11 Ways to Celebrate the Royal Wedding

We’re really looking forward to Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on Friday April 29th, and have got some great ideas for celebrating the event with your little ones…  Whether you fancy brushing up on your Royal history, dressing up like a princess, eating like a king, or even tweeting Prince William, you’ll find something here!

1. Take a tour

To help children understand the significance of the event, give them a tour around London of significant landmarks. Westminster Abbey (where the wedding is taking place) is a good starting point and from there you can go on to the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace and even the Horse Guards Parade. A tour guide with experience of children and families would be handy if your history is not so good.
Our top tips –

• Buy a London Pass and get a free Royal Wedding guided walk and free entry to over 55 London attractions including Tower of London and Westminster Abbey
• Join the Royal Wedding Unveiled guided walk with those fun and knowledgeable guides at London Walks
• Avoid the queues and buy your advance discount e-tickets for Royal Attractions in London

2. Have a themed party

Children love parties and they also love dressing up. So why don’t you host a royalty themed party where kids can dress up as the Royal family? They could come as the Queen or Princess Anne, or better yet, come as the soon-to-be-married couple, Will and Kate. Kids could even role play the wedding and you – the adult – could pretend to marry them and make the party feel like the real royal wedding Will and Kate deserve.
Our top tips:

• ELC have some super cute Princess Bride dressing up clothes – it’ll be the best £20 you’ve spent in a long time!
• Baker Ross have everything you could ever want or need for your Royal Wedding theme party

3. Bake your own Royal Wedding treats

Another way of eating like a king is by baking your own wedding snacks with the kids. You could start with making miniature jam tarts and using colours such as emerald green or ruby red to create a royal statement, or try your own royal variation on Annabel Karmel’s stained glass window cookies.

4. Eat in style

To feel like a Royal, dine at the Ritz in London where you and the kids will be treated like royalty at the Royal Wedding Brunch (£150 per person) or the Royal Wedding Afternoon Tea (£50 per person). If you go to Brunch, you’ll come away with a souvenir Menu and commemorative keepsake edition, whilst with Afternoon Tea, you get the menu and a Highgrove chocolate heart. Expensive, yes, but you can remember this day for the rest of your lives, especially as there is live coverage of the wedding on a screen and you can eat as much as you like.

5. Get creative

On 18th April, a Creative Art Workshop is taking place at the North Light Gallery in Huddersfield. At the workshop, children can design Easter and Royal Wedding related objects. Royal Wedding crafts include making crowns and swords, 3D castles with prince and princess characters, wedding cake designs and much more. The price is £8 per child and children aged 4-12 are welcome.

6. Enjoy your own copy of “You Can Be Princess Catherine’s Bridesmaid”

Mel Williams wrote this fun activity book for girls aged 6+, which is a great opportunity for them to feel involved – and know what being a bridesmaid entails. The book has creative tasks for the reader, which includes designing the invitations; picking out Kate’s flowers and deciding what she might be wearing on the day. The book is beautifully designed and has space for notes and pictures. It’s something young girls can do with their mums and sisters.
[button link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Can-Princess-Catherines-Bridesmaid/dp/1848121814]Check out this and other Royal Wedding activity books on Amazon[/button]

7. Go to a street party

There are going to be tons of parties going on around the UK from 29th April to 2nd May so don’t miss out – go to one! London in particular will have residents partying in the streets till dawn but don’t worry, there will be parties you can take your kids to. For example, the street party at Village Prem London Elstree will be providing a Royal buffet, face painter and a balloon artist, as well as a screening of the Royal Wedding. The price for adults is £14.95 and kids go half price.

8. Get close to Prince William

This one’s for the girls. While the boys are elsewhere, take your daughters to Madame Tussauds so they can cosy up to the wax figure of Prince William. Even better, go to the Stephen Friedman gallery, where you or your girls can link arms with his figure and slip your finger into Kate’s attached replica engagement ring on his forearm. Remember to smile though: you get a photo out of it.

9. Actually watch it!

For this, you can either watch it live on TV or if you’re in London you can join the crowds at Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park to watch it on the big screen. If you’re feeling brave, go down to London and cluster around Westminster Abbey for a look of the bride in her dress before she goes in, and of the newly wedded couple when they emerge. This is something to tell grandchildren in years to come. Best of all, it’s free.

10. Enjoy the day off

You can celebrate the Royal Wedding just by not having to be somewhere. You can all sleep in, play some family games (eg Scrabble/Monopoly etc), go out for a family meal and just enjoy each other’s company.

11. Follow the Royal Wedding Preparations on Twitter

Who would have thought the Prince used TwitPic too? Enjoy exclusive videos and pictures from @ClarenceHouse.

How will you be celebrating the Royal Wedding? We’d love to know! Pop a comment below or on Facebook (), or take a picture of your weird and wonderful Royal Wedding preparations and post it on .

Photo courtesy of David Hughes on Flickr.