Sky News
Princess Eugenie and her fiance Jack Brooksbank are preparing to tie the knot in Windsor later.
Ahead of their big day they spoke in a television interview about how they first met while on holiday in Switzerland at a mutual friend’s home.
Speaking about the first time she saw her husband-to-be, Eugenie said: “I thought ‘who’s that’, then you came over and shook my hand and I was all butterflies and nervous and I think I rang my mum that night and was like ‘I’ve just met this guy Jack’.
“And yeah, that was it I think – that’s how it started
“But I remember being like ‘I really, really like this guy and I really want him to like me too’ and then you gave me this big windscreen wiper wave and I was like ‘he likes me’.”
Eugenie and Jack, who met in 2010 in the ski resort of Verbier, have chosen to get married in Windsor at St George’s chapel just like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in May.
They will also have a small carriage procession taking them out onto Windsor High Street and 1,200 members of the public have been invited inside the grounds as well as representatives from charities that the couple support.
Speaking about why Windsor is so important to the bride and groom, Sky’s events commentator Alastair Bruce said: “It’s perfectly designed to be the most beautiful backdrop for any occasion.
“And I think that for Princess Eugenie of York, who lives after all just up the road with her father at Royal Lodge, it’s the local place.”
Around Windsor on Thursday there was little to show that a big royal event was happening, apart from a small group of dedicated royal watchers, including Kerry Evans who has been camped out since Tuesday.
She said: “I told lots of people I was coming down for this event, and they said: ‘Who’s getting married? What royal wedding? They didn’t know about it.”
There has been some criticism about the cost of security around the event, which will be paid for by the taxpayer like all royal events.
Eugenie is ninth in line to the throne. But local businesses like the Windsor and Eton Brewery have done well from weddings and the town’s royal connections, especially with their specially brewed Windsor Knot beer.
Will Calvert told Sky News this wedding does feel different. He said: “For local residents, they’re probably fairly indifferent in truth. But, I think that for visitors, the first wedding was such a big occasion.
“This a chance now for people that maybe couldn’t come for that to now come and have a nice day at Windsor and get a bit of the same atmosphere.”
The Duke of York and his team has been posting pictures of Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on social media so the public can get to know the couple.
On Thursday, the mother of the bride, Sarah Ferguson, was seen in a car smiling and waving as she arrived at Windsor Castle along with Princess Eugenie.
The wedding service will begin at 11am. The singer Andrea Bocelli will perform two songs. The Archbishop of York has written a prayer for the couple.
The Dean of Windsor David Conner, who will be leading the service, said: “It’ll be a mix of traditional and modern. It’s obviously going to be quite a grand occasion, but I hope also, that it will have an air of intimacy about it.”
You can see that Windsor is still living off the glow of the last royal wedding. For the family, and especially the bride and groom, this big day will be just as special.
