Fan celebrating Royal wedding in jolly good style
TASH Bambry does not think Prince Harry or Meghan Markle will mind if she joins the party tonight, even if she is 19,000km away.
The selfconfessed superfan of the British Royal Family has big plans for the royal couple’s big day.
A party at her house will include tiaras, bunting, flags, cucumber sandwiches, an understanding husband and two dozen guests.
Never mind St George’s Chapel in Windsor — it is going to be quite the evening in the Bambrys’ Dunedin lounge.
Mrs Bambry said her party would double as an early birthday celebration, her 36th is on Monday.
About 25 people will attend, with the dress code either royal or wedding themed.
‘‘We are going all out on the decorations. We have flags and bunting with Harry and Meghan’s face on it.’’
Mrs Bambry would herself be turning out in a Princess Diana bridal outfit, complete with tiara.
The menu would be quintessentially British, with cucumber sandwiches, pork pies and scotch eggs among the fare.
A replica elderflower and lemon wedding cake would be accompanied by Champagne and Pimms.
Always a supporter of the Royal Family, Mrs Bambry said her first real memory of them was when Prince Harry’s mother Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997.
‘‘I remember feeling distraught, but it probably led to me following them a bit more.’’
While living in Ireland, she travelled to England in 2011 for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and was first in line for public tickets to an event in Hyde Park to watch the wedding on big screens.
‘‘I always thought I’d end up marrying William, but I was very happy for him when Kate came along.’’
Her husband was less keen on today’s Royal wedding, but Mrs Bambry said he was employing the principle of ‘‘happy wife, happy life’’ to cope.
‘‘He seems to think we need to cater for all tastes and so we have allocated a laptop that can sit on the corner for the rugby [Highlanders v Waratahs], while the wedding is on the big screen.
‘‘A few of the males that are coming pretend they are not into it, but when Meghan gets out of the car, they will be glued to the TV like ‘Highlanders who?’.’’
Despite not being 100% convinced that Ms Markle was the one for Harry, Mrs Bambry was ‘‘very happy’’ for the couple, and was looking forward to enjoying the Champagne.