She made her name as a party planner and wrote a book on the subject of how to celebrate. So how will Pippa Middleton run her own wedding?
The world’s most famous bridesmaid is getting married.
Yes, Pippa Middleton, she who nearly stole show at the royal wedding of Prince William and her sister Kate Middleton with her oh-so shapely behind, is to be a bride herself.
Pippa will wed her multi-millionaire boyfriend James Matthews in what many are confidently predicting will be the 2017 society wedding of the year, after a dramatic hilltop proposal with a £200,000 ring.
Given her past as a party planner, it seems likely Pippa will organize her own wedding.
“Most party planners like to do their own events,” a fellow party planner tells The Daily Beast, “It’s only natural. If you have any confidence in yourself, it would be bizarre not to. Pippa may have a full-time assistant involved to handle the logistics in the run up to the big day, but she’ll be the one calling up chefs for auditions and picking the linen.”
She’ll also likely be micro-managing all the decoration, although it’s unlikely she will be sourcing her décor from the tat purveyed on the family website Party Pieces.
Friends of the family say that the Middleton way of doing things is, above all, informal, and that while a white church wedding is a given, the after-party will likely be packed with little touches to defuse any risk of a stuffy atmosphere.
To contrast with the formality of the day at her sister’s wedding, the reception—organized by Pippa—was themed like an ’80s disco. Quite an achievement in Clarence House.
Pippa also planned the wedding of her friend Camilla Hook, who married Sam Holland, the actor grandson of Oscar-winning film director Lord Richard Attenborough, and here further clues may be discerned as to what to expect from Pip’s nuptials.
Again, Pippa sought to inject a laid-back vibe to the reception following a traditional church service, serving bacon sandwiches to guests at 3 a.m. as the party drew to a close, wearing an apron to protect her Issa dress as she handed them around herself.
The cake will probably not be provided by her brother James Middleton, who briefly ran a cake-making business. It has now closed and Middleton has turned his attention to mail-order personalized marshmallows, which sounds like just the sort of jokey snack that would appeal to Pippa; she arranged for bowls of Haribo sweets to be circulated as well as traditional canapes at Kate and William’s reception.
It seems unlikely Pippa will let the day after the wedding pass without a barbecue and some organized some fun and games for the children of the assembled guests as well.
Here her book Celebrate! provides some tips, for example, on how to run a sack race: “Everyone stands along a starting line and, on ‘Go’, players start jumping in their sacks towards the finish line. Over-enthusiastic racers will most likely get themselves in a tangle and fall… The first person to cross the finish line is declared the winner.”
Oh, right.
Dress wise, Vogue.com senses that Pippa “may commission Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton to create her wedding gown. Burton not only dreamed up sister Kate’s now iconic lace dress, but also has a strong relationship with the family.”
However, Vogue adds, “If Middleton chooses a wedding venue outside of the city of London, perhaps on a beach or in the country, she may veer towards a more bohemian, relaxed look by another Middleton favorite like Alice Temperley.”
While there has been speculation that the happy couple could opt to get married abroad, Pippa will almost certainly get married near her parents’ house in rural Berkshire—and save the Eden Rock hotel in St Barths, owned by her fiancés parents, for the honeymoon.
Although Prince George seems a shoo-in to be page boy, Kate herself will likely be minimally involved to avoid overshadowing the bride.
Pippa will probably secretly be delighted that Kate will be taking a back seat. After all, it would be a terrible shame to be outshone by your sister on your wedding day, wouldn’t it?
