No Pressure, Kate

Every bride deals with excessive stress at some point during their wedding planning. Little details have a habit of creeping up on us, and it seems there's so much to worry about - the flowers, the guest list, the dress, oh my!

But let's pause for a moment to appreciate the amount of stress princess-to-be, Kate Middleton must be under.

While most of us plan weddings for a few hundred guests, Kate has to worry about pleasing 1,900 friends, family and world dignitaries. Keep in mind, those are just the ones invited.

To show the true magnitude of this event, we'll give you some numbers.

• 89 = the hours of royal wedding related programming on TLC


• 2.4 billion people , or 35% of the world's population, expected to follow via TV, streaming and radio


• 10 - the number of years networks have had a balcony across the street from Westminster Abbey on reserve


• 400 - the number of CNN staffers working on wedding coverage (just CNN!)

This July marks the 30 year anniversary of the marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. In 1981, TV was pretty much a three network operation, cable was in its infancy, the internet hadn't been invented yet (no Facebook? Yikes!) and cell phones were virtually nonexistent. 750 million viewers tuned in to see Lady Di walk down the aisle, a mere handful in comparison to the 2.4 billion that will watch Kate. Add an additional 800,000 that are expected to show up to Buckingham Palace - all snapping cell phone pictures and videos, tweeting and updating their Facebook statuses - and it's a true testament to the changing times.

So why all the hype? And why are we so invested in this stranger? Because it's the same story Disney has been telling us since we were little girls. Kate is our modern day Cinderella. She is from a family of humble beginnings, she's not royalty and she won the heart of a prince. And just because the man that put that ring on your finger isn't going to be the King of England some day, that doesn't mean you haven't won the heart of a prince. Just be glad you don't have 2.4 billion people tuning in to judge your wedding.