Royal lovers are likely giddy with excitement that the royal wedding is now less than two short weeks away. Will the limos get them to the church on time? Will Prince William flub his vows? And the most important question of all: what in the world will Kate's dress look like?
The "wedding of the century" is undoubtedly important to the Royal Family. But to fashion lovers, it the most important trend-setting fashion event of the year. So what has the princess-to-be chosen to wear?
Kate Middleton knows. So do a selected handful of others at Buckingham Palace. But the palace, always known for its collective stiff upper lip, is keeping both lips sealed when it comes to revealing details about the dress to the public.
The palace and Clarence House have squelched every whisper and every rumour, refusing to be brought into the fray to comment. Yet the speculation rages on.
At first, it appeared the plum assignment was going to well-established British designer Bruce Oldfield. He leapt into the odds-on favourite position after Kate's mother and sister were spied in his Kensington shop in London in January.
In fact, by February, Oldfield was so out in front as the favoured designer that bookies in Britain simply stopped taking bets.
All that changed when Oldfield began making media appearances to discuss dress speculation. The mere fact that he was speaking about it at all made it patently clear he couldn't possibly be the chosen one, since the Palace would have sworn him to absolute silence.
Then, in early March, The Sunday Times newspaper had what could be its biggest fashion scoop of the year when it revealed that it had learned from a "top-secret source" that Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen would be designing the gown.
The paper suggested the information had reached them after McQueen CEO Jonathan Akeroyd whispered about receiving the royal gig to a colleague, who did some whispering of his or her own and the secret got out – or so the story goes.
Of course, both Akeroyd and Burton have emphatically denied that the McQueen house is involved. Burton told Vogue UK: "I am not doing it," while Akeroyd refuted the reports with: "No, not at all. I am the CEO. I would know if we were doing it."
But the gossipy world of fashion continues to hold tightly to this rumour.
Many fashion observers have rejoiced at the purported choice, agreeing that a dress designed by Burton would be an edgy, bold and exciting choice.
Burton, 36, has been the creative director at Alexander McQueen since McQueen's suicide last year, and has been hailed for her edgy style and the skill she has brought to the job of taking over the fashion house.
Burton herself did nothing to dispel the rumours when she unveiled the McQueen Fall/ Winter 2011 collection in Paris earlier this spring. That's because the collection was filled almost entirely with white, fluffy frocks. Burton insisted she was inspired by ice queens for the collection, but many others took the collection as a wink and nod to a certain bride-to-be.
After seeing the collection, iconic fashion writer Hilary Alexander of The Telegraph, tweeted: "Alexander McQueen. Fit for a Queen," while Style.com contributing editor Meenal Mistry tweeted: "Honestly, I don't really understand why Sarah Burton at #McQueen making Kate Middleton's dress isn't a foregone conclusion."
Whoever's designing the dress, one thing is clear: their lives and careers will be forever changed by the commission. As The Telegraph's Alexander has noted, the dress will be seen by billions of people and it will not only set trends, "it will turn its designer into a global household name."
The designer of Sarah Ferguson's wedding dress says designing a dress for a princess-to-be is a dream job.
"Absolutely, I mean anyone who has given an incredible commission like this, it always transforms their lives," designer Lindka Cierach told CTV.
If Kate needs an inkling of how influential her dress choice will be, she need look no further than the wedding of her father-in-law-to-be to Princess Diana in 1981.
Diana's dress, described as a taffeta confection, a puff ball of pearl-encrusted silk, caused a massive sensation in the fashion world of her day. Until Diana, wedding dresses of the early ‘80s tended toward a more prairie style, with polyester ruffles and lace, and sometimes hats instead of veils.
Diana's dress, with its oversized sleeves, massive skirt and legendary eight-metre-long train, ushered in a new era of decadent, fairy-tale-princess-style dresses.
"The Diana effect lasted for years and years," Alison McGill, the editor of Wedding Bells magazine told CTV's Canada AM earlier this year.
"That movement of the big sleeves and all the detailing, it really took us into the ‘80s and even into the ‘90s. It wasn't until Carolyn Bessette got married in 1997 that that silhouette dramatically changed. So there's an idea of how big the Middleton effect could be on wedding dresses."
Though Princess Diana's marriage wasn't to last, her dress has remained a favourite, easily topping a recent poll by Yours magazine on the best celebrity brides' dresses.
Though some have criticized the Diana dress as too poufy, too stiff and just too-too much, its co-designer, Elizabeth Emanuel, has no regrets.
"Looking back, I think I don't feel that we would have changed anything. It just seemed right and you know, it was a perfect day," Emanuel told CTV.
So what will Kate choose to turn the fashion world on its head? It's really anyone's guess. Butany believe the style that Kate has already demonstrated will surely influence her choice.
"Kate is definitely a girl who has her own style. She's very modern, she's sleek, she's stylish. So I think she'll incorporate those elements of her style," said Wedding Bells' McGill.
It's clear, for example, that Middleton prefers cinch-waisted items that show off her figure, so a slim silhouette seems a likely bet. She also prefers light dresses such as the blue showstopper she wore for the engagement announcement.
But on the other hand, Kate also has to consider the formality of this event and the need for a showstopper that will drop jaws in Westminster Abbey and around the world. And then, there is also consideration due for the royal protocol of modesty.
"I don't think we're going to see tons of skin with this dress," says McGill. "I think it's pretty guaranteed we're going to see some kind of sleeve or arm coverage."
Designer Bruce Oldfield, who is now rumoured to be designing the mother-of-the-birde dress for Kate's mother, Caroline, told the U.S. morning talk show "Good Morning America" last month that he too felt the dress would be modest.
"It will have sleeves. It has to have sleeves. You can't walk down the aisle of Westminster Abbey in a strapless dress. It has to suit the grandeur of the aisle," he said.
Sleeves in themselves might be revolutionary, especially after more than a decade of thin-strapped or strapless wedding dresses filling wedding dress shop racks.
But Oldfield also revealed a tidbit in that Good Morning America interview that no one else has: he says Kate actually plans to wear two dresses on her wedding day.
He said Middleton will walk down the aisle at Westminster Abbey in her full regalia for the morning ceremony. Then later that evening, during the smaller reception and dance hosted by her future father-in-law Prince Charles, Kate will wear something else entirely.
And if the public gets to have a peek at that dress, it could mean a whole new trend to be set.
