Royal wedding guests chosen for their charity work called invite 'heartwarming': COLUMN
Adam Hughes will represent Carlisle Undercroft at Harry and Meghan's wedding.
ABC News asked several royal wedding guests to write about when they found out they were receiving invitations to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding on May 19. On their special day, the couple had asked to meet with representatives of charities for which Harry has served as patron. Adam Hughes and Kimberley Watkin will represent Carlisle Undercroft, which raises money to turn the space under the Carlisle train station in Carlisle, Cumbria, England, into a multipurpose community arts venue. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of ABC News.
Being invited to a wedding is a wonderful thing. Being invited to a royal wedding is something else entirely. Trust us, we know.
We are two of the lucky members of the British public who have been invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. And we couldn’t be more excited and proud.
As a way of channeling our bubbling excitement, we’re going to tell you about our invite, why we got it and the wedding gift that we have chosen for the royal couple.
When we first found out about our invite we were shocked, confused and suspected a practical joke. It wasn’t until quite a bit later that the news sunk in.
After doing a dance of excitement and worrying about outfit choices, we realized we had one overriding question. Why us? Out of the millions of people desperate to be a part of this event, why were we chosen?
Bribery? Blackmail? No. We received an invite because of Carlisle Undercroft, a charity we started that exists to convert a historic space underneath Carlisle train station into a top-class community arts venue.
The project began in 2016 after Kimberley [Watkin] worked with Carlisle-based community arts group, Dance Ahead, to stage a production in the then disused space. From this experience, it became clear that the venue could become a very valuable resource for the region, its community and artists.
Finding out that our work on this project has been recognized in the form of an invite to the royal wedding is outstanding and heartwarming.
As a wedding gift to the royal couple, and as a symbol of our gratitude for having been invited, we plan to dedicate a personalized brick on the Undercroft’s wall of thanks to Harry and Meghan. Their engraved brick will be a feature of our venue and the history of Carlisle forever.
The royal brick will sit alongside others which each bear the names of those who have supported our project via our crowd-funding page.
Like Charlie with the chocolate factory and Harry with Hogwarts, we have received a once-in-a-lifetime invitation, and we are super-excited and can’t wait for May 19.
