The Royal Wedding’s Frowning Flower Girl

The Royal Wedding’s Frowning Flower Girl

True confession. I just watched a video from the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and it made me cry. The wedding looks so fairy-tale-ish and romantic that it makes me feel all weepy and wistful.

But there is something very strange about this video of the newest royal couple standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. First you see the couple looking so dignified and in love and royal in the center of the balcony, and then you see a sour-faced girl standing right in front of them looking all sullen and miserable with her hands over her ears.

So I googled “royal wedding sullen girl” and came up with the following explanation from www.KnowYourMeme.com which reported the rumor that: “The girl is 3-year-old Grace van Cutsem, who is Prince William’s goddaughter and was one of the bridesmaids. She was acting so sullen due to the fact that she is pouting about not being allowed to ride in the carriage and had her hands over her ears because it was too noisy.”

I don’t know if this explanation for the frowning flower girl is true or not, but it did get me thinking. It made me think about how I am also royalty: in fact I am a Daughter of the highest King, which means that I (and you) are of FAR greater royalty than the new Duchess of Cambridge.

And looking at that sullen girl contrasted with the dignified and beautiful and glowing Kate Middleton, I realized how often I walk around the Weisberg family “Palace” feeling like that disgruntled little girl.

It is 7:05 AM, and I have 5 kids to get out the door by 8 AM. Am I the Dignified Duchess or the Frowning Flower Girl?

It is 4:20 PM, and my older girls have just stumbled in the door starving and tired after a long day at school. Am I the Dignified Duchess or the Frowning Flower Girl?

It is Friday at 2 PM, and I am supervising splashy pre-Shabbat baths and coaxing my kids into their Shabbat finest. Am I the Dignified Duchess or the Frowning Flower Girl?

How I yearn, in my princessly JewishMOM life, to feel less like Little Miss van Cutsem, and more like the Duchess of Cambridge waving to the crowds.

How I yearn, in other words, to feel as royal as I actually am.

(Warning for sensitive viewers: the royal couple kisses in this video. Forward to 2:16 to see the frowning flower girl.)

10 comments

  1. I confess – I also watched the common become uncommon. The picture of her, her prince, the flower girls and the page boys really showed that she is cut out to be a queen. We have that right now! We are royalty!
    My rebbetsin says we have to learn from the English how royalty looks and acts.

  2. Yehudit

    Sorry, we absolutely should NOT learn from the English how royalty looks and acts!!!!! We have Torah, and our foremothers, forefathers, and sages for that!!!

  3. gittel nadel-alpert

    as usual jenny YOU ALWAYS EXCELL !
    WE ARE THE REAL ROYALTY!!
    sometimes we need to see examples of the way the “royals” conduct themselves to remind of of WHOM WE ARE and that which we represent, THE KING OF KINGS

  4. Hadassah

    Thank you Jenny for reminding us who we are.

  5. Hi Chana! I love this take on the royal wedding. I had noticed the pouty flower girl and I actually loved how real it was that she was acting that way. I like your spin on how we can learn something from it.

    I wrote a blog post about the royal wedding, too – mine seems complementary to yours so I hope you don’t mind if I link to it:
    http://www.room613.net/members/room613/blog/VIEW/00000015/00000128/The-Royal-Weddings-Hidden-Meaning.html

  6. I heard Rabbi Dombey ztz”l say that British people understand malchus more than Americans or others becoz we have a royal family. I for one was pointing out to my kids how carefully the princes dressed, with their white gloves,etc and how much more should we make sure to be properly dressed as Princes of the King of Kings.
    as to the pouty bridesmaid, I think BBC said she didn’t like the noisy planes flying past!

  7. I love the lesson you learned from this! I’ve been thinking of it when I walk around just plain pouty because the kids are whining and fighting on a long hot shabbos, or because the laundry pile keeps growing despite all of the loads I’m doing. Thank you for reminding us how we look in such a graphic way!

  8. We will not, not matter how well we pout, be as adorable as Miss van Cutsem, whose last name I think should be pronounced, “Cute-sem.” We may as well be Princess Kate!

  9. Kids will be kids. Even royal kids.

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