Royal Wedding:Weston Museum puts its stamp

(New Zealand Twitter)-Don't worry If you aren't able to make it to London for the Wedding of the Century or perhaps lost your invitation, you can still raise a toast to the royal couple at the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History on the Regis College campus in Weston.

On April 29 between noon and 5 p.m., the museum will be exhibiting postage stamps from various nations that commemorate both the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton as well as past royal weddings, especially that of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

Museum has hung royal bunting and the bubbly (grape that is) will be flowing as museum visitors are invited to sign a guest book to congratulate the new couple. This book will be forwarded to Buckingham Palace along with any donations visitors wish to make to the five charities designated by the couple.

Children will be asked to design their own wedding stamp, which will also be forward to the Prince and new Princess. In addition, children will receive a free packet of stamps featuring Queen Elizabeth as well as other famous Englishmen and women.

In addition to the wedding stamps, other exhibits include Stained Glass on Stamps,Civil War Letters and Envelopes,"Zeppelin Mail and Music on Stamps: The Steinway Collection.

Stamp games and puzzles will be available for children and they will also receive tips about how to start a collection.

The exhibit will be on view through the end of May during regular museum hours, Thursday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. (closed Memorial Day weekend). Visit www.spellman.org  

New Zealand in Royal Wedding

(New Zealand Twitter)-European nobility gather in Westminster Abbey for Friday's royal wedding, one British lord is content to watch the nuptials on television in the small New Zealand farming town he calls home.

64th Lord of Little Neston, known as Kevin Couling to his friends, dearly wishes he could be in London to see Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot but says prior commitments prevented him making the trip.

Not that Couling expected to be rubbing shoulders with world leaders in the 10th Century Abbey -- his relatively low place on the aristocratic pecking order means he would have been angling for a vantage point with the hoi polloi.

I was invited to a party (for the wedding) on the Thames but just couldn't make it," he told AFP in his hometown of Shannon, a hamlet of about 1,500 nestled in the rural hinterland of New Zealand's North Island.

Couling said his title was a feudal lordship, one of many held by the Earl of Shrewsbury, and should not be confused with the far more senior parliamentary peerage, which confers a place in Britain's House of Lords.

Tomorrow wedding has created a "warm, fuzzy" feeling of goodwill toward the monarchy in New Zealand, Couling said, although he was unsure how long it would last.

He said becoming a republic did not seem an immediate priority for New Zealand but it was a prospect for which he was bracing himself.

"I do think in time it will happen, yes, and I'm pretty sure it will happen in my lifetime... although I do think it will be sad to see it happen.

New Zealanders in Royal Wedding

(New Zealand Twitter)-Aucklander Emilia Wickstead is now based in London, and for the last few weeks she's had a trail of well-known Brits asking for her designs.

Next time you see her outfits they might be walking into Westminster Abbey.

Emilia Wickstead grew up in Auckland helping her mum with a made-to-measure business. Now she’s 27 and living in London, she's measuring up as a hit with high-profile Brits.

She's dressing Kate's cousin Lucy Middleton, Prince William's cousin Lady Kitty Spencer, Princess Diana's bridesmaid India Hicks and Prince William and Kate's close friend Ginny Fraser, a manager at Vogue Magazine.

And those are just the ones who aren't secret.

UK's first lady has made no secret of the fact that Wickstead is her favourite designer. Wickstead's was the look she wore the day husband David Cameron became Prime Minister. This time she's had to go with another designer, but the Kiwi let slip a secret.

Kate's dress is the scoop Dan Wootton dreams of, the Kiwi is showbiz editor for the News of the World.

“Top of the list for the British press is most definitely David and Victora Beckham, they are very close to royalty and other than Kate Middleton and maybe Pippa Middleton too we're most interested in what posh, who is pregnant at the moment, wears to the ceremony.