Stilettos, Stoli & Scribbles ~ Served With A Twist

And like Diana Ross, “I don’t wanna get over” it.

It’s been almost two weeks since Rachel Meghan Markle married HRH Prince Henry Charles Albert David in front of a global audience of millions (myself included) and I still can’t get enough. I am thoroughly besotted with Harry and Meghan and their love story.

I know I’m not alone, by any stretch. There are at least two books with the happy couple on the cover that have become instant bestsellers.

Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair, to name a few, are all still posting new articles to their websites every day. They promise further details about the wedding, the reception, the guests, the cake, etc. I click on each one I come across. Did you know there was a “secret” second florist who handled the flowers for the reception? That Elton John included “Tiny Dancer” in his reception set because it includes the line, “L.A. lady” in it, as a nod to Meghan and her acting career? Or that Harry and Meghan danced their first dance to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody?”

Oh, what wouldn’t I have given to see that!

I have watched all five hours of BBCAmerica’s coverage of the crowd, the celebrity arrivals, the ceremony and the open carriage ride through the town of Windsor at least three times. The highlight reel many more.

I have the Kingdom Choir’s rendition of “Stand By Me” on continuous play

Along with the gorgeous music of Sheku Kanneh Mason.

I even watched the Lifetime made-for-tv-movie about Harry and Meghan’s courtship. I did have to be convinced to give it a shot, but I’m glad I did. The writers kept the sap to a minimum, it was well-cast and utterly charming. There were a lot of blanks that had to be filled in since the people privy to the actual conversations haven’t been divulging any details to outsiders, but the writers plugged the gaps in the sweetest way possible. I cried. (I admit, I’m a colossal mush, and I’d been weepy since the ceremony.)

You might think that my infatuation has something to do with the fact that the newly minted Duchess of Sussex is an American, but that’s not the case at all. It has more to do with Harry.

For one thing, I have been a self-described Anglophile all my life. Sometimes I even think with an accent. I remember watching Charles and Diana’s wedding, as well as Andrew’s to Sara Ferguson, Edward’s to Sophie Rhys-Jones and, of course, William’s to Catherine Middleton.

As far as televised royal weddings go, Charles and Diana’s is still the “most watched.” It’s hard to believe she was just nineteen when she joined “The Firm,” as the British Royal Family refer to themselves. Diana and I were the same age, and like so many other people all over the world, her death hit me hard. Then we had to watch those two young boys, Harry only twelve, trail behind their mother’s casket.

In the twenty years since, we watched him grow up – in every possible way. He had to experience his growing pains and make his mistakes in public. Then we watched him mature and seem to take up his mother’s mantle by using his privilege and position to champion the causes he believes in. He’s now sixth in line to the throne. It’s doubtful he’ll ever be king, which gives him a particular kind of freedom his brother has never had.

That freedom allowed him to travel the world in service of his many charities, which in turn led him to a divorced, mixed-race, American actress. Someone (on Twitter, I think) pointed out that Harry is the grandson of a Queen who came to the throne because her father, a second son, became King because his brother had to abdicate so that he could marry a divorced American. The times they are a’changin’. While we’ll never know exactly what goes on behind the palace doors, by all accounts, Meghan has been welcomed into the fold with open arms. The Queen, a famous dog-lover, was even seen riding around Windsor with Meghan’s rescue, Guy, in her Rolls Royce. I love that!

So, while it was a given that I was going to watch this Royal Wedding, why I’ve become so sappy and obsessed with it is because this was so obviously a love match. It was palpable right through the television (Harry told his bride that she looked “amazing” and then bit his lip. Swoon!) and in every still photo. It’s the couple themselves that still has me giddy. Despite the all the things that would seem to make Meghan Markle an improbable mate for a ginger-haired British Prince, they appear to all the world to be perfectly matched and head-over-heels in love.

Or maybe it’s just because all of it – the pageantry, the glamor, the romance – adds up to something pretty and happy to focus on. Something I think we all could use a little more of these days.