Wedding of a Lifetime

Just a few more hours!

I’m counting down!

Squee!

If you know me, you know there isn’t much that causes me to squee and get giddy.

But this wedding? The royal wedding? Oh, I know I’m a grown woman. I should be over princesses and fairlytales. But I’m not.

I can’t wait until tomorrow morning.

One of my most vivid and fond memories of my younger years is the one of watching Charles and Diana’s wedding on TV. I was six years old. An actual princess in a Cinderella dress with a carriage and an actual prince was every single make-believe fantasy I’d ever had rendered in living two-D on my television screen.

The advent of that real life fairytale was the apex of my then short lifetime. A lifetime spent fashioning crowns from tin foil and elaborate ball gowns from sheets and curtains. When I was a little girl you didn’t just go to the store and buy a princess costume with some Disney character emblazoned across the bodice. No, when I was a child you used your imagination and made your own. Safety pins and being able to tie knots came in handy. As did scissor skills, much to my mother’s dismay.

I can’t tell you how many hours, days and months of pretend that wedding fueled as I re-created it in my mind. Me playing the part of Diana of course.

This winter a traveling exhibit of mementos from Diana’s life came to town. Among the artifacts was The Dress. I am not ashamed to tell you that a few tears trickled down my cheeks as I stood admiring it. Tears of amazement over seeing in person this dress that played such a large role in my childhood dreams. Tears of fondness for the memories of hours spent playing with abandon. Tears of nostalgia for girlhood when fairytales were more than just pretend.

Who wouldn’t re-visit and re-capture the carefree innocence of childhood if they could? Who wouldn’t relish it more the second time around if given the chance?

Maybe tomorrow, if even just for a moment, I’ll meet again that little girl who believed as she danced around her bedroom draped in a white sheet with a crooked paper tiara crowning her head.