The Colombian ambassador to the United Kingdom attended on Friday the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London’s Westminster Abbey, bringing with him a gift from the Andean nation, reported El Tiempo.
Ambassador Mauricio Rodriguez presented the couple with a silver vase, a creation of the Colombian designer Alexandra Agudelo. The now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had requested that gifts be made in the form of monetary donations to educational institutes and charities for war widows, but this did not act as an impediment to them receiving gifts of all kinds.
Rodriguez was also present at a post-ceremony event hosted by the British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
People across the globe watched the ceremony with Al Jazeera estimating a worldwide television audience of two billion viewers.
Carolina Valladares, presenter on Colombian cable network NTN24, was in London and told The Guardian newspaper, “In Colombia … they are fascinated by this [the royal wedding]. In Colombia and Venezuela they love celebrities.” The wedding began at 4am local and was covered by RCN and Caracol networks.
Colombians on Twitter gave a mixed response to the wedding, complaining about having to get up at 4AM to watch the ceremony, congratulating the newlyweds while predicting how many Colombian babies will be baptized William and Kate from now on, and lamenting the global fixation with the wedding while Colombia continues to feel the wrath of the devastating rainy season.