Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Seventy: The Wedding of William and Catherine

29 April 2011

The Queen has today been pleased to confer a Dukedom on Prince William of Wales. His titles will be Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus.

Prince William thus becomes His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge and Miss Catherine Middleton on marriage will become Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge.

Buckingham Palace

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Westminster Abbey

Climbing from the car, Adeline took a deep breath as she stared up at Westminster Abbey; her heart pounding in her chest as she thanked the usher who had opened the door for her.

It had been months of planning and Adeline had done her best to be supportive of her brother and Catherine as they prepared for the biggest day of their lives together so far.

Turning to wave to the cheering crowds, Adeline smiled as she waved them then she headed towards the steps of the abbey so that she didn't hold up anyone who was set to arrive after her.

Everything had been timed precisely and Adeline knew that it would be her father and Camilla arriving next since just before her had been the arrival of her uncle, Beatrice and Eugenie whose outfits were rather hard to miss as she walked down the aisle not far behind them.

Adeline hadn't seen much of her brothers that morning, with William and Harry leaving earlier than she had to get to the abbey although she had heard the cheering from the crowds from her room as they had left to make the short journey from Clarence House to Westminster Abbey.

The noise from the Mall had been deafening even from her bedroom at Clarence House and Adeline had seen people start to queue in advance to get their spaces at the front for days in hopes of seeing the royals pass by on the way to the abbey.

Stepping into the abbey, Adeline was almost glad that she was so far down the line of succession and her wedding would never be considered a state occasion as William's was and the expectations that came with it.

Although he and Catherine had main control on who they got to invite, the guest list of about 1,900 included foreign royalty, commonwealth leaders, politicians and diplomats as well as a gathering of friends and family that the couple had wished to invite.

Following after the usher as he lead her towards her seat, Adeline smiled at those in the crowd that she recognised who were among those who had been lucky enough to secure an invite to the wedding.

Her eyes sweeping the crowd in an effort to spot Simon, having returned from his deployment in mid-December, Adeline couldn't deny how proud she was of him and what he had done.

It couldn't have been easy to head out there on his own for months, it had been different the first time that he had gone away; he'd had Harry there then, someone that he had thought could have his back.

The couple had opted to arrive separately to the wedding, neither of them wanting to take attention away from William and Catherine on their big day.

Today was a celebration of the love that William and Catherine shared with one another, nothing should distract from that not even Adeline and Simon entering the abbey together.