4 apps for the Royal Wedding

When it comes to European royalty, Americans go crazy. Beyond the garden-variety obsession with royalty, British royalty in particular is like Yank catnip. The ultimate bonkers-maker, however, is British royal weddings.

When there's a royal wedding across the pond, Americans absolutely seem to lose their marbles. There's just no getting around it. You can't listen to the radio or turn on the TV without hearing about Prince William and Kate Middleton. Seriously, right now those two are bigger than Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, which I didn't think was even possible.

And don't even think about browsing a newsstand. Close to half of the magazines have the royal and royal-to-be on the cover. Maybe it's the romanticism of it all or the fact that we Americans tend to mix fantasy with aspiration, but whatever the cause, I'm happy to contribute to the hysteria. Without further ado, here is a list of four iOS apps that allow you to live out the royal wedding on your iPhone and iPad. Best of all, all the apps are free, so you can hold onto the family jewels.

The Royal Wedding by Hello! -- This app, brought to you by one of the trashiest gossip magazines in the UK, is little more than a photo scrapbook of the fairytale romance between Wills and Kate. It's got dedicated albums for the bride and groom, along with albums dedicated to royal wedding rings, wedding dresses and gifts. One of the cooler albums shows images from past royal weddings.

Royal Wedding Insider -- Brought to you by BBC America, this app takes the wedding cake as the cheesiest of the bunch. Launch it and you have to sit through 30 seconds of Colbie Caillat's "I do" song (which has nothing to do with getting married). The app offers access to the BBC royal wedding blog, videos of the event, a royal facts section and a section that lets you plan out your "royal wedding fantasy" where you can choose from between wedding rings, locations, bands, dresses and even table top layouts.

Time Travel Explorer – Royal Westminster HD -- This is actually the coolest app of the bunch. In it you can explore maps of London from the present day, 1865 and 1830. On your virtual tour ,you'll find locations of royal wedding events pinned on the map. Click on those pins to find out more about the locations themselves. If you love London as much as I do, this is a great app to have on your iPad.

The Royal Wedding by NBC News (iPhone/iPad) -- Out of all the royal wedding apps, you can tell that NBC put the most time into designing theirs. It's the most elegant of the bunch, and using it you begin to think that the royal wedding is the most important event on the planet. You've got the usual photo galleries, but also a Princess Diana tribute section, a history of the royals, the royal jewels, a shop where you can buy the royal wedding ceremony on DVD when it's all done and a map of the royal wedding route with live Twitter updates.

The royal wedding takes place this Friday, the 29th of April, at Westminster Abbey.