10.49 According to Bryony's lipreader, the Queen is saying "it's just marvellous". She has now arrived at Westminster Abbey, wearing an Angela Kelly-designed single crepe wool primrose dress with hand sown beading at the neck in the shape of sunrays with a matching double crepe wool-tailored primrose coat.
She is carrying an Angela Kelly designed matching crepe hat with handmade silk roses and matching apricot coloured leaves and sporting a Queen Mary?s True Lovers Knot broach.
10.47 Tim Walker is really not impressed with Huw Edwards's guest-spotting skills:
A few moments later, he helpfully adds: "That's the Queen in the back of that car, Huw."
10.46 The bomb scare is over, says Heidi Blake:
Police said the bomb threat had been "stood down" at 10.40 when they removed the cordon and allows crowds back towards the Goring.
10.42 Huge cheers as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh leave Buckingham Palace. Earlier, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall left, and have just climbed the steps of Westminster Abbey.
10.38 More from Bryony, who's got a handy lipreader emailing her what William and Harry are saying to each other:
@bryony_gordon William says abbey looks beautiful. Apparently the brothers said "look at all these people" - aww, did they expect a man and his dog to turn up? He is complimenting guests and saying he is relaxed.
10.37 Princess Michael of Kent, Princess Beatrice and Prince Edward are among the latest guests to have arrived.
10.35 More on the suspicious vehicle near the Goring Hotel, from Heidi Blake:
The blue VW estate was discovered at 10.17am, minutes before Miss Middleton's mother, Carole, was due to depart for Westminster Abbey. The vehicle, with the registration RJ06UUY, was parked on Grosvenor Gardens, around 100 yards from the hotel. One police officer said: "We think the car might contain a bomb".
Hundreds of members of the public, photographers and reporters were evacuated from around the hotel by police officers who shouted: "Clear the area immediately for your own safety". The road was cordoned off with police tape at 10.30. The police dog squad arrived at 10.32.
10.33 A couple of Huw Edwards-watching emails, now. First up, Tim Walker:
And our TV writer Ed Cumming has the following to say about a certain TV historian:
10.31 Harry's hair looks a little unruly. Someone should have dragged a comb through it. The boys are in the abbey now, by the way.
10.29 Carole Middleton is wearing clothes of some description. Our fashion correspondent in New York, Melissa Whitworth, emails to say:
For all the fuss over Carole Middleton chopping and changing which designer and milliner she would wear, no one really cares what the mother of the bride is wearing, do they?
10.27 The Sultan of Brunei has arrived, apparently. And Bryony Gordon, our columnist, Tweets the following:
@bryony_gordon Lipreader emailing me little gems. Harry keeps asking william if he is ok
10.24 Kate Middleton's mother Carole and brother James have left the Goring Hotel, where Heidi Blake is stationed and where police are appearently investigating a bomb threat:
The area around the Goring Hotel where Kate Middleton is preparing for her wedding to Prince William was evacuated after police discovered a suspicious vehicle.
10.21 Christopher Hope, another of our reporters, says that police have sealed off a suspicious-looking car outside the Goring Hotel. At the same time, we gather via our security correspondent Mark Hughes that an "anarchist" has been arrested.
10.13 William, and best man Harry, have left Clarence House. Harry has the wedding ring, of course. William is - frankly - resplendent in full military dress, red with gold braid, as befits his rank as colonel of the Irish Guards, and has the RAF wings on his sash. Harry's uniform is black. William looks a little nervous, it must be said.
10.11 One of our reporters is watching ITV's coverage. She sends me this exchange:
ITV reporter to Australian lady: "What do you think makes the royals so special?"
Australian lady: "They're royalty."
No arguing with that.
10.09 And a rather exasperated-sounding Tim Walker:
10.07 Jasper Copping emails:
10.05 Elton John and his partner David Furnish have arrived. And Ken Clarke, the justice secretary. I assume separately.
10.04 David and Samantha Cameron arriving:
10.03 Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, and his wife Miriam have arrived; also William Hague, the foreign secretary, and his wife Ffion, who is in a wheelchair after breaking her leg last week.
10.00 In fact, here's a round-up of some of our correspondents' emails: we're getting so much good material that I'm worried about missing some. Here's Harry Wallop:
The feisty aunt refuses to say what Billy is wearing. "But he looks fantastic". And he's not nervous, at all, apparently.
Richard Alleyne:
And Nick Squires, on the view from Italy:
09.59 And David Millward, our transport editor, writes:
09.58 Tim Walker, our Mandrake man, emails:
09.57 Another plug for our interactive map, showing the location of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the parade route that they will take between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, and the surrounding road closures.
09.55 Meet the Bercows:
09.54 David Cameron has told how he spent the night on the streets to get a good vantage point to watch William's parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, marry in 1981. Speaking to Sky News he said:
I slept on the Mall for Charles and Diana's wedding all those years ago and I suppose like many people my age have watched Prince William grow up and all the challenges he's had - obviously losing his mother, but now finding love and wanting to get married.
So like anyone who's lived in Britain, you feel quite an attachment to this whole event and that's why I think the whole country's getting excited about it.
09.53 According to @tweetminster, the Royal Wedding is being Tweeted about 67 times every second.
09.52 Bonnie Malkin emails from Sydney again:
09.48 Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, has arrived, throwing into stark relief the decision not to invite either of the Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair or Gordon Brown. Also Sir Trevor Brooking, but there's not so much controversy there.
09.47 Another in-abbey snapshot:
09.45 Ben Whitelaw, one of our student reporters, has recorded this interview with the deputy assistant commissioner of St John's Ambulance, Simon Beard, who talks about royal wedding blisters and how the cool weather is a blessing.
09.44 Ben Fogle, explorer and TV personality, is now at the abbey. And John and Sally Bercow - Mr and Mrs Speaker of the House of Commons - have also arrived.
09.40 David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has arrived - and he's wearing tails, you'll be pleased to hear. Other names to have arrived include Tara Palmer-Tompkinson and (as mentioned) Chelsy Davy. James Middleton, Kate's brother, has arrived at the Goring Hotel. And Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Telegraph columnist, is talking to the BBC on the Mall.
09.39 Patrick Sawer again:
At last more bunting for Downing St. And who should be put in charge but Ed Llewellyn, David Cameron's head of strategy and all-round right hand man? Demonstrating strategic nous, he goes back inside to fetch a pole, so the bunting can be guided to hang between the two outside windows of No11 - an operation now involving six people.
Meanwhile, a rather more junior staffer is pitching 8 cardboard Union Jacks in the small patch of green at the side of No10. It's beginning to look like they might be having a party.
09.37 Lucie Hewitt, one of our eyes-and-ears on the ground, Tweets:
@luciebean Very congested trying to get from Royal Horseguards up Whitehall. Need better crowd control.
09.36 As mentioned earlier, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, is to give the couple a two-seater Boris Bike on behalf of the capital. Here's a video of what that might look like.
09.24 Hilary Alexander, our doyenne of fashion, Tweets this about the Beckhams:
@HilaryAlexander Victoria Beckham in midnight blue VB dress and matching military cap-ette by Philip Treacy. but where's David's top hat?
09.22 Jonathan Liew is in Bucklebury, from where Kate Middleton hails. He gets in touch with the following:
No longer will anyone from this part of the world have to tell people they come from somewhere "quite near Reading, just off the M4". This wedding has seared the small town of Bucklebury (population 2000; or perhaps 1999 now) on the consciousness of the world. Although it's probably a good time to point out that Wor Kate actually lives up the road, in the even smaller village of Chapel Row, and that's where the festivities are this morning.
On the agenda today, in ascending order of quaintness: a hog roast, a petting farm, an old lady dressed as the Queen, a duck race, and those professional attention-seekers, the local morris dancing troupe. If it weren't for the ABC television crew and her off The One Show, you could easily mistake this for a casual village fete.
Not a lot happening yet. In fact, I notice people have already started drinking.
09.21 BECKHAM UPDATE: Patrick Sawer, a reporter for The Sunday Telegraph, emails:
A cheer - part genuinely enthusiastic, part wearily ironic - goes up in Trafalgar Square when its announced on the giant screen that the Beckhams have arrived at the Abbey.
09.17 BECKHAM UPDATE: they are there, and someone points out that he's got his OBE medal on the wrong side. Here's a screengrab from the BBC:
Phong Luu, one of our fashion correspondents, writes:
David and Victoria Beckham have arrived. He is looking very dapper in his Ralph Lauren morning suit, hair swept back in a Mad Men-nish quiff; she is wearing a navy pillbox hat by Philip Treacy with a matching boat-neck outfit of her own design. Simple, but chic. Full marks for both.
09.15 Caroline Gammell gets in touch:
09.14 The Beckhams have arrived, I am led to believe.
09.11 Chelsy Davy, Prince Harry's on-off girlfriend, has just arrived at Westminster Abbey, in an "off-the-shoulder aqua-emerald dress with a beige hat", according to CNN's Royal Wedding Twitter account. It's an Alberto Ferretti dress, according to someone here who knows about these things.
09.10 For those of you frothing with excitement over which particular designer has clothed Kate Middleton today, the Clarence House Twitter account may be the place for you - they say "Find out full details of the wedding dress first here".
09.09 William Hill is already looking ahead to what happens after the wedding, offering odds on everything from the year and sex of William and Kate's first baby to when William will become king.
More ourlandish bets include whether their first baby will become a Premier League footballer (1000/1) or appear on a Vogue magazine cover by the age of 18 (33/1)
09.07 Not everyone's impressed with the trees in the abbey, though. Apparently maple trees are symbols of modesty - former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith Tweets:
@smithjj62 Maple trees symbol of modesty as in I'm so modest I've carted six trees into the church for my wedding!
09.00 Rather amazing photograph of the inside of Westminster Abbey, where various trees have been planted along the aisle:
More royal wedding tree facts: the royal wedding is to be celebrated with a traditional tree planting that was also used to mark the marriage of Queen Victoria.
Two young horse chestnut trees at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall are being trained and twisted around each other before they are planted together in the same hole to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
It is a technique traditionally symbolising the unity of marriage and was used in 1840 when Victoria, William's great-great-great-great-grandmother, married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
"There are two trees (about 40 feet high) currently standing in Heligan, believed to have been planted according to this technique and since the announcement of the engagement gardeners have been carefully training two red-flowering English horse chestnuts in the same manner," a spokesman said.
08.59 Murray Wardrop on a technical snafu down at the abbey:
08.52 Martin Beckford, our health correspondent (everyone's on the royal wedding beat today) has filed this story about the titles bestowed on the couple:
08.49 Bless etc! Lucy Hewitt emails this rather adorable picture of Georgia, 5 and a half, from Lincolnshire in gorgeous union flag dress, handmade by her mum:
08.41 Ed West, usually a somewhat hard-bitten and cynical type, has come over all gooey on our blog site with "Seven reasons why the royal marriage will last".
He rather spoils the effect at the end, though, by asking "Forgive the tasteless question, but if we all get a day off today for the royal wedding, do we have to work an extra day if they divorce?"
08.38 Peter Foster emails from Beijing:
China?s livelier tabloid newspapers did cover the event, however, with the Beijing News featuring a double-page spread under the headline ?Britain?s Cinderalla Marries Her Prince Today?.
Reaction was more vibrant on China?s internet where the Royal Wedding was the fifth-most read subject on Sina Weibo, China?s homegrown version of twitter.
It was eclipsed only by discussions on ?where to go for the May 1st public holiday?, the Champions League semi-finals, the debut of iPhone4 in China and a long-running row about plagiarism.
Most of those commenting on wedding at the invitation of Britain?s Ambassador to China, Sebastian Wood, were positive. ?The plot of fairy tale has come true in reality,? said a poster called ?Sunshine Girl?, ?Wow, best wishes to them! A wedding with great pomp and circumstance! Wish the prince and princess stay happily marriage to a ripe old age!?
Earlier, Malcolm Moore in Shanghai emailed to say: "According to Xinhua, the state-run news agency, Chinese factories have produced 5 million copies of the royal engagement ring."
08.37 Quite a lot of people have been saying that, despite the heavy security operation, the police have been laughing and joking with the crowds - as you can see here:
08.35 The Archbishop of Canterbury, has spoken about ?getting to know? Prince William and Kate Middleton ahead of the wedding service he will conduct today. Dr Rowan Williams said the couple seemed ?deeply sensible? and ?realistic? and also committed to the idea of marriage.
And he pointed out that although a public event, today?s ceremony will also be ?very special? to the bride and groom themselves. The archbishop, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, said: ?When all the extravaganza is set aside, at the heart of it are two people for whom today is very special.?
08.30 People are starting to arrive at Westminster Abbey. As we mentioned, there are 1,900 guests expected.
Meanwhile, the crew of the International Space Station have recorded greetings to the Royal couple, from hundreds of miles above the surface of the Earth:
08.26 The royal wedding celebrations in Dubai sound particularly odd. Richard Spencer reports:
Dubai's 100,000-strong British community is celebrating the Royal wedding with fervour and as only it knows how. Expat website bulletin boards are awash with discussion as to which Friday Hotel Brunch, a staple of life here, will offer nostalgics, the homesick and the alcoholics their best view of scenes from home. Many restaurants, which in any case cater to British tastes, are offering specially themed menus - pie and mash or cucumber sandwiches, depending on the time of your arrival - along with, of course, as much drink as you can manage. With Dubai currently three hours ahead, the timing is perfect for enthusiastic celebrations of the vows and the kiss itself.
Unfortunately, the Polo Club's do is sold out. It is not clear whether that is connected to the special offer - if you bring your maid along, she pays children's rate, as long as she only eats children's food.
08.25 The red carpet is making its appearance outside Westminster Abbey:
08.23 Richard Alleyne is usually our science correspondent, but he's on royal wedding duties today as well. He writes:
Meanwhile further a long the Mall an impromptu singalong broke out. Favourites included Rule Britannia, God Save the Queen and I'm Getting Married in the Morning.
08.17 While we're waiting for the events to kick off in earnest, go and take a look at our terrifyingly hi-tech live interactive royal wedding map, showing the location of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the parade route that they will take between Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, and the surrounding road closures.
08.13 Full details on Prince William's titles - he is now the Duke of Cambridge, the Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus. After the wedding, Kate Middleton will come into them too. All titles are in the gift of the Queen and it was up to the monarch to choose which one to bestow on her grandson and his new wife.
Tradition dictates that royal men receive a title on their wedding - and often more than one. As well as a duchess, Miss Middleton will also technically be Princess William of Wales.
Here's what each of those titles mean:
? Duke of Cambridge - a dukedom is the highest rank in British peerage. Dukes were the the rulers of the provinces and the King's closest peers in centuries gone by. The second duke of Cambridge, Prince Adolphus Frederick, was the seventh son of King George III. Defying the Royal Marriage Act, he married his mistress, Sarah Louisa Fairbrother, an actress and a commoner, in 1847. Since the marriage wasn't legal, his children were all illegitimate.
? Earl of Strathearn - Earls are the third rank of British peerage. They were traditionally associated with shires, working in effect as local governors, but this relationship died centuries ago .
? Baron Carrickfergus - Barons are the lowest rank of nobility, originally meaning someone who had pledged their loyalty to the king. Carrickfergus is a large town in Northern Ireland.
08.10 More information from our correspondent Gordon Rayner on the open-topped carriage situation:
08.09 More from our reporters on the ground. John Bingham reports:
Murray Wardrop tells a similar tale, saying "Great vibe down on Whitehall now. The loudspeakers have just started blasting out choral music from the abbey and the crowds are swelling. Huge police presence all of a sudden too."
08.08 Here's that Landau open-top carriage that the couple will be travelling in:
08.06 We've got a team of young reporters out on the streets this morning. One of them, Andy Watt, tells us that a woman has collapsed outside Westminster Abbey, probably due to the cramped conditions. Hopefully she's all right: we'll let you know if there is any more news.
08.04 Our reporter Heidi Blake on Twitter says:
@HeidiBlake Kate's chauffeur-driven Jaguar arrives at the Goring Hotel, possibly to collect friends or family members
08.02 And within 30 seconds of that news breaking, Kay Burley on Sky has got muddled and described Kate as "The Duchess of Catherine".
08.01 The Queen has given the Royal couple the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
08.00 Thanks to our reporter Steve Swinford for spotting this. Paddy Harveson, head of communications for Clarence House, described the moment Prince William and Prince Harry decided to go meet the crowds on the Mall last night. He said:
I saw him last night and he said it's going to be a great day. It was his idea [to go out on the Mall] and was completely impromptu. We were in the press office downstairs and they rang and said we want to go outside. He was with Harry and they had been watching crowds from upstairs in their rooms and they thought let's go down and say hello. He went to say thankyou to everyone for turning up and he knew that they were staying the night.
This morning he will be having breakfast with Prince Harry and some male friends and get into his uniform. Like any groom he will be very excited, rather nervous and really looking forward to it.
07.58 Malcolm Moore, our Shanghai correspondent, Tweets:
@malcolmmoore Shanghai TV has managed to find a talking head who claims to have turned down Kate Middleton when she asked him out
Well, that sounds totally plausible.
07.55 Harry Wallop is delving deep into the crowds on the Mall. He's a braver man than I:
Her father, as a "King scout", a boy scout who won a medal for merit, attended The Queen's wedding at Westminster Abbey in 1947. Can anyone beat that very impressive record?
07.50 To give you an idea of the wild festivities here in the Telegraph offices, here is a picture of some cakes, on our news desk:
Many thanks to cakeholelondon.com for the food. Hopefully they'll undo my live-blogger's ankle shackles at some stage so I can go and get some, or at least feed me some crumbs.
07.49 This is what a crowd of ardent royalists looks like:
07.47 Definitely lots of tourist types out there. Caroline Gammell, our reporter, says via email "The commonwealth countries seem particularly well represented - and Ecuador."
07.41 My favourite email of the day, by miles, from the Telegraph's Iain Hollingshead, our dishevelled tramp-like figure on the Mall:
It's 7am. Here are some of the highlights so far:
? 11pm Realise I've drunk too much not to need the loo but not enough to sleep
? 11.23pm return from westminster tube to discover that I've bagsed the middle berth in the tent, between my girlfriend and former flatmate
? Midnight crawl outside to sleep on the pavement, disturbed only by a group of Spanish students trying to sing Elton John and a drunk swaying backwards and forwards muttering, "only 11 hours to go". Pretend to be asleep when he strikes up conversation
? 00.34 On verge of drifting off and ankle run over by someone on a Boris bike
? 1am Engineers arrive and start power tooling an unidentifiable structure
? 1.23am Two helicopters arrive and drown out the engineers
? 1.25am Roll over and realise I'm lying in a puddle of warm beer. Or it might be urine
? 1.34 give up all hope of sleep
? 4.43 drift off briefly and dream about job in a bank
? 4.51 dream sequence shifts to slow motion murder of the woman with a piercing American accent who's telling anyone that will listen that she'll sleep when she's dead
? 5am woken up by photographer and asked to pose a tired look for the camera. Tell him there's no need to pose
? 7am pack up tent and get prime spot at barriers outside abbey. Joined by someone 10 minutes later who'd slept in a warm bed in Kingston and got the first train
07.37 Murray Wardrop is concerned about Britain's eating habits:
A lone cyclist on a Boris bike is causing a ripple of cheers through the crowd as he rides along Whitehall, offering the most regal of waves to spectators.
And, of course, Boris Johnson has given the Royal couple a tandem Boris bike for a wedding present.
07.34 David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has been meeting the crowds on the Mall:
07.31 More from Laura Roberts:
The red carpet has been shaken out on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in preparation for the long-awaited kiss.
We are told that once the royal family has returned to the palace after the wedding service that the temporary barriers will be removed and the public allowed to move forward for a better view of the balcony scene. I am expecting a rather hectic rush forward to the forecourt as everyone clamours for a sight of the happy couple. Hopefully there will not be an unseemly crush.
07.29 The security operation is also well under way. Telegraph reporter Laura Roberts writes:
I can see at least two snipers (or at least armed men with sighted guns) positioned on the roof of Buck Pal.
07.23 More from the BBC's Evan Davis:
@EvanHD I do hope Kate doesn't have to be called Princess William. It's surely enough to take a husband's surname.
07.20 Apparently there will be 1,900 people in Westminster Abbey for the service, including 1,000 family and friends of the royal couple. The (almost certainly spurious) figure of two billion people watching the wedding on TV is doing the rounds again as well.
Evan Davis of the BBC Tweets:
@EvanHD Deeply sceptical of the "2 billion to watch wedding" figure. Maybe that number will catch a glimpse on a news programme at some point.
07.14 Coach update! Prince William and his bride will leave Westminster Abbey in the same horse-drawn carriage used by the Prince and Princess of Wales on their wedding day in 1981 (pictured below). The 1902 State Landau, which is led by four horses and is accompanied by two horsemen and two footmen, will leave the abbey at 12.15pm.
Prince Harry, William's best man, and Pippa Middleton, Kate's sister and maid of honour, will follow in two separate Ascot Landau carriages with the young bridesmaids and page boys.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles in their wedding carriage, 1981. (Photo: REX)
07.09 The "biggest security operation in a generation" is under way in London, with a reported 5,000 police on the streets and snipers on rooftops in the capital:
As the attention of the world fixes on London, detectives have thrown a multimillion-pound ring of steel around the royal wedding.
They appealed to the public to be the police's ''eyes and ears'' to help keep troublemakers at bay.
Snipers are taking to rooftops and undercover officers are mingling among the crowds as part of a massive covert and overt operation to avoid an atrocity.
07.01 Now Harry Wallop, our consumer editor, has got in touch:
Hermione Byrt, a Londoner who works in the film industry, is one many who slept overnight after having camped out in 1981. She also slept the night in Kensington Gardens the night before Diana's funeral. "I am not particularly royalist, but I love a big event, a big historical occasion," she said.
06.53 Lovely update from Murray Wardrop, who expands upon my earlier theory (05.56) that most of the shrieking people outside Westminster Abbey were Australians:
06.45 On that note, here's a weather update, from PA. Heavy showers could fall on the royal couple's much-anticipated balcony kiss today. Although temperatures could reach 20C (68F) in the capital for Prince William and Kate Middleton's big day, there is a greater risk of rain as the early afternoon approaches. Billy Payne, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, says:
There's a reasonable chance of a few heavy showers around at that time. We're expecting temperatures of up to 20 degrees, which is quite pleasant for this time of year. But fairly brisk north-easterly winds should take the edge off.
06.41 Phil Dampier, a royal-watching author and journalist, writes on Twitter that:
@phildampier If the rain worsens William and Kate will ride in the Glass Coach with a roof back from Abbey to Palace. Same one Diana used.
06.32 Here's a video of Kate arriving last night at the Goring Hotel:
06.28 In about four and a half hours the organs at Westminster Abbey will burst into life, playing a selection of classics chosen to accentuate the Britishness of the occasion. Damian Thompson, the Telegraph's blogs editor, says the couple's choice of music is safe but stirring.
06.25 And our Australia correspondent, Bonnie Malkin, informs us that:
Because of the time difference between the UK and Australia, dinner parties and fancy-dress parties have taken the place of street parties and barbecues. There are also a few "not the royal wedding" parties taking place - hosted by staunch republicans. But most people seem to be getting into the spirit. One pub in Sydney is marking the event with bouquet throwing every half hour from 6pm. Another pub, the Lord Dudley, which is known for its English ambience, is laying on pork pies, cucumber sandwiches and jugs of Pimms.
06.20 Laura Roberts, one of our reporters on the ground, writes:
Campers are starting to wake up outside Buckingham Palace. Around 3,000 people appear to have gathered by dawn. The police have asked people to take down their tents to make room for the inevitable throng.
Police report that there were no disturbances around the palace last night and that while there was a party atmosphere there were no arrests. It's an extraordinary sight looking out already at the thousands of Union flags, maple leaves and other signs of the commonwealth decorating the barriers.
I am struck by the number of young people in their twenties who have also taken the time to camp alongside the more usual royal fans of the older generation. They definitely add to the festival atmosphere. One rather exhausted well-wisher in her late fifties said the party stopped at 3am only to start up again at 5am.
06.16 A quick look at the best of the stuff from the other papers. The Daily Mail carries a series of photographs from the Queen's eve-of-wedding dinner, where guests included Princess Beatrice, while columnist Richard Kay reports that the Queen will spend a quiet weekend in Sandringham after slipping away before the post-wedding party.
The Guardian estimates that the occasion could summon the biggest audience in television history, while The Independent is focused on where the happy couple might decide to go on honeymoon.
06.15 Here are the last photos of the royal couple before their wedding day, taken last night as Kate Middleton arrived at the Goring Hotel and as Prince William took an impromptu walk along the rope-lines to meet the crowds outside Westminster Abbey.
06.07 The full route that the royal procession will take is here.
06.05 Here's a round up of the best bits from today's Telegraph: first, Kate Middleton waves farewell to her life as a commoner.
Last night the palace confirmed William and Kate will risk getting wet as they travel in an open-topped carriage to allow the crowds to see them.
As the final preparations for the wedding were made yesterday, the Duchess of Cornwall met well-wishers from across the Commonwealth while Prince William took time out to greet the public already camping out on The Mall.
One of last night's most exciting developments was when a woman was photographed scurrying out of a taxi into the Middletons' Goring Hotel, her features deliberately obscured by a giant fur hat. It had to be the designer of the wedding dress arriving to make the finishing touches - but who was it? Telegraph Fashion Editor Hilary Alexander was able to make an educated guess - and here's a profile of the woman
05.56 There are some hundreds, even thousands of people already outside Westminster Abbey and in Parliament Square. A large baseball-game-style stand has been erected outside the abbey, and hundreds of people (largely Australians, as far as I could tell) were making loud shrieking noises at any passing vehicles.
Also, the London Eye this morning has a special red, white and blue royal wedding colour scheme this morning:
(Photo: TOM CHIVERS)
05.48 Good morning, or good middle of the night, possibly. After months of increasingly feverish build-up, the Big Day is finally here: Kate Middleton and Prince William are to marry this morning.
Here are the key events of the day:
? at 6am, Sky and ITV1 will begin their coverage. BBC coverage begins at 8am. Here at Telegraph.co.uk we'll be following events throughout the day and have live video of the ceremony itself.
? at 10.51, the bride and Michael Middleton, her father, will leave the Goring Hotel where they have been staying and head to Westminster Abbey.
? at 11am, the marriage service will begin, and be relayed by speakers along the route.
? at 12.15pm, the carriage procession of the newly married couple will leave Westminster Abbey for Buckingham Palace.
? at 1.25pm, the Queen and the bride and bridegroom will appear on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, and Kate and William will share a kiss.
? at 1.30pm, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and four RAF fighter jets will make a fly-past of the Palace.
There is a more in-depth timetable here, and advice on how to get there here. Finally, a run-down of who will be attending on the big day
Watching the royal wedding in London or celebrating at home? Share eye-witness pictures of the world's biggest party with our Colour app or send your pictures to mypic@telegraph.co.uk and we'll publish a selection of the best. See telegraph.co.uk/mypic for terms and conditions
See our previous coverage:
Royal wedding build-up as it happened: April 26
Royal wedding build-up as it happened: April 27
Royal wedding build-up as it happened: April 28
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