{"id":164278,"date":"2018-05-20T06:05:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T10:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=164278"},"modified":"2018-05-20T06:05:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T10:05:30","slug":"americans-fete-royal-wedding-in-pubs-hotels-and-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/05\/20\/americans-fete-royal-wedding-in-pubs-hotels-and-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans fete royal wedding in pubs, hotels and homes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From<\/a>
From pubgoers in pyjamas to merrymakers in finery at a posh hotel, Americans cheered and teared up Saturday as they watched Meghan Markle marry Prince Harry in a royal wedding with trans-Atlantic resonance. (Photo<\/a>: The Royal Family\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 From pubgoers in pyjamas to merrymakers in finery at a posh hotel, Americans cheered and teared up Saturday as they watched Meghan Markle marry Prince Harry in a royal wedding with trans-Atlantic resonance.<\/p>\n

People gathered at wedding watch parties \u2014 some before dawn \u2014 at a Hollywood pub and New York’s swanky Plaza hotel, in oceanfront towns in Florida and spots in the Rocky Mountains, to see an American of mixed race heritage become part of Britain’s royal family.<\/p>\n

If the U.K. and the U.S. have long enjoyed a \u201cspecial relationship,\u201d this gave it a whole new meaning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real-life fairy tale,\u201d said Erin Massa, 34, who watched at a Minneapolis pub. \u201cIf someone my age from America can suddenly become a princess, essentially, anything really is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) away at a home in Burlington, New Jersey, Paula Jackson gasped when Markle emerged from the Rolls-Royce that brought her to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the British royals’ longtime home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m just so happy for her,\u201d said Jackson, dressed in a jeweled blazer and tiara. \u201cShe will be an example for our young, African-American women.\u201d<\/p>\n

At gatherings around the U.S., viewers admitted Markle’s beauty and naturalness. But they also marveled at the boundary-breaking union between the 33-year-old prince who has been open about how grief shadowed his life for decades after the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, and the 36-year-old American actress who has spoken out about coming to terms with her biracial identity as the daughter of a black mother and white father.<\/p>\n

Some viewers wiped away tears as they watched the wedding from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, Markle’s alma mater.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all my family can talk about,\u201d said 15-year-old sophomore Daniella Bueno, who got up at 3 a.m. to join dozens of students, parents and staffers for the event. \u201cShe’s representing our school in such a beautiful way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the country, Varinda Missett and Ellen Polkes donned hats, gloves and bejeweled high heels and went to the Plaza early in the morning because they \u201cwanted to see a California girl become a princess,\u201d Missett said.<\/p>\n

A crowd in fascinators and tiaras gathered for the storied hotel’s first royal wedding viewing party, which came complete with deviled eggs, black pudding, Earl Grey tea butter biscuits and cake pops with champagne and flower liqueur.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love a great love story,\u201d said Maureen Farley, the hotel’s director of hospitality. \u201cThis surely is one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there was a certain historical irony in Americans celebrating British royalty nearly 242 years after the Declaration of Independence, it had little sway Saturday over Americans who say they were simply rallying around love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a wonderful new way to be royal,\u201d said Ralph Campbell, 67, who donned a three-piece dark suit and bow tie for a watch party at Brit’s Pub in Minneapolis. He called the ceremony \u201ca global wedding\u201d and added: \u201cI think it will only help the cause of peace in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another guest at Brit’s Pub, British native Victoria Rylee, had no problem with an American marrying a British prince. After all, \u201cI married an American,\u201d Rylee, 71, said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

At a pajama-and-viewing party at the Cat & Fiddle Pub in Hollywood, California, British-born actor Craig Young was happy to watch a woman from his adopted hometown join the royal family in his homeland. It was something \u201cwe never thought would happen, and which we’re very excited about,\u201d said the actor, 44, who wore a bathrobe and Prince Harry mask.<\/p>\n

For Meghan Woods, who was at the Plaza’s fete in New York, the takeaway was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many terrible things going on in the world that when there’s something like this\u2014 love bringing people together, a reason to celebrate,\u201d she said, \u201cwhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 From pubgoers in pyjamas to merrymakers in finery at a posh hotel, Americans cheered and teared up …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":164279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2482,39124],"class_list":["post-164278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle","tag-americans","tag-royal-wedding","mauthors-jennifer-peltz","mauthors-andrew-dalton","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}