Some came wearing flowing dresses and heels, dressed up in honor of a wedding happening an ocean away.
Some came wearing flip flops and sweatpants — it was only 5 a.m., after all, and still dark, when the line started forming on Fourth Street in downtown Winston-Salem.
And, oh, the hats: There were small hats with feathers, large hats with bows, straw hats and, since this is the U.S.A., baseball hats.
Aperture Cinema drew about 80 people to watch Prince William marry Kate Middleton on a big screen.
"Those two represent newness and freshness and opportunity," said Julie Morgan, who wore a navy blue hat topped with small silk flowers. "And so much hope. They give us so much hope for the future, and I think that's what this country needs right now."
Morgan, who is the registrar at the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts, lives in Danbury. She spent Thursday night at a friend's house so she would not have to miss any of the wedding during her commute.
White bows hung at the end of every other row in each of Aperture's theaters, and white silk flower petals were scattered on the aisle floors. There was even a wedding cake, a multi-tiered ivory tower from Dewey's Bakery.
Jessica Richard, an English professor at Wake Forest University, wore a small cap with flowers.
Richard specializes in British fiction and Jane Austen — "I'm an Anglophile," she said.
The doors opened at Aperture at 5:30 a.m. The crowd streamed inside, taking plates of Dewey's pastries and cups of coffee. For a while, the scenes on screen from London were of crowds and wedding guests.
When Kate Middleton appeared, the Aperture crowed cheered.
When the bridesmaids appeared — girls roughly ages 7 and 8 from the British royal family — Richard gasped.
"Oh my gosh, that's so cute," she said.
When the ceremony ended, the Aperture crowd applauded and whistled.
Richard smiled.
"I don't wish we lived in a monarchy," she said. "But I enjoy the spectacle of the monarchy."
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