LIFE The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton: Expanded, Commemorative Edition

by LIFE

An intimate account of the Royal couple, featuring breathtaking photos from the April 29 th Royal Wedding.

LIFE has covered all of the lavish royal weddings since even before Queen Elizabeth II wed in 1947, and of course the magazine documented in splendid, intimate detail the "wedding of the century," that of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, years later. Now LIFE celebrates the royal engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, True Story, Photography, Romance

128 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 2011

About the author

Life was an American magazine published weekly from 1883 to 1972, as an intermittent "special" until 1978, and as a monthly from 1978 until 2000. During its golden age from 1936 to 1972, Life was a wide-ranging weekly general interest magazine known for the quality of its photography.

Reviews

[Madame Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent photographs.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I confess, I am a royalty nut. And this one is gorgeous wiht lots of photos, all very well done. If you are looking for a nice souvenir from the wedding of 2011, this one would do nicely.

[Anna Stewart McCall · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Tina Brown's book The Palace Papers, I've kind of gone down a rabbit hole with the British royal family. I was excited about this one, because the relationship between William and Kate is second only to Charles and Diana's in interest for me. I have to say, however, that I was disappointed. There wasn't an overabundance of pictures from the wedding itself. The formal picture that I've seen of them with both families wasn't even in there. It gives the backstory and some cute pictures of Will and Kate growing up, but it fell far short of my expectations of photos from the wedding itself.

[Trudy Dowling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the quite some time ago and honestly forgot about it. I was going through my royalty books today and had to stop and look at this book. The pictures are amazing. It was great to travel back in time and enjoy the wedding.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, I would LOVE to thank Karen Haney, from whom I won this book from! Her Blog address is: www.bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com (sorry, the link would not take.) She has a Giveaway called Bookin' With Bingo! Please go to her site and play! You'll be glad you did! I am!!! I was SO excited to get her email stating I had won this book! I went on and on about how excited I truly am! It was really cute when she replied back, "I am glad you are a 'tiny' bit excited!" LOL! A 'tiny' bit!!! HUGE!!! I LOVE Royal Weddings, and this one, for me, was SO very special! The history behind it all! I remember as a teenager, watching Prince Charles and Diana getting married on TV. I do believe that wedding was LATER in the day than this wedding was! I KNOW I did NOT get up, or in my case, I stayed up ALL night long watching the pre-wedding shows, etc! Back then, as I said I was a teenager, and WHAT teenager would stay up all night to watch a wedding! I must thank my late-mother for turning it on TV! Thanks, Mom! Otherwise, I would not have the lifelong memories I have of Prince Charles and Diana. I sat next to that TV GLUED! Teenagers are impressionable, and I was. I have had a life-long love affair with the Royal Family! Now it has come full-circle, and Diana's oldest son is getting married. Notice I don't mention Prince Charles! Lying, cheating, . . . !!! HOW could ANYONE do what he did to Diana? Well, that's another story for another time!
Anyway, on to this BEAUTIFUL book! I suggest ANYONE get this book who is interested in the Royal Family! Until I visited Karen's Blog, I didn't know this book existed! I should have! Leave it to Life Books to publish one! I 'should have' known!
Life - The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. I honestly believe the title of the book is wrong. It does NOT cover 'their wedding'. It covers their dating years and a LOT of history of the Royal people prior to them, and all the events leading 'up to the wedding'. This book is 'full' of Royal history! If you like Royal History, 'this' is 'the' book for you! I can see another book coming out specifically focusing directly 'on' the wedding itself. Wasn't the wedding just SO breathtaking? Westminster Abbey was turned into this live greenhouse! Real trees growing in the aisle way. We can only imagine that fairy tale for ourselves, or, to watch this fairy tale on TV. Imagine yourself walking those '3' minutes down that aisle! (Smile!)
Wow! What a GORGEOUS book! You all know how during the 'Royal Wedding', I was posting away here on my Blog, and on Twitter! I had watched Prince Charles and Princess Diana's Wedding 'years' ago as I had mentioned. (By the way, my son's middle name is William and my daughter's name is Elizabeth! NOT named after the Royal family - more based on Shakespeare!) I agree with the newscasters, that Diana was there at the wedding, in spirit. Not in a 'paranormal' sort of way, but in the hearts of everyone who attended and/or watched the wedding on television, (The 'telly')!
I have been enamored by this couple throughout their dating years. They just had this 'glow' about them, didn't they? All through this book, it highlights their dating life and more. Many of the events they attended together, and the charities, etcetera. All the way from their dating, engagement, to the pre-preparation of their wedding. In this book, which of course, precedes the 'actual' wedding, estimates the cost of this wedding to be approximately $20,000,000. However, as this book states, NOT to be confused with most expensive 'Society Wedding' of Vanisha Mittal to Amit Bhatia in 2004. (Page 103).
College sweethearts, they ski, they hunt, they attend functions and charities together. Kate watches William play Polo. They travel all over the world together.
In this book, we also meet the Middleton family. The paparazzi. Kate's fashion. It's ALL in this Collector's Book!
What a lovely book to own! This book will stay in my Library for years to come! I'll be able to add to it William and Kate's children's weddings! This book is truly a keeper! Again, thank you to Karen Haney at www.bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book--really a substantial magazine--is the same as the other version I just read, but with an added section featuring wedding pics. Photos in fact take up almost all the space here, but cool information--such as about how the House of Windsor got its name and past royal weddings around the world--is here as well. And I just like looking at Will and Kate together!

[Kasey Cadwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this ... I am totally in lust with the royals anyway, but I saw lots of pictures of Wills and Harry that I had never seen before. Love love love! Makes me want to sit down and watch the wedding in its entirety again -- for the fifth time! haha

[Jessica Wilhoite · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't wait for the Royal Wedding!

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect for William and Catherine fans! Shows great pictures of William and Catherine when they were children and also some when they dated. Great for Royal Wedding collectors. Love mine!

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice brief glimpse into the royal family. The photographs are a good highlight.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great pictures. Liked the background information of both William and Kate. Also liked the section that looked back on royal weddings of the past.

[Jeanette Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the pictures of the Wedding but wished that there were more of them. There were only a few pictures of the Royal Wedding at the end of the book.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the pictures, didn't love the attempt at witty commentary.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

i always liked reading about these weddings and the pictures are absolutly gorgeous.

[Angelia Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great pics! Interesting tidbits!