President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle have not been invited to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding. The Queen personally invited 40 heads of state, who received the gold-embossed invitations over the weekend to the April 29 wedding of the future king. The Obamas, however, were not among them.

But they can take solace in the knowledge that they will be the guests of their very own state visit to the UK in May. There have been suggestions that the state visit – the first for a US President since 2003 – was set up in return for Obama not coming to the wedding because of the added security costs involved with protecting the President.

French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni will also miss out and Prince Andrew’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson – the Duchess of York – has also been snubbed. Leaders from Commonwealth counties, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been invited along with Kings and Queens across Europe, including Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Greece.

The couple will hope the meet-and-greet will help prepare them for their first official overseas visit as a married couple to Canada in June. Other guests include the King of Jordan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the Sultan of Oman, the King of Bahrain, the Sultan of Brunei and the King of Saudi Arabia, the Emperor of Japan, the King of Malaysia, the King of Tonga and the King of Thailand. Around 1,900 guests will attend the Westminster Abbey ceremony, which will be beamed around the world, and the bride and groom have been allowed to invite more than, 1,000 of their friends.

The invitations, which were posted last week, are on thick white card, bevelled, gilded and stamped with EIIR in gold which has then been burnished.

Har! Apparently this is old news. Still humorous however. The Obama’s will be attending the space shuttle launch instead.