Being related to royalty has its perks. If not for her sister’s choice of husband, Pippa Middleton might have enjoyed a relatively quiet life, and her wedding would have received only a short paragraph or two in the papers.

But once Kate Middleton tied the knot with Prince William and became Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (before being promoted to Princess of Wales), Pippa got a status boost too.

 On May 20, 2017 — a little over six years after the Wales’ nuptials — Pippa exchanged vows with James Matthews, a race car driver turned hedge fund manager. 

The event was never going to be a simple affair; British society folk don’t do Vegas quickie marriages with Elvis impersonators. But now that Pippa was the sister-in-law of the future king, her wedding was considerably more lavish than she might have otherwise expected.

The day couldn’t have been more perfect, from the charming stone church to Pippa’s custom-made lace Giles Deacon dress. The “aww” factor, meanwhile, was ably provided by the adorable junior attendants, including her niece and nephew, Princess Charlotte and Prince George. Kate wasn’t a member of the wedding party — she reportedly didn’t want to steal the attention from her sister — but the princess was very much present as she helped corral the kids and arrange Pippa’s veil before she entered the sanctuary. 

The stunning ceremony was followed by a reception at the Middleton family estate, featuring cherry blossom trees and roses as table centerpieces. And yet the fairytale ambiance left many royal fans surprisingly cold.

Beautiful as Pippa Middleton’s wedding was, online critics felt that there was far too much coverage of it in the British tabloids (imagine seeing Kimberly Guilfoyle’s coquette look at her son’s high school prom on the front page of every U.S. newspaper for weeks on end). Sarah Niblock summed up the situation neatly in Prospect magazine: 

“What bothers me is the oversaturation of Pippa in the UK where, frankly, most of the public couldn’t give a hoot.” She added, “Considering this isn’t even a royal wedding, this is garnering acres more attention than even when Sarah Ferguson took Prince Andrew down the aisle.” 

Negative criticism ruled the day on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well. One user yawned, “Anyone else fed up of hearing about Pippa Middleton’s wedding?” A follower agreed, “You bet. What a non-event! Are they paying for the publicity? If so, what a waste of money.” The nepo sibling aspect of the hoopla got under another commenter’s skin: “If her sister wasn’t married to the future king, we [would not have] heard about it!” 

The extravagance of the affair — the glass marquee alone cost almost $130,000 — also seemed calculated to leave commoners feeling, well, common. A reader commented on a story in The Guardian about the event: “This looks astonishingly vulgar. I don’t know why they can’t just have a quick church or registry marriage, a bottle of something bubbly and a nice lunch with friends and give the £250,000 to charity. Awful people.”

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