Selecting an Engagement Ring Fit for A Princess

Hollywood princesses may wear gigantic brilliant white diamond engagement rings, but real princesses tend to take a more colorful approach to their rings. The royal hands are resplendent with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, even colored diamonds. To help you choose an engagement ring that will make you feel like a princess, I've published a handy guide at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel Blog.

I'll be guest blogging there once a month with my insights on royal weddings and ways to make your special day a royal occasion.

“Some Day My Prince Will Come”—And So Will Yours!

Delicious and delightful. Delusionally divine. Jerramy Fine’s charming memoir, “Some Day My Prince Will Come,” is all any girl could want for a summer read, and more.

I was hooked even before I started the novel—just reading her bio was enough to make me settle into a comfy chair and put myself in the place of this unlikely heroine. “She still maintains there was a dreadful hospital mix-up and she was switched at birth with the baby daughter of English aristocrats.” Here! Here! What adolescent girl hasn’t felt that way? “She now lives in London with her English boyfriend. He’s not royal, but she forgives him.” I do, too! I already wish Jerramy had been my best friend growing up. She’s smart and sophisticated. Beautiful and amusing. Elegant and completely out of her mind. Exactly like someone else I know very well; only she had the pure courage and/or foolishness to chase her rainbow all the way to its end.

Jerramy, tell me your story. “This is a true story,” she says, as I sip a chilled beverage. Only some of the names have been changed to protect the devilishly handsome Brits who have snogged her in dark corners, on tennis courts, in windmills and sitting on top of large bronze lions. Jerramy’s life is better than any novel I’ve ever read! And certainly more exciting than any of my love affairs—real or imaginary.

At the heart of this true fairytale is a royal romance unlike any you’ve ever heard. And that’s mostly because the romance is a complete fantasy existing only in Jerramy’s mind. But that didn’t stop her from making it her life’s ambition. At the tender age of six, Jerramy fell in love with the Queen of England’s grandson after learning that he was born the same year she was. She made it her goal to marry him. As with any good fairytale, there are many obstacles between her and her prince. Just for starters:

1. She has a boy’s name.
2. She’s American and living in a cowpoke town where the “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” is the height of culture.
3. Her parents are bona fide cannabis-smokin’, nudist camp-goin’, tipi-dwellin’ hippies.

But Jerramy is one young lady who won’t let distance or a vast cultural divide come between her and her destiny. She leaves no stone unturned and no opportunity missed—even if she has to create the opportunity herself—in her single-minded quest for her prince.

When through sheer force of will, she finally makes her way to London, she finesses her way into the rarefied world of the young aristocracy, quickly becoming “the only American we are not embarrassed to be seen with.” Despite a crummy job, crummy apartments with even crummier roommates, and despite being routinely kissed breathless never to hear from her latest crush again, she remains a hopeless romantic.

Even when the days are bleakest and it looks like she will never find her prince, Jerramy resorts to the most unorthodox and highly amusing confidante for consolation.

Jerramy’s journey of self-discovery is an honest adventure that I wish I had been brave enough to undergo in my twenties. Her story should be required reading for young ladies everywhere. Follow your heart. Follow your dreams. The road may get bumpy but it will never be dull. And, in the end, you may have a memoir as refreshing and lovely to share as Jerramy’s. (As long as your writing is as seamless and entrancing as hers!)

Read “Some Day My Prince Will Come” and I promise to invite you to see it with me if—scratch that—when it makes it to the big screen! And we shall all wear tiaras in Jerramy’s honor.

P.S. Cheers to the paperback cover designer, Monica Benalcazar, too! Just looking at this book makes me feel joyful!! Like ice cream and summer breezes…

Buy the book:

Princess Kate! The Duchess of What?

As the calendar inches closer and closer to the first week of June, that luminous date when, “experts” have predicted, Prince William and Kate Middleton will finally announce their engagement, wedding fever is likely to reach a frenzied pitch. Already newspapers, magazines and infotainment television are trying to fill their news holes with as much Kate-and-William trivia as they can dig up.

For me, one of the most interesting is what Kate would be called. Technically, her late future mother-in-law never was “Princess Diana” although she was commonly referred to that way. As the wife of a prince who was not herself a princess, she always held the royal equivalent of “Mrs.” Instead of Mrs. Charles Mountbatten-Windsor, she was HRH The Princess Charles, The Princess of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duchess of Rothesay, etc., etc. After her divorce, she lost her royal status (the HRH part) and was styled plain old Diana, Princess of Wales—using of the title as a surname rather than as the title used by the wife of The Prince of Wales. Nevertheless, Princess Di she was and ever will be to the world at large.

Which brings us back to the possible future Princess William of Wales: It is most likely that William will be made a Royal Duke upon his marriage, but it is not clear which title he will receive. There are several historic titles currently unused: Albany, Albemarle, Bedford, Cambridge, Clarence, Connaught, Cumberland, Hereford, Kendal, Ross, Sussex and Windsor.Similarly, even though Kate Middleton is said to be called “Catherine” by her friends and family, she will undoubtedly be called Princess Kate, but legally her title would be HRH Princess William of Wales. Before her marriage in 1986, Sarah Ferguson giggled at the idea that she would be called The Princess Andrew. She was spared that appellation when Andrew was created The Duke of York on their wedding day. She was technically HRH The Princess Andrew, The Duchess of York but her title was usually abbreviated to HRH The Duchess of York. Upon her divorce, she, like Diana, lost her royal status and took her husband’s title as a surname: Sarah, Duchess of York. See my listing of titles held by current royal wives, see The Royal Mrs.

Albany and Cumberland are suspended rather than vacant. They were both suspended after World War I because the two Dukes had fought against Britain. To be fair, they were also German princes (the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and the Crown Prince of Hanover, respectively). Both of these dukes have living heirs who have the right to request the restoration of the titles. Interestingly, the main heir of Cumberland is Princess Caroline of Monaco’s husband, Prince Ernst August of Hanover.

Connaught is unlikely because it is now part of the Republic of Ireland. Albemarle, Bedford, Hereford, Kendal and Ross have not been used by a royal prince in several centuries. Each has some unsavory associations and are, I think, unlikely choices. Likewise, Duke of Windsor has a difficult past since it was only used once—by the Queen’s uncle, the only English monarch to voluntarily give up his throne. Leaving Cambridge, Clarence and Sussex.

The Cambridge title is highly likely because it is associated with the family of the Queen’s beloved grandmother, Queen Mary, whose grandfather was a Duke of Cambridge and whose brother was created Marquess of Cambridge. Clarence is also likely since the last Duke of Clarence was the eldest son of a Prince of Wales—although he died before his father—and the one before that actually became King William IV. There has only been one Duke of Sussex, a favorite uncle of Queen Victoria who gave her away at her wedding because her own father, a Duke of Kent, was dead.

Although I would not entirely rule out Sussex, I think the most likely choices are for William to be made Duke of Clarence and Harry to be Duke of Cambridge. The Clarence title would then be out of use again when William eventually becomes Prince of Wales and the Cambridge title would pass through Harry’s future heirs. Another less likely title for Harry is Duke of York, a title that traditionally has gone to the sovereign’s second son. Since the current duke has no male heirs, the title would revert to the Crown and the new King Charles could grant it to Harry. However, it is unlikely that the Duke of York, who is 12 years younger than Charles, will predecease him. It is also possible that the letters patent could be reissued so that the current duke’s female heir, Princess Beatrice, could succeed him.

So, I’m putting my money on Kate Middleton becoming HRH The Duchess of Clarence as a fairly secure bet.

(But not a lot of money because “Wessex” was a very ancient title when it was re-created for Prince Edward, so the Queen could create something entirely unexpected for William.)

And, the long money is on Kate choosing the modern route of keeping her own name: “Please call me Ms. Catharine Middleton.” (I doubt any young woman selected to marry a future king would ever be that ‘modern’ but you never know!)

[UPDATE: 4/30/11 The royal couple have been made Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.]