Monarch butterflies for parents over royal wedding

But for West Yorkshire couple Linda and Phil Tindall, their son’s big day this coming weekend is giving extra cause for a few pre-nuptial butterflies – for it is likely to bring them an audience with the Queen.

The Tindalls, of course, are getting used to mixing with the great and the good, as their son is not the average bridegroom.

As England’s long-serving rugby union captain, 32-year-old Mike Tindall would be making headlines whomever he were due to wed. As it is, his marriage on Saturday to the Queen’s eldest granddaughter, Zara Phillips, represents what will surely be the nation’s second highest-profile wedding of the year.

“We’re looking forward to it, of course,” Mrs Tindall said, speaking to the Yorkshire Post from the family home near Wakefield. “We’re very pleased they’ve finally decided to get married.”

Her son, who was born in Otley and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, had been dating showjumper Miss Phillips for around eight years before he proposed just before Christmas at the couple’s home in Cheltenham.

Their wedding at Canongate Kirk, on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, is expected to be attended by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh and other senior members of the Royal family – including, naturally, Miss Phillips’s mother, Princess Anne.

“We haven’t met the Queen before,” said Mrs Tindall, a 63-year-old social worker. “We’ve obviously met Princess Anne on lots of occasions, and Zara’s father Mark [Captain Mark Phillips]. We’ve got to know them over a long period of time.

“We found them to be very welcoming and kind to us.”

Two other Royal faces at the 400-strong service on Saturday will also be familiar to the Tindalls – the Duke of Cambridge and his brother, Prince Harry.

“We’ve met Harry and William before, because they come to the rugby,” Mrs Tindall said. “We’ve seen them there, and then they sometimes come to parties that Mike’s had, like his 30th birthday. They’re very down-to-earth.

“But we haven’t met any of the other Royal family.”

Aside from the Windsors, there are likely to be plenty of other famous faces at the wedding as the England captain brings along some of his team mates to share the day.

“On his side it’s mostly rugby players,” Mrs Tindall said. “And on her side, apart from the family, it’s mostly showjumpers and equestrian eventers!

“We’ve got to know a lot of them by now – he’s been playing rugby for a long time, and they’ve been seeing each other for eight years, so we’ve had lots of time to get to know them all.”

Zara, 30, has already confirmed her dress is being designed by Stewart Parvin, who has previously made clothes for the Queen.

But Mrs Tindall said she has been given few details about what else is planned.

“I can’t tell you anything about the arrangements, because we haven’t really been involved,” she said. “I really don’t know an awful lot about it.

“We haven’t seen as much of them recently as we normally would – Phil’s slipped a disc in his back and so we haven’t been down to see them.

“And they haven’t been up because Mike’s training with England and Zara has been trying to get her horse through trials.

“So we haven’t seen them for quite a while – but we’ll see them on Saturday, God willing!”

For both families, Saturday’s ceremony will represent their second big wedding of the year.

Mike’s brother Ian married his fiancée at Middleton Tyse in May, only weeks after Miss Phillips’s cousin Prince William was wed at Westminster Abbey.

“Ian only got married 10 weeks ago, so we’ll have had two quite different experiences this summer,” Mrs Tindall said.

“With Ian’s we were a bit more involved with the organising than we have been this time.

“He got married up in North Yorkshire, and it’s obviously all a bit smaller than this will be.”

With all the organisation taken care of, then, it seems the only thing left for the Tindalls to do is pray for some sunshine.

“I don’t want it too hot,” Mrs Tindall said. “But it would be nice if it wasn’t a wash-out.”