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Fancy hats for the royal wedding

Erica Hill hit the streets of London with CBS News royal contributor Victoria Arbiter in search of the perfect hat for the upcoming royal wedding and explored the importance of hats in British society.

Another royal wedding, another chance to wear the right hat.

Whether you attended the last royal nuptials 30 years ago, or were there virtually via a TV network, a few things will be different this time around:

This will be the first royal wedding with a Twitter hashtag, #rw2011.

There will be a Royal Channel on YouTube, along with tons of streaming coverage from global news organizations.
Everyone short of the bride and groom will live-blog the event.

Several British broadcasters are reportedly in negotiations to carry the spectacle in 3-D. (There was a hilarious photo of the queen wearing 3-D glasses at a recent demo.) A 3-D representation of the processional route through London is one of the many killer apps available.

And, not least, comedian Dame Edna will provide color commentary on Australia’s 9News.

Thirty years ago, a record 750 million of us gathered to watch the last royal wedding, when Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales. Their son’s wedding ceremony this week will make that seem like an intimate little affair.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials are expected to be witnessed by 2 billion viewers — the largest gathering of live TV onlookers ever — and that’s not counting an estimated 400 million who will be streaming the action online.