Prince Harry and Meghan, as mentioned earlier right before my rant about those dotted lines on their wedding invitation, just wrapped their day tour after making several stops in Belfast today. They’re visiting with young entrepreneurs, they’re checking out the Titanic exhibit, and they popped into the bar. The Crown Saloon. Check out Kensington Palace’s Twitter to follow the itinerary. Or my friend Omid Scobie’s Twitter account as he’s there on assignment. Omid and Emily Andrews launched a podcast for royal junkies called On Heir a few weeks ago. Here’s the latest episode.
I’m attaching more photos from the trip with this article, including several handholding shots because it’s become a signature move now, along with the “look of love”.
VIDEO: Harry & Meghan walk into the @EikonExhibition: some signature hand-holding and “look of love” π glances (not my words I hasten to add...) great skirt swish too. ππΌ pic.twitter.com/ncCNfy7iVF
— Emily Andrews (@byEmilyAndrews) March 23, 2018
It’s true. They do reach for each other’s hands. As I said a couple of weeks ago, if and when there comes a time when they don’t reach for each other’s hands, that’ll be a story:
Harry and Meghan leave to meet locals during a walkabout outside the @CrownBarBelfastππΌβοΈππ»βοΈ pic.twitter.com/O73G2pq8Ii
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) March 23, 2018
Ummmm…can we go back to talking about those invitations? I can’t be the only geek about this sh-t, right? In North America, with invitations, it’s customary to send a “response card” and return envelope with postage along with the invitation (before people started doing evites, at least). You put your name on it, you check off the RSVP box, and you mail it back. This is not how it works in the UK. In the UK, at stationery stores, there are sections to buy your own response cards. If you get invited to something and you want to let them know that you’re coming, you go to the store (or you open your desk drawer if you already have a package) and you buy your own response card. There are cards for “yes I’m coming” or “no, can’t make it”, obviously worded more politely. This is why, on Meghan and Harry’s invitation, on the bottom left hand corner of the invitation, it says “a reply is requested to” with the address of where to send the response. Because of course you wouldn’t need to print that if you were providing an envelope and a response card. My friend Lorella, who lived in England for several years, told me that the upper class people might handwrite their responses on their own letterhead.
Meghan, however, is American and spent a few years in Toronto. Presumably, then, some of the responses will be coming from the US and Canada. Will those guests be handwriting their responses or hitting up the stationery store? What would you do? Let’s say you’re someone who grew up with Meghan Markle and have now been invited to a f-cking ROYAL WEDDING. And you have to send back a response to the Lord Chamberlain’s Office at Buckingham Palace (this is actually the RSVP address). Do you buy a standard issue response card? Or do you handwrite your acceptance? Because OF COURSE YOU ARE ACCEPTING.
If this is you, by the way, and you’re going to the wedding, and you need some suggestions for a handwritten response, here’s a resource.