NOTE: The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is Friday -- at 5 a.m. Central time -- and more than 8,000 journalists from all over the world are expected to be their to chronicle the royals' special day. The Courier-News staff is not among them. But that won't stop us from blogging about it!

Reporter Mike Danahey already has enumerated the reasons he WON'T be watching the royal wedding.

Somehow I get the feeling our former colleague Gloria (Carr) Casas WOULDN'T MISS THIS WEDDING FOR ANYTHING. THERE WILL BE HATS AND CRUMPETS AND IT WILL BE GLORIOUS.

And designer Julia Doyle probably is on the guest list. (More on that, later.)

I'm planning to watch it, too, albeit somewhat less enthusiastically. I'm a journalist and a bride-to-be in less than a month (24 days, but who's counting?). That makes it kind of mandatory. But I did pick up some tea and some cheddar bacon and chocolate caramel scones from Cafe Firefly in Algonquin to go with my wedding watching, which I plan to enjoy after crashing overnight at my friend Jen's.

What about you?

Are you planning to watch the royal wedding? Or not for all the tea in England? Share your thoughts in the comments! (And if you do stay up/get up early to party, send photos to emcfarlan@stmedianetwork.com. We'll post them here on Between the Bylines!)

-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter