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With a homemade hat with flowers askew on her head, Shana Hertz, gazed at the telly and gushed over the royal bride — jolly good show!

Hertz was among the dozens of Brits-for-a-day noshing on chips and drinking mimosas while watching the 6 a.m. live broadcast of the wedding of England's Prince William and Kate Middleton at Union Jack's, a downtown Bethesda British pub.

Hertz, 29, of Bethesda, admires Middleton for her graceful, conservative style. She decided to dress up to feel like she was a part of the pomp and circumstance.

"Seeing all the fashion, the hats and the dresses, it is the pinnacle of that," Hertz said.

Dressed-down in jeans, authentic Brit, David Padden, chuckled at some of the outfits from his seat at the bar.

"I'm quite surprised by the reaction here. To see all the people turn out with funny hats," said Padden, 30, of London, who has been in Washington, D.C., for a month for work.

A fan of the royal family, Padden said the wedding has been good for his country's moral.

"I wish I could be there to see it live," he said.

Co-workers Kristen Wesley and Jennifer Routh have been following the royal wedding hype for weeks, taping news articles to their office door and joining in on the wedding gossip on Twitter. They brought homemade scones to the viewing party.

"It's amazing. It's so perfect," Routh, 22, of Damascus said about the ceremony.

Kristen Wesley, 29, of Gaithersburg remembers when Princess Diana died, and has been hooked on wedding news for weeks because of her love of Diana's son, Price William.

"This is a rebirth," Wesley said.

While not normally his cup of tea, Fred Koh, 41, of Gaithersburg joined his friends at the pub to watch the royal wedding. He admits it is easy to get swept up in the fun.

"She is beautiful," he said.

Though some of the early pub partiers began to trickle away to their Friday morning jobs, Charlotte Streidel, 35, of Rockville wasn't going anywhere. Born in England, Streidel said her experience wouldn't be complete until she saw the big smooch

"We all want to see them kiss," Streidel said.

ccalamaio@gazette.net