Last minute rehearsals for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton got under way before dawn in central London on Wednesday with the royal couple expected to put the final touches to their preparations. Roads around Buckingham Palace and along the route the couple will take from Westminster Abbey after Friday's service were closed as about 1,000 members of the armed forces took part in a full-scale practice for the couple's big day.
Carriages that will carry members of the wedding party also took part alongside mounted cavalry, with a full dress-rehearsal involving the clergy and broadcasters scheduled for Thursday. The abbey itself has already been closed off to the public, and William and Middleton will be there for some final rehearsals on Wednesday, although royal officials declined to give details.
"As with anybody's wedding, you can imagine rehearsals happening up until the eve of the wedding," a spokesman for William said. Across the capital, bunting is going up and flags are beginning to be hoisted, with similar preparations around the country where about 5,500 street parties will be held.
A small army of media from around the world has descended on makeshift studios set up outside Buckingham Palace and along the route to cover the ceremony which one British minister predicted would attract a global TV audience of some two billion people. "America and the world is really excited about a piece of great news," said Linda Bell Blue, executive producer of US entertainment news programme Entertainment Tonight, who is heading up a team of 70 staff for the wedding. Some royal fans have already begun camping outside the abbey to secure the best spots to watch Friday's events, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to start arriving in London in the next days. VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, is predicting an extra 600,000 tourists in the capital on the day, meaning there would be a total of some 1.1 million visitors with 40 percent of those coming from abroad.
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