A Royal Visit

Today the moment I have been looking forward to for ages finally happened! This morning I got up and got ready to walk over to Rideau Hall (although I probably should've bussed, it was SUCH a long walk!) and waited in line in order to enter the grounds of Rideau Hall at one o'clock with, at that time, about 150 or so fellow Royal watchers hoping to see TRH William and Catherine on the first day of their visit to Canada. I struggled to find a good spot to watch the action, but finally ended up along the safety barrier tucked between a few other girls who kindly let me squeeze in. Thank goodness, because I had been looking forward to snapping some photos and seeing these two for weeks.

(My own photo!)

We waited along with constantly growing crowds for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to arrive. People just kept on coming - and apparently there were actually thousands of people waiting to see the Royal couple  as they arrived.  It turned out that I was at the very spot where they got out of their vehicle and greeted the Governor General and his wife (the couple in the first & second photo for those of you who don't recognize them) as well as our Prime Minister and his wife.  Kate stopped to say hello to the crowd literally right across from me, I was bemoaning the fact that I hadn't chosen to stand on that side, since I might've actually gotten to meet her!

 I have to say, it was an absolute thrill for me to get to see them, since many others didn't have as close a look as I did. There were rows and rows of people behind me, who probably didn't get to see much of anything let alone snap pictures. Prince William was much taller than I had expected, and Kate is (not surprisingly) absolutely stunning in person. Obviously she is really photogenic, but she is just perfectly lovely in person, especially in her beautiful Erdem dress (I predicted an Erdem look = win). She is absolutely flawless, and totally chic.

Photo by Arne Berg.

A fellow Ottawa resident and photographer extraordinaire, Arne Berg (or OttawaArne as he is known on twitter), arrived seriously early this morning in order to get the best chance at a prime spot by the stage, and as such, he was able to get some seriously fantastic photos. Luckily for me, he was kind enough to share the above photo that he snapped of HRH Catherine waving to onlookers.

Something that I thought was really nice about the visit so far, having heard reports from their visit to Ottawa's War Memorial, as well as witnessing them first hand at Rideau Hall, was their enthusiasm and willingness to interact with the public. Pretty impressive for a probably extremely jet-lagged pair. I am hoping to catch them again tomorrow as they celebrate Canada Day here in the Nation's Capital!

I am looking forward to seeing the rest of Kate's wardrobe choices during the rest of this trip, and will likely do a roundup at some point featuring my favourites. So far she is 2 for 2, having sported two Canadian labels so far, and this Erdem from Resort 2012 (that I actually posted here) is just gorgeous. Fashion icon in the making, for sure.

What are your thoughts on the Royal Visit so far? Let me know!