From the moment the wedding date was announced, press organizations have been falling over themselves in an effort to provide the best coverage for the most anticipated event of the year, the royal wedding of HRH Prince William of Wales and Ms. Catherine Middleton.

Barely hours after the announcement, helicopters, satellite vans and an army of pressmen were seen loitering about the Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Westminster Abbey and a few other locations linked to the wedding. Live feeds, punctuated with commentary from ‘experts’ on all matters royalty began to be broadcasted into our living rooms televisions and radios. In Britain alone, over 120 pages of coverage appear in the nine daily national papers the following morning, which has only risen into thousands more in the months since. And this wasn’t limited to the United Kingdom alone, as the media frenzy over the royal wedding extended to far flung places such as Australia, Singapore, the United States and many more.

Considering the often strained relationship HRH Prince William and Ms. Middleton has with the press, this is quite a remarkable phenomenon, more so when one considers the repeated instances of legal threats being issued to members of the press community for their repeated attempts (and sometimes, outright) invasion of privacy. However, the insatiable hunger from the man on the street concerning the event ensured that the media happily cast aside any ill-feeling or reservations they may have of the royal family.

The exposure wasn’t limited to the broadcast and print media only. An online search of the term ‘Prince William wedding’ yielded in excess of 10 million results, with most of it leading to giant international media agencies and specialist publications. The term ‘royal wedding’, ‘Prince William’ and ‘Kate Middleton’ also features heavily in social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

In anticipation of the increasing media involvement with the event which is set to climax on the wedding date itself this coming April, the Foreign Press Association of Britain has organized an informal briefing session for members of the press on February 18th. With the Press Secretary of the Clarence House, Patrick Harrison, Press Secretary to Prince William, Miguel Head and Caroll McCall from the Cabinet Office present, the briefing was aimed at educating the members of the press on the accreditation process, logistics and mechanics of the coverage to ensure an incident free royal wedding.