Windsor gears up for its second UK royal wedding of the year

Bunting flutters in the wind in front of Windsor Castle, on the day before the royal wedding of Britain’s Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, in Windsor, Britain, October 11, 2018. (Reuters)

Princess Eugenie arrives at Windsor Castle a day ahead of her wedding to Jack Brooksbank in Windsor, Britain, October 11, 2018. (Reuters)

Windsor Castle stands under a blue sky ahead of the wedding of Britain's Princess Eugenie in Windsor, England, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP)

A worker opens one of the gates to Windsor Castle a day ahead of the royal wedding between Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in Windsor, Britain, October 11, 2018. (Reuters)

• Eugenie will tie the knot with Jack Brooksbank, at the monarch’s Windsor Castle home on Friday.
• The couple met in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010 and got engaged in Nicaragua in January.

WINDSOR: Final preparations were being made in the English town of Windsor on Thursday for Britain’s second major royal wedding this year, this time involving Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter Princess Eugenie.
Eugenie, younger daughter of the queen’s third child Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, will tie the knot with Jack Brooksbank, at the monarch’s Windsor Castle home on Friday.
The nuptials come just five months after the glittering wedding of Prince Harry, younger son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, and US actress wife Meghan, now the Duchess of Sussex, at the same location.
Eugenie, 28, ninth-in-line to the throne and a director at London’s Hauser & Wirth art gallery, and Brooksbank, 32, who works in the drinks and hospitality industry, are copying some of her cousin’s plans.
The couple, who met in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier in 2010 and got engaged in Nicaragua in January, have likewise invited 1,200 people from across Britain to join in the celebrations in the castle grounds and to watch the newlyweds leave St. George’s Chapel after the service.
They will then take an open-top carriage ride through Windsor, although it will be shorter than the one Harry and Meghan took in May when thousands thronged the streets and hundreds of millions worldwide watched on television.
“We think we’ve been blessed this year with two royal weddings,” said Phillip Bicknell, the local council deputy leader.
“We’re hoping she’s going to have a great day and we’re very pleased that she’s shared her day with us.”
Stars from the world of showbusiness and sport attended Harry’s wedding and Buckingham Palace announced on Wednesday that one of Eugenie’s bridesmaids will be Theodora Williams, the six-year-old daughter of ex “Take That” singer Robbie Williams and his wife Ayda Field.
Three-year-old Princess Charlotte, daughter of second-in-line to the throne Prince William and his wife Kate, will also be a bridesmaid while her brother Prince George, 5, will be a page boy. Eugenie’s older sister Beatrice, 30, will be her maid of honor.
Nearly all Britain’s senior royals are expected to attend although Prince Charles’s wife Camilla will be absent as she has a prior engagement in Scotland. It was not certain whether the 92-year-old queen’s husband Prince Philip, 97, who no longer carries out official duties, would be present.
The Dean of Windsor will officiate the ceremony while Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform during the service. Also among the guests will be the surgeon who carried out an operation to straighten Eugenie’s back when she was 12, British media reported.
The ceremony will be broadcast on British TV and live streamed on the Royal Family and Prince Andrew’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels.