With just three days to go until the wedding of the century, London is getting cleaned and prepped. But its citizens are saving up the real display of patriotic fever for Friday's ceremony.
Union Jack flags are being raised. Famous monuments are being freshened up for the cameras. Even a 70-year-old woman and 50-year-old man have become the first to lineup outside Westminster Abbey to watch the historic event.
"I've never seen London, or England, more wonderful, joyous, happy, beautiful. This is London at its best," said actress Jane Seymour, who spoke with Canada AM co-host Seamus O'Regan in London.
Yet the excitement displayed by London's citizenry is still remarkably low-key, according to Camilla Tominey, the royal editor for the Sunday Express.
"Most Brits are still being quite stiff upper lip-ish about Friday's wedding. No one's going too nuts at the moment," Tominey told O'Regan today.
"Around the world people are embracing it more early than we are. But we always do this. The British are ‘yeah, there's a wedding'. And then on the day we'll all be in the streets cheering," said Tominey.
More than one million people are expected to fill London's streets on April 29, on the day Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton will get married.
As well, some 5,500 street parties will be held across Britain to toast the royal nuptials.
"Some areas are having more than others, like Richmond upon Thames," said Tominey.
The London borough is very middle class and British.
"That's where the most street parties have been registered. But up north, maybe not as many," Tominey explained.
Figures indicate that there has been less enthusiasm for royal wedding-inspired community get-togethers outside of major cities in the north.
Polls, too, have shown that citizens in other parts of England are not exactly in the party mood.
With scores of wedding stories sitting alongside grim news about Japan's earthquakes, the war in Libya and a diet of spending cuts, job losses and inflation in England, many Brits have chosen to turn their focus elsewhere.
Yet Tominey believes the wedding day itself will spark patriotic fires in the hearts of most people.
"With all the pomp, pageantry and flag wagging it's going to be a really patriotic day," said Tominey.
The royal nuptials have clearly inspired a sense of fun, particularly in the kitschy memorabilia in London shops.
CTV's Graham Richardson shared one of his favourite Will and Kate finds on Canada AM Tuesday, one of them being a card that read "Katea and William. It all started with a cup of tea".
The card opened up to reveal two tea bags -- one topped by England's future monarch and the other topped by Middleton holding a bunch of cash in her hands.
That royal wedding fun has also sparked a huge demand for Prince William lookalikes, many charging up to 1,000 pounds a day at wedding-themed events being held by British businesses, charities and television companies.
Bookmakers, too, are getting in on the pre-wedding action.
On Monday, April 25, bookmaker William Hill set up a stall outside Westminster Abbey to let punters know what odds it was offering.
Highlights included 66/1 odds for the royal car breaking down on its way to the Abbey, 11/1 odds for Kate jilting William at the altar and 8/1 odds that the couple would be divorced within 10 years.
All this frivolity ends, however, when the issue of royal wedding security is raised.
"The security is going to be very, very tight," said Tominey.
London's police have been fine-tuning their security plans for the last 22 weeks and growing numbers of helicopters will be flying above the city right up until Friday's wedding.
Westminster Abbey will also be shut down at 3:30 pm on Tuesday (London time) to enable a thorough security search of the building.
"We've had officers looking in drains. Roads have been closed off…It's impossible to find a waste bin (in London) just in case anyone has put an explosive in there," she said.
