Royal wedding: Crowds gather for the day
Baku, April 29 (AZERTAC). Crowds are gathering in central London for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey.
Thousands of people have camped out overnight on the procession route the couple will take to Buckingham Palace.
The couple are to brave the risk of showers and use an open-topped 1902 State Landau carriage for the procession after the service.
It is the carriage in most general use at Buckingham Palace and is often used by the Queen to meet visiting foreign heads of states.
The Met Office says the day will start off dry but cloudy in London and there is a risk of heavy showers developing later on.
The prince will wear the red tunic of an Irish Guards colonel - his most senior honorary appointment - but the bride`s dress design is being kept secret.
On Thursday night, Prince William went on an impromptu walkabout to meet royal watchers who had thronged to The Mall, near the palace.
He spent several minutes shaking hands, chatting and posing for pictures telling well-wishers: "All I`ve got to do is get the lines right."
The prince spent Thursday evening with the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry, while Miss Middleton and her family gathered at the Goring Hotel, in Belgravia, a short distance from Westminster Abbey.
Scotland Yard says 5,000 officers will be on duty, with more than 900 along the wedding route. Most will be in uniform, but some will be in plain clothes, mixing with the crowd.
Elsewhere in the UK more than 5,500 street parties are taking place - including one hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street and another by the anti-monarchy campaign group Republic.
After the service, five carriages drawn by mounted troops of the Household Cavalry will carry the newlyweds, the Royal Family and the Middleton family on the 15-minute journey from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace.
Some 650 guests have been invited to the palace for a buffet lunch and about 300 close friends and relatives will stay on for formal black tie dinner and disco in the evening.
But the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will leave for a weekend away after hosting the lunchtime reception and will miss Prince Harry`s best man speech and Michael Middleton`s father of the bride address.
Prince William`s choice of a military uniform for his wedding is something of a surprise, royal watchers say. As a search and rescue helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force, many had predicted he would wear his blue flight lieutenant`s uniform.
Classical compositions by Elgar, Britten and Vaughan Williams will feature during the ceremony, alongside the hymn Jerusalem and the English melody Greensleeves.
Some 50 foreign heads of state are among the wedding guests and on Thursday night, the Queen hosted a drinks and dinner reception for many of them - including Queen Sofia of Spain and Queen Margarethe of Denmark - at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, near Hyde Park.
Other news in this section
