7.30am: Good morning, and welcome to a radical new frontier in the Guardian's embrace of the live blogging format. For the next month, in line with our new commitment to unrivalled coverage of the royal family, we'll be bringing you a minute-by-minute, 24-hour live blog of preparations for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey on 29 April. There's little doubt that, when the history-books come to be written, the spring of 2011 will be remembered above all for one event of major geopolitical significance — and this will be the place to stay up-to-date with it. The fashion, the parties, the souvenirs, the world's reactions, the constitutional implications, and the razor-sharp commentary: we'll have it all. I'll be here for the rest of today; my colleague Andrew Sparrow will then be working a 19-hour extended night shift to keep us going through until the morning.

7.35am: As explained in this morning's leader column, the Guardian is enhancing its royal coverage by temporarily recalling correspondents from various parts of the world to focus full-time on coverage of the wedding preparations. Justin McCurry is currently en route from Tokyo, and Chris McGreal will be joining us later in the week. ("Can't wait finally to get my teeth into a big story!" Chris emails.) Meanwhile, Esther Addley is heading up a team of reporters who are already based in special wifi-enabled tents on the Mall and outside Westminster Abbey. She tweets:

@estheraddley On Mall. Mood palpable. no sign of crowd yet but slowly building thru day. Ice crm vn playing nat.Anth, no queue. so exciting!!! #gdnroywed

7.39am: Let's kick things off with a summary of developments overnight:

• Reuters is reporting on rumours from Westminster of an initiative to amalgamate the Royal Wedding with that of Labour leader Ed Miliband and his longtime partner Justine Thornton. A senior Labour aide tells the wire service that the "undeniably cost-effective" move would "reflect the national focus on austerity" as well as highlighting the Labour leader's "deeply felt and longstanding admiration for the royal family." Our political editor Patrick Wintour is in the lobby with his ear to the ground.

• In a story that would be astonishing if true, Sky News is reporting that the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has been granted the front three rows of seating in Westminster Abbey on April 29 as a result of a deal brokered by Prince Andrew. A source "close to Andrew" is quoted as saying that the arrangement is "crucial to furthering democracy and UK trade interests in central Asia". More on this as it emerges.

• Suggestions are flying around the Twitterverse this morning that the Queen's corgis will be present at the wedding — and that one may even bear the wedding rings to the bride and groom. Sir Simon Jenkins is investigating.

7.44am: We're excited to be able to confirm that the Duke of Edinburgh will be writing a daily online diary for Guardian.co.uk in the run-up to the wedding, and we'll be bringing you the first installment soon, here on the blog. The Duke jovially told Guardian deputy editor Katharine Viner she was "making [him] work like a bloody Yugoslav" but he graciously agreed to the request.

7.49am: Royal bakers Greggs have today released a range of commemorative Royal wedding cakes and fancies, writes G2 chef Angela Hartnett. The Newcastle-based bakery — whose award of a royal warrant in January was seen as a mark of the Queen's desire to become a more populist, Scandinavian-style monarch — insisted that the confectionary range, entitled "Let Them Eat Cake", contained no clues as to the top secret recipe of the Royal wedding cake itself, which Greggs pastry chefs have been developing since last October at an undisclosed location.

7.53am: The French news channel France24 is reporting that French president Nicolas Sarkozy is using diplomatic back-channels to try to seize control of royal wedding preparations. "This is seen as crucial for the president's hopes of re-election in 2012," comments the Paris-based political analyst Avril de Poisson, though French union leaders have accused Sarkozy of taking his eye of the ball at home, and are threatening a general strike.

7.57am: After making extensive enquiries, Sir Simon reports that the royal wedding rings will not in fact be delivered by one of the Queen's dogs. At 7.39am we wrote that a flurry of Twitter activity had suggested the twin golden hoops would be bound to a corgi, which would then be induced to trot up the aisle towards Britain's future king by a chicken bone sewn into the bridal train. However, Simon has learned from a Clarence House source that there is "absolutely no way" this will happen. The rumour appears to have been started by a tweet posted by the account @bieberlover437, run by 14-year-old Jessica Thomas, of Leyland in Lancashire.

8.02am: From the Mall, Esther Addley tweets:

@estheraddley Hv moved down mall a bit. can't see in windos of BuckPal. Car drove out gates a while back, tweeting so missed it. Wding plnr?!?! #gdnroywed

8.06am: As a mark of the rapprochement between the royal family and the Guardian, Clarence House this morning confirmed that Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger will join Nigel Kennedy, Yo-Yo Ma, Acker Bilk and the lead viola from the Anglesey Philharmonic in a scratch classical quintet that will serenade those guests not invited to the evening reception, as they leave Buckingham Palace.

"We think it will be a delightful way to encourage William and Catherine's friends to make their way speedily through to the banqueting hall and to usher the honoured dignitaries to their carriages," said a spokesman. Though the full repertoire has not yet been confirmed, the quintet are believed to be working on a medley featuring classical favourites, You Raise Me Up by Westlife and the couple's "special" song, I Like the Way You Move, by Bodyrockers.

8.15am: One of my colleagues has spotted a very good comment below the line from one of our readers, who alerts us to a tweet a few minutes ago by someone watching breaking news on Sky which is reporting claims by al-Jazeera English that Prince William, according to the Iranian state channel Press TV, has insisted that the couple will not make the short journey from the Westminster Abbey back to Buckingham Palace by royal coach.

The prince, according to information from "Sky sources", has determined that he will fly his new bride in a bright yellow RAF search-and-rescue Sea King helicopter. "She really fancies me in my flying suit," he told friends, an unspecified source tells the Mail. We'll have more details as soon as we get them.

8.24am: The commentator Melanie Phillips has made a typically pungent intervention into the political debate surrounding the royal nuptials. On her Spectator blog, she writes:

It shows a spinelessness depressingly typical of David Cameron's craven shower of apologists that he has done so little to ensure that William and Kate's wedding vows contain no strident condemnation of the insidious Islamist extremism that has come to dominate the thinking of Britain's Royal Family. Truly, the West has been lost.

It's a thought-provoking piece.

8.32am: A survey among users of the parenting website Mumsnet has found that the Royal family is the second-most important institution in the history of Great Britain, second only to Mumsnet. Parliament, the NHS and the Army were in joint third place.

8.43am: Here's some audio we've just received from the multi-platforming Esther Addley, down on the Mall:

8.55am: This could be big. We've exclusively obtained a photograph of Prince Harry, looking somewhat the worse for wear, leaving Chinawhite's nightclub in the West End, holding what appears to be a draft of his best man's speech. The text may be legible, and we've got our Investigations Editor David Leigh and our Forensic Journalism Unit on the case to see if we can make out what it says. More soon, I hope.

9.03am: My colleague Adam Gabbatt reports:

Royal aides, keen to avoid the 'Flakegate' controversy that Anthea Turner attracted after posing with a Cadbury's Flake for OK! magazine on her wedding day, have ordered that all confectionery consumed during the service be unpackaged and wrapped in white napkins. A palace spokesman said a team of 10 equerries would be tasked with unwrapping Twix, Snickers and Drifters, with a further five dedicated to non-chocolate items such as Fruit Pastilles and Opal Fruits. "The chocolate bars will each be wrapped in one napkin," a spokesman said. He later conceded to the Guardian that some bars — such as a Curly Wurly — may require two napkins.

9.13am: We've got the first installment, promised earlier, of the Duke of Edinburgh's exclusive daily Royal Wedding Diary for Guardian.co.uk:

Woke up feeling worse than a deaf Chinaman, as my dear old uncle always used to say, but no matter: got to write this bloody diary. Can't stand those parasites in the press myself, always sniffing around like wallabies, but Liz insists it's crucial for our "public image". Bloody daft if you ask me, making me sit here at the Amstrad machine, which by the way must have been designed by a Burmese. "Save document?" No, I'll have my man take care of that later. Anyway, let's see. I do like that girl of William's. Breath of fresh air round here. Reckon she might be a crack shot, too. Worth taking on next year's panda-hunting expedition, perhaps, since William and Harry are always so squeamish when it comes to "endangered species". "Endangered"! They're bloody endangered when I'm on a hunting trip, that's for sure. "Save document?" No! Oh, bloody hell.

I've got a feeling this is going to be a popular feature here in the coming weeks.

9.19am: Guardian reporter Esther Addley tweets from central London:

@estheraddley To W'minster abbey, or 'the abbey' 2 insiders. that's me!! Cleaner sez knos nothing, probly u'cover horseguard.28days & countin! #gdnroywed

9.25am: Our Forensic Journalism Unit, working in collaboration with Clay Shirky's Crowdtagged Entreprejournalism Initiative, has decoded part of the text of Prince Harry's best man speech, featured in the photograph we posted before.

The text appears to refer, among other things, to an incident involving a goat and ruddy-cheeked royal pal Guy Pelly at Bouji's nightclub.

9.34am: Since we posted a photograph of Prince Harry earlier our Investigations Editor David Leigh has received an anonymous tip from a caller directing him to a dustbin outside the Guardian's Kings Cross offices where he found what appears to be a more complete draft of the prince's speech.

MEMO TO SELF: NO TITS JOKES. I've known Wills for as long as I've known myself, all my life really, well actually, when one thinks about it, for my entire life! (PAUSE FOR LAUGHTER) I was particularly looking forward to being best man as I'd heard he always gets the pick of the totty (PAUSE FOR CHEERS) Although trust bloody Wills to spoil my fun by choosing children as his bridesmaids! (PAUSE FOR LAUGHTER) It doesn't seem that long ago that Wills and I were riding around great grandmama's estate (PAUSE FOR TEARS), talking about all the funny little people we'd seen on our visit to the village(PAUSE FOR LAUGHTER). But now look at us! (PAUSE FOR CHEERS) Anyway, so I'll never forget the fancy-dress party where

9.43am: There's been lots of media speculation around the wedding gifts that the happy couple will receive, especially from the Royal family. Now, insiders at Clarence House have told the Guardian that Prince Charles is planning something a bit more spectacular than some matching royal bedlinen.

"He's going to give them Scotland," reveals a senior courtier. "As the High Steward of Scotland, the Lord of the Isles and the Duke of Rothesay, it's perfectly within his gift to pass it on." The source added: "Let's face it, Charles was never going to hand over Cornwall. That place is an absolute money factory."

We'll go live shortly to Severin Carrell, who's in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, where stunned locals are only now coming to terms with the happy news that they will form the centrepiece of William and Kate's wedding list.

9.51am: An interesting view in the comments from IHateTheLiberalLimeyGuardian, who writes from Texas:

What has the Royal Wedding got to do with you, you pinko assclowns? Stop poking your noses into matters that don't concern you. It's just like with the traitor Assange. Why do you hate America? Don't answer that. You guys have no credibility left since the Climategate emails.

9.58am: BREAKING: According to Twitter reports from visitors to the park, Legoland's comprehensive mock-up of the royal wedding has been vandalised overnight.

The walls of the miniature Buckingham Palace have apparently been daubed with scaled-down republican and anti-capitalist graffiti, while a section of the model – constructed entirely from Lego bricks – has been reconfigured to show tiny masked protesters storming the palace.

There are also rumours, as yet unconfirmed, that the figurines representing Camilla Parker Bowles, Sir Elton John and Victoria Beckham have been re-arranged to suggest an indecent act.

Are you at Legoland? Send us your pictures of the damage.

10.06am: Time for a quick round-up of royal headlines around the web:

• In a surprising change of editorial tone, the Daily Mail seems to be turning against the royal wedding: in a double-page spread it decries "The hell this wedding will cause for London motorists". Richard Littlejohn, meanwhile, worries that "in today's loony PC Britain", there is no way to be certain that gay people will not be present among the celebrating crowds.

• The BBC website's Have Your Say feature invites readers to have their say on the Royal Wedding. "We want to hear from you!" the corporation explains. "What are your thoughts on the royal wedding? Why not tell us them? We want to hear your thoughts! Go on, tell us your thoughts about the royal wedding!"

• The Independent's Robert Fisk is the first journalist to make it inside the workshop where Kate Middleton's dress is being designed, and files a searing first-person account. It's headlined: "I thought I had seen everything. I was wrong. I have now seen Kate Middleton's dress." It's powerful stuff.

10.11am: BREAKING: Royal wedding OFF. More as we get it.

10.15am: CORRECTION: Royal Wedding NOT off — new Buckingham Palace statement. More soon...

10.24am: More media news: our US correspondent Ed Pilkington reports that CNN will be sending 632 correspondents and commentators to cover the wedding, with the coverage on the day being helmed by Piers Morgan, sitting on a giant throne suspended from the upper level of Tower Bridge.

10.29am: Some interesting perspectives below the line from commenter WTCBuilding7TheTruthMustBeKnown.

10.37am: FIRST PICTURES OF LEGOLAND ATROCITY EMERGE.

A spokesman for the park, which only reopened to the public this morning, refused to describe the incident as a serious breach of royal security, saying it was "probably just kids messing about."

Sources close to Windsor police, however, have suggested the model vandalism may be a "dry-run" for planned disruptions on the day. The model has been cordoned off for the moment, and will soon be removed from public view while repairs are completed.

10.44am: We're getting unconfirmed reports from someone on Twitter who overheard someone talking about it in the checkout queue in Sainsbury's that the guests of honour at the wedding will include none other than Julian Assange.

The controversial Wikileaks founder will apparently be temporarily released from house arrest by royal decree, because Prince William thinks he's "way cool". This is all the information we have so far. We're working to confirm the rumours.

10.52am: Speak of the devil, here's an intriguing couple of tweets from Wikileaks:

@wikileaks Guardian royal wedding story is CIA-funded lie. We will be suing for malicious libel.

@wikileaks Looking for spare sofabed in the Stockholm area in coming weeks, any offers?

10.59am: This is major. Someone appears to be selling one of the t-shirts specially made for William's stag party on Ebay:

The palace won't be remotely pleased about this. We're hearing that a furious senior aide to Prince Charles has sent a politely worded letter to Ebay's headquarters in San Jose, California, requesting that the auction be immediately taken down, though since it is being carried by horseback, as is traditional with communications from Clarence House, we probably shouldn't expect immediate action.

11.14am: Esther Addley tweets:

@estheraddley Back 2mall after escorted fm abbey by giftshop mgr + verger//that's fearless jrnalism folks!!! off 2find crowds b4 skynews laterz #gdnroywed

11.29am: More details coming in now about the wedding gifts. The Queen, we understand, has told Kate that she's keen to pass on her love of plastic storage, so will be giving them a complete set of Tupperware — even the tiny round ones that are too small to be useful.

Prince Andrew, meanwhile, has negotiated some cobalt mining rights in Azerbaijan for William and Kate, though it's understood that they'll have to front up some of the cash themselves. More soon.

11.38am: Well, this is rather awkward. It seems we're going to have to interrupt the live blog, perhaps indefinitely. We've received a communication from Buckingham Palace suggesting that some of the contents of this blog could contravene the Treason Felony Act of 1848.

According to several Tweeters in the King's Cross area, members of the Coldstream Guards in bearskin hats are storming towards the Guardian headquarters. Indeed, right now, we can hear what seems to be numerous people running upstairs towards the newsroom here. It seems a very real possibility that