David Beckham.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
For those wondering why we are mentioning Mr. Piven, Mr. Beckham or the Lakers, three subjects previously not discussed in this space, it is an effort to make a segue to our primary topic, as Mr. Beckham must surely be on his way east for Friday’s festivities.
He is escorting his wife Victoria to The. Wedding.
As you might imagine, last-minute details and photos are now ricocheting around the interwebs at a maddening rate. We are at that point in the process where we have more photos of… people taking photos.
Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
Many of the more recent photographs are shot from far, far away.
Toby Melville/Reuters
Above we could not possibly see Prince William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry arrive for the final rehearsal at Westminster Abbey.
Yesterday’s Guardian has an outstanding story, “Kate Middleton: William’s very private princess-to-be”:
“A slick press team and loyal friends have preserved Middleton’s mystique in the runup to the royal wedding, but plenty can be gleaned from what is not said”
Writer Patrick Barkham traces Miss Middleton’s background and the major influences in her life thus far. When talking about her style he writes:
“Salons in New York have reported customers asking for “a Kate” cut and her preppy look is credited with inspiring a Sloane revival. “
It isn’t the first time the bride has been described as possessing a ‘preppy style’ aesthetic. The story shares an interesting fact:
“Middleton dresses herself “without any advice or input from the palace”, according to the royal source, and her style has attracted attention around the world.”
We don’t imagine that lack of input from the Palace will remain the case down the road.
This morning there was a full-scale dress rehearsal with the military, starting well before sunup.
Darren Staples/Reuters
Exactly how we’ll look come Friday.
Darren Staples/Reuters via MSNBC
The Tornado flyby is scheduled for 1:30pm (London time), the pilots also rehearsed today.
EPA via The Daily Mail
The decorating of the Abbey and environs also continues apace, below, a photo from The British Monarchy’s flickr photo pages.
The British Monarchy Flickr
A reminder, anyone can look at The Monarchy’s pictures, just click here.
A few more photos surfaced this afternoon.
JNVisuals via The Daily Mail
Above, the bride’s sister Pippa (also her Maid of Honour) and Carole Middleton head into London.
Next, a picture that has really started tongues wagging.
JNVisuals via The Daily Mail
Here’s why, from the Mail:
“…there was a sheaf of paper visible in the back seat of the car that included a passage from an unrecognised work.
While many of the words were obscured, it read in part: ‘With so much love within our hearts.’ While the passage could be from a separate reading, it opens the possibility that they have followed the example of many young couples and written their own vows for their special day.”
The Daily Mail
The only thing we can add is that the typeface does look like it is prompter size. We also noted Miss Middleton is in heavier makeup, we presume today also included lighting and makeup test shots.
Later today the bride was carrying things into Clarence House.
PHOTOS: Splash via The Daily Mail
Lots of things have also been moved into the family headquarters for the next several days, the Goring Hotel.
Chris Eades via The Daily Mail
The location is under continual police protection, there have been comings and goings all day.
PHOTOS: Splash News (L) and Chris Eades (R)
But this has to be our favorite photo of the day.
Andrew Winning/Reuters
The Queen was visiting Cambridge earlier today, doesn’t she look splendid?
Here are a few other places to visit:
Until tomorrow, g’bye.
The Preppy Princess 
OMG. If I was Kate I would have eloped. All the attention would drive me INSANE! I guess it is good I haven’t fallen in love with a REAL prince!
A huge smile on the queen. How nice to see :-). Can you even imagine how excited Kate and William are? I cannot wait and I so appreciate all your info and photos, Miss Princess! Have a great day!! XOXO
And one more thing – Donnnn Draper looking dapper as ever. I can’t believe I have to wait until 2012 to see him again ;-). hehe xoxo
The Queen looks absolutely splendid.
Oh the photo of the Queen is my favorite as well – she looks darling – Kate isn’t the only one with a bit of style!!
Ms. Blake looks dashing, doesn’t she? I wonder if that is her natural color, she wears it so well. I’m off to google “kate haircut” I wonder if I’m able to do that, you see I always wear my hair up, but it’s quite long now and needs some-sort of shape.
I am sitting on the edge of my seat and am pulling an all-nighter tomorrow night! Do you think there is a rehearsal dinner? I’d love to be a crumb on the crumpet for that one! 🙂 xoxo
Thanks for the informative updates. I can’t wait for the big event!
First & foremost, hope you & the TPP family stay safe from the storms.
Congratulations (and with apologies to the Consort) – you have managed to distract me from the day’s news for one blissful minute with that Don Draper / Beckham double whammy. I may need to locate the smelling salts.
Moving on to matters of state (sort of), those Royal Wedding photos are to die for, HRH the Queen most especially. That Kate (ahem, *Catherine*) shot with the mystery garment bags is exactly, exactly the look I’m usually trying for. Perfection.
1. Blake Lively’s hair looks fantastic.
2. That’s the best picture I think I’ve ever seen of the Queen. She, too, looks fantastic!
3. This shirt: http://pinterest.com/pin/11927814/
When I was a little girl, they made dresses with full skirts and one wore a crinoline slip to make the skirt poof out even more. I used to kneel in front of my Grandmother’s full length mirror and pretend it was a ball gown.That was my earliest recollection of my fascination with princesses. I also recall asking my Mother if I could marry a prince. I was 5 or 6. Mommy gave me a careful explanation of how it simply wasn’t possible because of my blood and how it wasn’t blue (that’s what I got out of it). So I say Yay! for Kate, the commoner for snatching herself not only a bona fide Prince, but a bloody future King!! Does it get any more Disney than that?
My princess syndrome continued for years .For example, on Black Friday, a 10-floor dept. store in Hartford, CT, offered late night shopping. You could give your child a voucher with a set amount on it so they could buy gifts on their own all over the store. The saleswomen would subtract the amount from your card. My younger sister and I schemed to pool our monies and not give each other gifts, but buy a gift that we both could share. Believe it or not in that 10 floor dept. store, we found a dept. where they sold tiaras! Lots of them! A whole case full! All had rhinestones, some added pearls or other colored stones–it was heaven! We bought one in gold and one in silver. We figured we could wear them when our parents took us to the opera or better yet, we would already have our own tiaras when we became professional ballerinas, saving our dance company money! (Both of us were in the pro-professional program of a ballet company).
Then we turned our attention to brides which of course, one day we would actually be so they became the base for wedding veils. Our Grandmother (who we called “Babushia”, the Ukrainian word for grandmother) actually sewed us satin gowns, brocade silver wedding gowns and allowed us to make bouquets from the flowers in her garden. When we slept over, we used the satin blanket covers she made for us, like real princesse. She indulged us all the time we lived in her City for me that was the 1st 10 yrs.of my life.
You can plainly see this royal thing started very early on. That’s also how I began reading this blog. Not only am I a prep school grad and lived in CT where I learned how to dress the part (and still do) when I saw the combo of Preppy and Princess, I thought, “This is absolutely perfect for me!” And so it is. Thank you for reading this far. I’m isolated from the putside world right now because of illness and writing is an outlet. I regret boring anyone. OOXX from W. Palm Beach