With a little more than a week to go before the Royal Wedding, Prince William and his bride-to-be Kate are surely feeling the jitters. But so too are the hundreds of staff behind the scenes at Buckingham Palace who have to pull off the event flawlessly, to its very last detail.
Of course, running an important event perfectly is nothing news for the staff of the royal household, who are no slouches to formal affairs. In fact, palace staff help the royals host about 70,000 people every year for such events as state visits, awards banquets, and investiture ceremonies.
But weddings of heirs to the throne are rare events, so this event is about as important as they get.
There will be VIPs from around the world, dozens of members of the Royal Family, dozens more members of foreign royal families and around 60 international heads of state. So you can be sure that the formality of the event will be dialed up to its very highest level.
"The wedding is obviously a very exciting event for all of the staff. We fortunately do a great number of extraordinary events at Buckingham Palace and this year is no different from many others," Edward Griffiths, the Deputy Master of the Royal Household, recently said.
The dining staff have been planning and rehearsing every moment for weeks now, deciding such details as what napkin fold to use, to how far from the edge of the table the water glass should sit.
Before the Palace hosts the wedding reception luncheon, they will also host 600 guests for a champagne reception. Those guests will be mingling through 19 opulent, gold-gilded state rooms that the Queen has opened for the occasion, including the picture gallery. The gallery, which houses one the finest private art collection in the world, with Van Dykes, Rembrandts and Canalettos among the collection, will also be where the wedding cake is expected to be displayed.
As they mingle, guests will be treated to 10,000 hot and cold canapés selected from the palace's recipe files.
"There's a repertoire of probably 150 different canapés and these recipes are rotated over a period of time," Griffiths explained.
Royal Chef Mark Flanagan hasn't revealed the selections for this event, but has promised an all-British-sourced menu, with smoked salmon on beetroot blinis likely to make an appearance.
Other items might include confit duck-leg terrine with smoked pear chutney, or quail eggs with celery salt, goat cheese, caramelized walnuts and parmesan crisp.
Once the reception ends, it will be time for lunch. But Flanagan has remained tight-lipped about what will be on the menu for that meal. What he will say is that he has 21 of the finest chefs ready to craft the items.
And those chefs include staff who have worked in the Palace kitchens for more than 20 years, as well as students from work-placement programs at local colleges and culinary schools.
Flanagan has said rather than being nervous about the event, he's excited.
"The wedding is going to be a very special event for the whole team," he says.
"It's a chance of a lifetime, to be part of the wedding for a future king. And it really will be one of the most high-profile events we could ever wish to be involved with. So it's a really special moment for all of us."
