It used to be so straightforward. When the Queen got married in 1947 you listened to the live radio broadcast. When Charles and Diana wed in 1981 you watched it on the telly (on one of three channels).

Now in 2011 we are spoiled for choice in coverage of Wills and Kate’s big day. And with a third of smartphone users having downloaded royal wedding-related apps, it’s a fair bet that we’ll be following events on more than one medium – watching the ceremony on TV while posting cheeky comments on Twitter.

Here’s the coverage on offer. How will you be watching and reacting to the events?

The official royal wedding website

Hosted by Google App Engine, which is designed to handle large, global peaks in web traffic, the royal wedding website was built by Accenture with design and creative advice from Reading Room. It’s an impressive site which will enable Clarence House to ensure that the best quality content is what comes top of searches.

Elegant, informative and easy to navigate, the site pulls in images from the British Monarchy Photostream on Flickr, the official Clarence House Twitter feed and the British Monarchy Facebook page. It will also live stream the ceremony through the Royal Channel on YouTube.

Following it on Twitter

‘Overall, tweets about the Royal Wedding have quadrupled since the beginning of the month, averaging nearly 5,000 per hour over the last week and accelerating quickly in recent days,’ says Lauren Indvik for Mashable.

For news, follow the official Twitter feed. It was used to formally announce the engagement last year and posts regular updates using the hashtag #rw2011 and #royalwedding.

Other sensible feeds to follow include @BBCRoyalWedding, @royalweddingCNN, Sky News’ list of royal wedding correspondents, @BritishMonarchy and @royalwedding. For thoughts on The Dress and the guests’ frocks and fascinators expect good stuff from @Grazia_Live and the @TimesFashion team.

And for fun, take a look at @William_HRH, Elizabeth Windsor, @DianaInHeaven and PrincessKateFTW. There are plenty of other fake royal accounts out there but most don’t live up to expectation, in particular the Prince Harry spoofs. This is a shame! He presents such a rich seam of comedic opportunity.

Liking it on Facebook

The official Facebook page has been posting text and multimedia updates and is full of people posting enthusiastic comments about the wedding. Expect people to be positive rather than cynical in their status updates: ‘Internationally, those excited by it outweighed ‘haters’ by six to one,’ says an internet marketing company who have been rating online buzz about the impending nuptials.

Watching on YouTube

As well as live streaming the event you can also upload your message of congratulations to the happy couple in the Wedding Book. Be quick – it has to be done by midnight on Friday 29th April.

While you’re on YouTube take a look back at footage of Charles and Diana’s wedding or chuckle at the T-Mobile’s Royal Wedding Dance which is approaching 13 million views.

Viewing the television coverage

An estimated 2 billion people worldwide are expected to watch the ceremony on television. The BBC’s live coverage runs from 08.15am until 3.30pm with accompanying live streaming on the BBC website and coverage on Radio 1, 2, 4 and 5.

ITV kicks off its coverage at 6.00am, with their main anchor for the day’s events being Philip Schofield. Sky News also start at 6am, with accompanying live coverage on Sky News for iPad and apps for the iPhone and Android. Presenters include Kay Burley live from Westminster Abbey – so we can look forward to her barging into guests as they arrive and criticising their choice of hat.

Sky News is also putting together an hour-long programme of user-generated content, made from videos viewers have sent in during the day. A good (ie cheap) way to fill an hour and get a fresh take on events.

Watching in person

You could of course head down to the Mall and see it all at firsthand. Or turn off the power, chuck your phone in the toilet and hide under a blanket until it’s all over.