# Royal Wedding Girl On April 29, 2011, during the Buckingham Palace balcony kiss at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding, three-year-old bridesmaid Grace van Cutsem clapped her hands over her ears with a scowl, and photographers caught the moment on live broadcast. Within hours, BuzzFeed and Mashable opened Photoshop contests placing the frowning child into chaotic scenes, from a Donald Trump podium to disaster photos. ## Origin The ceremony took place on April 29, 2011, with Prince William and Catherine Middleton stepping onto the Buckingham Palace balcony to greet the crowd. During the couple's second kiss, television cameras caught Grace van Cutsem, Prince William's three-year-old goddaughter and a bridesmaid, standing to Kate's left with both hands clamped over her ears and a sour expression[8]. BBC footage of the moment later shown by Mashable indicated she was reacting to the roaring crowd and a flyover of military aircraft passing over the palace[3]. NBC's Today identified the child by name hours after the ceremony[1]. On Twitter, user Andrew Spearin coined the first #RoyalWeddingGirl hashtag with a mocked-up photo placing Grace into the bottom left corner of a shot of Donald Trump giving a speech[5]. - **Platform:** Live TV broadcast / Twitter and BuzzFeed (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (Andrew Spearin coined the #RoyalWeddingGirl hashtag with an early Donald Trump edit) - **Date:** 2011 ## Overview Royal Wedding Girl, also called Frowning Flower Girl, works as a reaction image where the scowling toddler stands in for anyone irritated by a loud, obnoxious, or stressful scene around them. Edits typically paste her small figure, hands clamped over her ears, into the corner of famous photographs, concerts, action-movie stills, or crowd shots where blocked ears make sense[1]. The humor hinges on the mismatch between a prim bridesmaid outfit and whatever cacophony the editor imagines behind her[3]. Captions in the first wave played on the mild chaos of the royal event itself, implying Grace was fed up with the kiss, the applause, or Princess Beatrice's gaudy pink hat[5]. Later edits widened the joke, placing her inside Metallica concerts, political rallies, and disaster photos alongside memes like Disaster Girl and Sad Keanu[3][4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Royal Wedding Girl? Royal Wedding Girl, also known as Frowning Flower Girl, is a nickname for Grace van Cutsem, the three-year-old bridesmaid photographed covering her ears and scowling during Prince William and Kate Middleton's balcony kiss on April 29, 2011[1]. ### Where did Royal Wedding Girl come from? The image came from live television coverage of the UK royal wedding on April 29, 2011, when a frowning Grace van Cutsem appeared beside the newlyweds during their second kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony[3]. ### What does Royal Wedding Girl mean? In meme use, her face reads as exasperation at a loud, obnoxious, or embarrassing scene; according to the BBC footage, Grace was actually shielding her ears from the roaring crowd and a flyover above the palace[3]. ### How do you use Royal Wedding Girl? People typically paste the cut-out of Grace, hands on ears, into the corner of a photo of something noisy or chaotic, which Mashable aided by publishing an isolated PNG the day after the wedding[3]. ### Is Royal Wedding Girl still popular? The format is a classic 2011 Photoshop meme; most of its activity happened the day of the ceremony on blogs like BuzzFeed and Perez Hilton, and dedicated fan pages such as the Royal Wedding Girl Tumblr collected the edits afterward[4][5]. ## References 1. [https://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/04/29/6556610-royal-weddings-frowning-flower-girl-rules-internet]() 2. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/online/the-royal-wedding-spoofed-2277867.html]() 3. [https://mashable.com/2011/04/30/frowning-flower-girl/#13317Friday-Frowning-Flower-Girl]() 4. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/grace-van-custem-the-frowning-flower-girl]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/royal-wedding-girl]() 6. [https://thedailywh.at/2011/04/29/photo-of-the-day-8/]() 7. [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/29/royal-wedding-kiss-photo_n_855453.html#s271742&title=Nicholas_Graham]() 8. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c38lPvrPuT4]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/royal-wedding-girl Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library