The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - It isn't every night that the lights are on at two in the morning in Joan Helm's home on Fourth Street. Or that her table is laden with four different kinds of scones, eggs dishes and tea. Or that champagne (well, actually, sparkling cider) is chilling in the fridge for a special toast.

But it isn't every night that Helm invites her friends to get up and join her to watch a special event half way around the world: the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Early Friday morning, Helm and a dozen Waitsburg-area ladies joined an estimated 2 billion people around the globe to watch one of the biggest wedding ceremonies of all time.

"Everyone has a Superbowl party, so why not a Royal Wedding party?" said Helm, who stayed up for Charles and Diana's wedding in the 1970s and remembers seeing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on television when she was a young- ster in 1953.

"My mother was very interested in the Royal Family, so she instilled that in me," she said.

Guests to Helm's nocturnal gathering, which attracted several local globe trotters who have been to London to lay eyes on last week's televised sites and two high schoolers Jessica Guay and Paige Wood, received a special invitation to her "Majestic Viewing Party" with the only stipulation that they wear a hat to the event.

So the ladies, including Waitsburg's own First Lady Gwen Gobel, trickled into Helm's living room donning a variety of colorful covers, some that once belonged to their mothers or grandmothers.

They also proudly showed off some of their family necklaces and guest Pam Conover even wore a pair of snow white gloves for the occasion.

Helm, who traveled to England in 2004 to tour central London, said when she first called around, the Waitsburg ladies were lukewarm about getting up so early to watch the wedding live, but the party talk soon snowballed.

As they arrived, the women put on a name tag with the title "Lady" in front of their grandmother's first name, followed by their first pet and the name of the street where they grew up - titles dreamed up by Deanne Johnson to make for some intriguing noble-like nominations.

Hostess Helm became Lady Evangeline Teddy Lamont. Shirley Burdine became Lady Pearl Missy May Main. Gobel became Lady Alma Rowdy Ranch. And so on.

It didn't take long for the women's attention to turn from their own accessories to those worn by the Royals arriving at Westminster Abby like movie stars for the Oscars except with the crowds well at bay.

"I thought the queen didn't have to carry a purse," one of the ladies quipped when Britain's Top Dame emerged from her vintage black limo to greet the church officials waiting by the door.

"But where would she put her lipstick," someone asked.

"In her husband's pants pocket," a third viewer said to the laughter of the group as the camera showed the elderly Prince Philip buttoned up in starched military uniform.

The light-hearted yet endearing comments continued as televised wedding guests seen balancing hats of daring proportions on their coiffed noggins made their way into the cathedral.

Jaws dropped with oohs and aahs as the cameras panned over the huge crowds assembled to watch the late London morning wedding on giant screens in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square, not to mention the throngs outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.

"Oh my goodness." "Oh my."

The excitement rose as the lens finally caught the bride slipping into the car with her father and Helm's night owls caught their first glimpse of the much-anticipated wedding dress.

"I heard the dress was sewn inside Buckingham Palace under top secrecy," one viewer shared.

" No, they found it on eBay," another said as the ladies burst out again.

"She has gorgeous hair," a third said as the laughter subsided. Everyone agreed the bride was pure eye candy.

There were some serious questions surrounding the wedding and the future of the newly hitched couple: Why wasn't President Barack Obama invited? Is Queen Lizzy going to skip Charles and put the crown straight on William's head? How much does this wedding cost? Why wasn't Fergie there?

One viewer speculated that heads of state aren't guests at such an internal British affair. No one knew exactly how much the wedding cost the British subjects, but one Waitsburg watcher said it wasn't as much as the last big televised nuptial shindig between Charles and Diana out of respect for all the Britons struggling in the current economy.

Everyone in Helm's living room fell quiet when the ceremony started, perhaps thinking back to the popular princess who died so tragically evading the paparazzi and whose son was now at the altar, perhaps remembering their own weddings or wondering what their future marriage ceremony would be like.

As the camera spotted Sir Elton John it seemed the moments inside Wstminster were packed with emotions around the world.

"I always cry at funerals and weddings," one of the viewers admitted, likely speaking for others in the group.

But the levity soon returned.

With the camera fixed on Kate, her veil raised by now as she prepared to say her vows, one of the Waitsburg ladies said: "I bet she's thinking to herself 'these shoes are killing me!"

Another put the Royal vows squarely in perspective: "I wonder what "for poorer" means to them."

As the church finally erupted in "God Save The Queen," the Waitsburg group lifted their glasses to the Royal couple, whose first public kiss on the Bucky balcony was expected around 5:30 am local time.

"To William and Kate," the toast leader said. "To William and Kate," the ladies repeated.