By Lilia Guan
On April 29 the City of Greater London played host to the first royal wedding in 30 years.
Hundreds and thousands of Londoners and tourists turned out, in Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park to see the Prince William marry Kate Middleton (Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge).
Office of the Mayor of London, director of marketing, Daniel Ritterband told Government News London had a tradition of hosting major international events.
“The last royal wedding may have been 30 years ago, but we're not out of practice,” he said.
“Since the announcement of the engagement, City Hall has been working closely with the Palaces to ensure a perfect wedding day – for the happy
couple, for Londoners and for the hundreds of thousands of visitors and spectators.
Mr Ritterband said as well as Buckingham and St James' Palaces, there were close cooperation with Downing St; Metropolitan Police; Royal Parks;
Cabinet Office; Ministry of Defence, Department of Culture; Media and Sport; Transport for London; Westminster City Council; and Westminster Abbey.
According to Mr Ritterband the last wedding taught City Hall not to “underestimate the levels of public enthusiasm” for the wedding.
“The Royal family continue to hold a fond place in the collective consciousness of the UK,” he said.
“We needed to ensure that London was open and accessible to all, with transport and security our primary areas of focus.”
With the wedding over, London will not be preparing for its next major event, playing host to the 2012 Olympics.
“[The wedding] was a very unique and special day for the happy couple and we treated it as such,” Mr Ritterband said.
“But learning on mass people management and security will obviously be extremely helpful for our 2012 planning.”
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