For some reason, I initially thought that Prince Louis T’Challa’s christening was later this week. I only realized on Sunday that the baby was being christened today. Everything goes down at 4 pm (GMT)/11 am (EST) in London, not Norfolk. Prince George was christened in London, and Charlotte was christened in Norfolk, just to recap. I don’t think the Cambridges are making some kind of signal about London v. Norfolk, I think they were surprisingly aiming for convenience for guests, even though this is being held on a Monday in the middle of Wimbledon and the World Cup.
The christening will be held at The Chapel Royal in St. James’s Palace, and the “private tea” reception afterwards will be held at Clarence House, which is the residence of the Prince of Wales. Guests will be “served slices of christening cake, which is a tier taken from The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding cake,” per Kensington Palace’s press release. I hope to God that they serve more than a seven-year-old cake!!
As for guests… obviously, William and Kate’s immediate families will be there, including Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince Harry and Meghan, and the entire Middleton clan. Shockingly, the Queen and Prince Philip are not going, and both are citing “health reasons.” Buckingham Palace says that the decision was made “some time ago,” which is weird, right? The Queen decided “some time ago” that she was sick and wouldn’t be able to attend? I still believe that the Queen is just setting up her “I’m too sick to meet with Donald Trump” alibi. Sorry, Prince Lou, it’s for the greater good. Update: nevermind about the “too sick to go” excuse – the palace is taking pains to say that the Queen and Philip’s absence is not due to illness.
The names of the godparents have been announced this morning as well. Here’s the list (from KP’s press release):
– Mr. Nicholas van Cutsem
– Mr. Guy Pelly
– Mr. Harry Aubrey-Fletcher
– The Lady Laura Meade
– Mrs. Robert Carter
– Miss Lucy Middleton
William and Harry have been close to the van Cutsems for their entire lives, so that’s no big surprise. Guy Pelly is largely seen as a “bad influence” on the princes because he’s a big partier and a general mess. He got married – to the “Holiday Inn heiress” – several years ago, so maybe the line on him is that he’s not so crazy anymore (I don’t believe that). The rest of the names aren’t very familiar to me. I wasn’t expecting to see Harry and Meghan named as godparents, so I’m not surprised by that.
Photos courtesy of WENN, PCN.
I can’t wait to see George and Charlotte, especially Charlotte.
Seeing the Cambridges as a family of 5 for the first time will be cute too
Same here! Can’t wait to see little Charlotte doing her “Queen Wave” lol. Also looking forward to seeing what Meg will wear, and if Kate will go for the Trifecta with another cream/off white McQueen outfit 😊
I’m gonna go waaaaaaay out on a limb here, and say that Harry and Will will wear navy suits. What are my odds? 😂🤣😂
According to The Mirror (after a Google search) I found this
(there’s also a short vid of the Mids arriving to the ceremony):
The Duchess of Cambridge was in a dress by McQueen and a hat by Jane Taylor. (called it! lol)
The Duchess of Sussex is wearing Ralph Lauren and a hat by Stephen Jones.
Looking forward to the pics!
Elle has some pix online. Meghan is wearing a plain olive green Ralph Lauren, Kate’s looks cream, maybe.
Well, Charlotte seems so much like the Queen’s Mini-Me that she can act as the Queen’s proxy.
Charlotte is my fav, she is simply adorable!
“I still believe that the Queen is just setting up her “I’m too sick to meet with Donald Trump” alibi.”
Agreed. She has started skipping events in the last few weeks, I hope she is really making some thater to escape Trump.
She met many other evil people. One us president is nothing for her.
I do think Philip is unwell. But the Queen is probably annoyed by the heat.
Why would you serve a 7 year old wedding cake to anyone? I know English fruit cake typically lasts a long time due to the alcohol content and dried fruit, but even then, wouldn’t the cake be awfully dry or sticky or something after years in the freezer? I just can’t imagine that cake being particularly delicious anymore. Maybe I’m wrong?
I don’t think it’s the taste factor that makes ppl serve it…
No, I mean, if the married couple want to keep eating their wedding cake after nearly a decade in the freezer or the cake tin, then go ahead. But if I was served someone else’s 7 year old cake I’m not sure I would find it romantic.. I would probably wonder if it was safe to eat, and I would prefer other options to eat with my tea.
I find it disgusting when people eat their wedding cake on their first anniversary. I can’t imagine eating it seven years later.
That is exactly why I had a cake topper replica made fresh for my 1st anniversary for us to enjoy. As for our original cake topper, our honeymoon got delayed by a day due to flight issues so we opted to hang out with the family that was in town for our wedding and ate our cake topper.
My husband and I each took ONE BITE of our year-old wedding cake, and after a frozen second, we both spit it out into our napkins! So much for our sentimental first anniversary! 🙂
Agree @Eva. I thought the tradition was to serve the cake at the christening of the couple’s first child or first anniversary….not at every child’s christening! (And don’t honestly remember it being mentioned for Charlotte’s, perhaps because that one wasn’t in London? Wouldn’t think traveling would be good for an old cake either.) A full tier that’s been soaked and properly treated might last but if it was thawed and cut into for George’s christening and maybe Charlotte’s too, I can’t imagine it’s any good.
I thought it was only for the first child as well, because normally the first kid came around a year later. Seven years later is just dumb. There is no way that fruitcake is any good even kept in a freezer for so long. Maybe that’s why the Queen decide to skip. She didn’t want to eat gross old cake.
Well stored rich Fruit cakes can keep for years. They had a separate cake for their wedding guests, this wedding cake went on display.
So they just keep pouring bourbon on that fruitcake until it’s all whiskey? How much can be left after two other christenings? Maybe nobody ate any at the last two and they are still trying to get rid of it?
Well good luck with that. Most of the guests today already had a chance to eat the cake when it was fresh at the wedding as well as 2nd and 3rd chances when it was old at the first two christenings.
I don’t understand this at all. Why even keep the cake? If it wasn’t eaten at the wedding it was probably gross … and now you keep it for seven years? Disgusting
I don’t understand it either. It is a strange thing to do and sounds kind of gross.
I didn’t even save any cake from my wedding for a one year bite.
Kaiser – all of the sources specifically say it’s *not* due to health reasons. I think you misread.
Whoops, sorry about that – I added an update
If it’s not health reasons, I think it’s pretty bad that TQ isn’t there. I mean, how much energy does it take to sit in the ceremony for an hour, and take a picture with the baby. No one is saying she has to be the last out at the party after, but Louis’ brother and sister have their Christening pics with TQ, and he’ll be the only one w/out one. In my family, the oldest and the youngest have TONS of pics… but poor, poor forgotten middle child (me! lol). Can you tell I have “fairness” issues? lol
Still, it’s a shame. I can understand PP, he’s pretty frail at this point, and the traveling back and forth from Windsor to London *may* be too much for him. But Lizzy… shame on you, esp. if you’re back in BP today.
But she’s a great grandmother to Louis, not his grandmother. It has been pointed out she did not attend other great grandchildren’s baptisms.
It just stands out because she attended his siblings…
She’s attended four out of 6 great grandchildren christenings (Savannah, Mia, PGTips, CC). Didn’t attend Isla’s or Louis. We’ll see if she attends Lena’s.
If William really wants her there then he should have worked around her schedule. She’s still putting in more work than him at the moment and he has more flexibility than she does.
True, Homespice, but, Louis IS in the *direct line*, and the other great-grands are not. There is a difference, no?
Wonder if she’ll show up to Lena’s christening?
She doesn’t like them
yeah everything I’ve seen on twitter says its NOT health issues, which makes it stranger in my opinion. I know that the Queen isn’t required to attend events like this and he’s not the heir to the throne, but its still kind of sad to me that the George and Charlotte will have official photos from their christening with the queen and Louis wont.
Can you tell I’m the youngest child? LOL.
Poor Louis!
He’s not the heir or the spare.
He will have a lifetime of royal disappointments when he is constantly compared to his brother.
Louis is the new Harry.
Charlotte is the new Harry. Louis is more like Edward in rank.
Glad to see you, nota. I was beginning to think you went the way of LAK and Sixer. That would have really sucked.
Louis is James Middleton 2.0
@Becks I’m with you! The youngest child is either spoiled or ignored. I can vouch to that as the youngest of three. Spoiled didn’t apply to me of course!
I agree about the perception of the youngest ignored / spoiled, but I don’t think it’s one or the other I think it’s perspective. I feel like the youngest tend to feel like they are ignored while the oldest tend to feel like the youngest are spoiled.
I think both Louis and Charlotte will probably carve out a niche for themselves in some way.
Looks like she had some business. I mean, did u see the news from Britain? She’s probably meeting with May or someone from the government.
Milla, that’s a better explanation. How could this be William’s fault? lol
@okay
It’s not Will’s anything. The queen simply had more important tasks.
I am the youngest and received way more attention that I wanted. I came after a tragedy so I was “special” and it had some drawbacks. We were looking at family photos recently and I noticed someone was always holding me or I was on someone’s lap.
Maybe Louis will be special because they can just love him without worry or he won’t need to be presented all the time. He may have an easier life because there is no expectation of anything yet he still gets the perks.
I see you have used the Rosemary’s Baby dress photo, it can’t get past that whenever I see these photo’s – her cosplay of Diana didn’t quite workout.
TQ is busy in Windsor prepping for the Orange Sh!tstains visit and when she’s decamped there she almost never comes back up to London.
It’s being reported she was at Sandringham and will be at Buckingham Palace later today.
Yes she doesn’t want to go
Wow it’s an honor to have someone so close to Queen commenting with us. When did she tell you she doesn’t like them? Over tea?
It’s called speculation. It’s what we do here.
Well, Meg is a Royal now so the Royal Family is woke. Apparently.
Lol Kate. People have to be a bit naive if they think Meghan marrying in means the British Royal Family are woke! Far from it, little has changed in the grand scheme of things.
Not to over hype things but Prince Harry marrying a black divorced woman changes a lot.
The Queen needs all the rest she can get in order to deal with Bakrupcy Batista, … I mean yall’s president on Friday.
Just follow him around with protests so he will stomp off back home early in a snit.
It really is not right to force the Queen to meet with Trump. She might get cooties.
He is also duty bound to say something completely rude and idiotic to the Queen. Heaven help her if he goes on and on about the witch hunt and the kazillion people who attended his inauguration but the Fake News denies it.
Besides, he should be in a hurry to get back to the White House and find hiding places for all those $1000 bills Putin will stuff into his pockets. Or into his briefcase. My theory is that Trump will arrive to his meeting with Putin with an empty briefcase and leave with a very heavy one. The POTUS doesn’t have to go through airport security, right?
It’s probably to show how uninteresting the Cambridges and Louie is.
I sure hope not because I would not understand what a 2 or 3 month-old baby could do to deserve such treatment.
well what the baby doesn’t know won’t hurt him lol. anyway 3rd great grandchild from the same grandkid is not that exciting, and TQ probably has limited energy these days. I can imagine she will be really thrilled when Harry and Meg have their first baby though.
Yes, the Queen has been heard saying that Louis can’t even keep up his end of a conversation and is dreadfully dull, always just laying around, eating and sleeping.
He has a terrible reputation for belching and passing gas without apology.
Hehehe…
Not to mention projectile vomiting.
Agreed
Your progeny have to be “interesting” to warrant attention?
Today is the anniversary of the announcement of the engagement of TQ and PP. I wonder if she decided she wanted to spend most of the day with him? I agree it’s odd not to go to the christening but age does have it’s privileges. Or maybe she asked for the ceremony to be in Norfolk where she is and had planned to be (since that’s PP’s retirement base apparently) and W&K said no? Edit: Just read TQ and PP did not attend Isla Phillips christening either so perhaps what is unusual is that they did attend Charlotte’s.
I find it super weird when people name their siblings as god parents
What exactly is a god parent and what is their function? Why do you have a christening? Is it like a bris?
@osnat the godparent’s role is to promise to support the child and support the parents. In some traditions, the godparents take over the upbringing of the child should anything happen to the parents.
Godparents are supposed to have a fairly major role in religious upbringing– hence the name. The baptism is the most important element today though according to beliefs in the CoE.
No, it is nothing like a brit milah (bris). A brit milah takes place 8 days after a baby boy is born and is then circumcised by a mohel or mohelet (woman). The only similarities are the involvement of godparents. For our baby girls, we do a simchat bat, it is basically celebrating a gift of a daughter. They are both ceremonial so there are steps and prayers involved. What we do in my family is the older children make little gifts for the new babies for that day to welcome their new sibling.
That concludes Celebitichy’s Jewish Learning for Monday. lol
I have been to both and don’t find them similar.
My sister and BIL are godparents. I’m not religious at all, therefore, they don’t need religious “guidance”. I’m not raising my kids with religion. But I did want them baptized. They can decide when they are adults what they want to do.
My siblings are my children’s godparents. Is that unique to us in US? I would never have bypassed relatives and chosen friends.
It’s often assumed the parents’ sibs will already be a part of the child’s life so close friends are named as godparents.
I’m from a Roman Catholic family in Canada and siblings/in laws usually chosen as godparents in my family. I don’t find it odd at all.
Why? I never knew my godfather because he was some friend of my dad’s who didn’t keep in touch. My aunt is my godmother and she always had or did little special things for me. I was in my thirties when I finally told her she didn’t have to buy me Christmas gifts anymore. All of us chose siblings as godparents.
We kind of had to use siblings to get our kid baptized. I went to college in the South where there are fewer Catholics (I have maybe 1 or 2 Catholic friends and they live half a country away) and even so, not many people are “practicing” Catholics anymore – we had to get a signed letter from the priest of the godparent(s) that they were regular/active church attendees. So, when it came down to looking around and figuring out who we could tap for the job, it pretty much boiled down to siblings.
I kind of wish baptism didn’t require a godparent, it would make it all a little less stressful.
That facial expression. I hope that’s how she glares at the Dotard.
I would love it if he was on the receiving end of that glare. Perfection.
probably prepping for the meeting with the Orange One. And as Meg is American, I won’t be surprised if TQ getting tips from her on how to deal with him.
In any case, as people get older they do tend to like to spend time with the people that really matter. For TQ that would be her husband, and maybe some favourites like Harry and, now, Meg.
Huh? Why would the sovereign of a constitutional monarchy ask her grandson’s wife how to deal with Trump? Meghan is not a diplomat, has never met Trump and is not a policy maker. Come on now.
Obvious, Meghan is the most precious flower humanitarian that ever lived. She did that one trip to India with that anti-gay charity, you know.
After 70 years on the throne, I imagine it is the Queen who is handing out tips on how to handle someone.
sharmi is a stan. First she assesses TQ doesn’t care much Kate and William’s third child, but will be thrilled for Harry and Meg’s first born. Now she thinks TQ is having convos with Meg on foreign diplomacy. The last one would make a great plot for The Windsors, tho…lmao.
yes, but as we have seen she is very good with people. It is quite possible to benefit from advice from a range of people, especially someone like Meg who is more in tune with normal people unlike the aristos and royals. We have seen clear evidence that TQ and Meg get along. Do you think they have never had a conversation about Trump? I am sure she is used to dealing with creepy men, being hugely successful in Hollywood.
Please.
The Queen can run circles around any head of state who is less than acceptable in the public’s eyes, she sure doesn’t need advice from an American actress.
meghan may be “more in tune with normal people” but why do you think that qualifies her to hand out advice on dealing with DONALD TRUMP? he’s not a normal person!!
LOL @ meghan being “hugely successful in Hollywood.” Come on. She really did well for herself as a working actress on a cable TV show but was nothing close to “hugely successful.”
Trump is not “normal people” in any way, shape or form, so I don’t think TQ needs Megs for this.
The things you could learn about dealing with people and awkward situations from the Queen would be priceless. If I ever had the chance to question her on people’s behaviour the interview would last 3 days straight.
Oh Jesus Christ, are you kidding me? Meghan is so special now that the freakin Queen of England is asking her advice on dealing with foreign rulers?! Girl, sit down.
Right? The Queen has dealt with every imaginable person, good and bad, I don’t, uh, think she needs Meghan’s guidance.
I like Meghan but really? That’s a bridge too far my friend.
Ewww. Seven year old cake? We had an Italian tort at my wedding, and they don’t freeze well at all, so the bakery said to come back on your first anniversary and we’ll have a free mini cake for you.
That’s too bad that she’ll miss her great-grandson’s christening because she has to meet that cretin this week. She needs all of the rest she can get to deal with that. He is going to make such an ass of himself and embarrass our country, per usual. 🙄
I’m looking forward to seeing the Baby Trump balloon. And I sincerely hope that TQ cancels her meeting with Cheetolini. He would be so pissed !
He would take it out on Britain. Apparently he has plans to make Canada pay too. He was supposed to use us to prove how tough he was to the rest of the world, when we wouldn’t play he left sulking, so now ‘we’re going to pay.’ He is that kind of immature spoiled brat.
Is it bad that I am only interested in seeing H&M at this christening?
Welcome to the club😁
I am willing to be Vice President of the club. I did scan the entrance photos and scanned for H and M. A peek at the sweetling Louis and then a thorough eyewash after being subjected to some ugly hat event fashion disasters and moved on.
Obviously none of us really know why the Queen is not going to attend & I personally don’t believe every statement that comes out of the palace!
My own thought is that at the age of 92 the Queen is finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain a full schedule. She cancelled an engagement at Westminster Abbey at the last minute just 2 weeks ago & the Duke of Kent had to step in for her. The palace obviously don’t want to alarm the public so they try to avoid talking about her health or stamina. Louis is also her 6th great grandchild and W&Ks third child, so perhaps she thought no one would mind if she skips it.
Poor Louis, not even a year old and he’s irrelevant already…
When William becomes King the focus will be on him & his family. Louis is not the heir but as the second son of a future king he’ll still have a role to play. Just like Harry has a role to play now but eventually that will start to lessen as William’s kids get older.
Maybe Lucky Louis? He will be able to pursue his own thing, perhaps? Who knows, by the time William is set to become King, the monarchy may be gone. Right now he’s a privileged son of a wealthy family. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me.
Given how things are headed, neither of their younger children will be working royals.
That sounds like an excuse. We saw her over the weekend and she looked fine. They would take her age into consideration when planning this. She does have a busy week but this Christening could have been planned ANOTHER week to ensure that she would be well rested to attend.
Even Phillip is not going and he went to harry’s wedding with a broken rib. I’m sure he could have mustered up energy to attend this . The decision was made in advance.
I never said the Queen looked ill, but we have to accept that she is 92 and can’t be expected to attend everything. How a person looks has nothing to do with it. It’s whether they feel up to it. We have seen the Queen scale back on a number of events such as not placing a wreath herself on Rememberance Sunday last year.
Prince Philip has been primarily staying at Windsor since his operation. It was always going to be 50/50 whether he’d attend H&Ms wedding & BP only confirmed his attendance just a day before the wedding. Philip wasn’t at the Queen’s birthday celebrations nor was he at trooping which is one of the most important events in the royal calendar. It’s not a great shock that he isn’t attending the christening.
BP wouldn’t lie about her health considering she skipped something last week because she was under the weather. Besides she is heading back to London later today. The more likely scenario is that William picked a date and didn’t consult BP and the Queen wasn’t going to drop everything for him.
TQ is the GREAT-grandmother here. The grandparents, brothers and sisters and friends will all be in attentdance. I don’t see the big deal.
Makes sense to me, Vogue and Nic919. W&K picked a date without consulting everyone, HM and Philip have chosen not to attend.
@nic919, I agree this is the most likely scenario. William and Kate are too busy trying to do their own thing to take elderly relatives into consideration. Harry and Meg seem more considerate, and a lot closer to TQ as well as to Charles and Camilla.
I feel quite confident that KP coordinated this date with Clarence House. Charles’s calendar would have been the first consideration, and he has a packed summer schedule. It seems much more likely that they chose this date so that Harry & Meghan could also attend (the optics of choosing a date they would miss would be bad) and the end result was that HM’s availability was last past the post.
The number of summer dates when all the major family members are free is limited. Charles really does stay very very busy.
sharmi, I so hope you are being sarcastic…you are cracking me up today!
The Queen has been traveling over the weekend and probably knew she would need her rest when they first told her the date.
Apparently Prince Harry purchased a 1st edition Winnie the Pooh book as a gift? I love that so much.
Is it someone’s job to “feed” the fruitcake the dose of booze every now and then, or has it just been knocking about in a freezer all this time?
The book was 10,000 dollars! holy moly!!!
Yike’s – $10,000! I’d get the kid a facsimile that he can actually handle. They will have to put that one in a glass sealed display case!
@Kaiser, wasn’t it at Pelly’s wedding that William got so drunk he fell and broke a tooth? Another one who knows where the bodies are buried I’d guess.
Yes. He’s a ridiculous person and I doubt he’s suddenly become less ridiculous. He’s the kind of guy friend partners and spouses hate for their guy to hang out with.
Also part of the dad dancing skiing weekend last year.
What’s the excuse for this?
I know the Queen is older but she is the Head of the COE . it was not scheduling conflict and per Richard Palmer, it was a decision made prior. I don’t understand why she would purposely decided to do this.
Poor Louis . He’s not the heir or the spare but simply the “who cares?”. I mean even The Queen couldn’t bother to show up to his christening. It’s really messed up.
She’s making a point
What point is that?
I agree it doesn’t look good.
Did you ever think that it might be Prince Phillip who is under the weather and she wants to stay close in case something happens? There are a myriad of reasons to forego the christening so don’t jump to the conclusion that she doesn’t give a toss about a family christening and would rather stay home and rearrange her tiara drawer.
From what I’ve read HM has a really busy week with business stuff and decided to not attend the Christening. She does have things going on, including meeting 45. Louis is the spare’s spare so he’s kind of a *shrug* in terms of the BRF.
The “who cares”. That made me giggle. Prince Louis, the forgotten one.
The 7 year old wedding cake reminds me of a Seinfeld episode when Elaine eats Mr Petermanns vintage wedding and she replaces it with a Entemann’s cake thinking he wouldn’t notice the difference. He catches the whole thing on a Security camera. Lol
Yes. Great episode.
Lila, that was hysterical! Ah Seinfeld… the other day I couldn’t remember where I’d parked my car in a garage and I thought, “This reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where they can’t find their car!”
As for the Queen not attending the christening, I think it’s not ok. I’m sure they ran the date by her before scheduling it and she had agreed. Now she’s bailing and not even for health reasons. Unless it IS for health reasons (hers or Philip’s) but no one wants to alarm the nation.
I agree with them not saying anything in order to not alarm the nation especially with the current UK government on the verge of collapse.
The vintage cake in that episode was from Edward and Wallis Simpson’s wedding too. Quite apropos!
I saw that the Daily Fail was trying to make a big deal that Meghan wasn’t selected, even though more legit news sources were saying it was unlikely that a member of the immediate family would be selected. Nice way to create drama where there is none.
I had also heard it rumored that the princes’ private secretary was about to retire soon and that he might be picked…..but sadly I couldn’t imagine the family picking “the help” (unless the help had aristo cred of his own).
Didn’t Guy take the fall for one of the boys’ having cocaine or marijuana when they were younger?
EEK! Just saw some pics of Pipster arriving, her dress is awful.
Alessandra’s designs are very dated. Not my taste at all. I guess they’re appealing If you’re going for the conservative look.
Hurry and post Harry and Meg so we can chat about her — I’m sneaking in a “pretty” vote on this post ! !
And I agree homeslice, Pippa’s dress is really really awful.
Carole Middleton has gained some weight, and wow–she looks *really* good! Her face looks at least 10 years younger and so much healthier!