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Any parent getting ready for their child’s long-awaited wedding day could be excused for feeling a little nervous.
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.”

Zara Phillips.

With a broad smile on his face, Mike Tindall looked every inch the proud groom-to-be as he trained hard with some young players at the England Rugby Training Ground at Bagshot in Surrey earlier today.
And while Mike was showing off his fancy footwork on the pitch, fiancee Zara Phillips showed she was no slouch when it came to preparing for the big day either.
Like her future spouse, training for a big challenge is her speciality and she she showed all the dedication and commitment that has made her world-class in her sport too.
First on her schedule yesterday was a 7am jog to keep her svelte figure in tip-top shape for the big day.
In a baggy tracksuit and trainers, the bride-to-be ran through the streets of Cheltenham, where she lives with her intended, England rugby star Mike.
The trim blonde with her hair in a ponytail (known as a Croydon facelift in some quarters) barely warranted a glance from passers-by as she flashed past.
Afterwards Zara changed into jodhpurs for a three-hour exercise session with her horses at her mother’s Gatcombe Park estate, a short drive away.
Next on the training schedule was a visit to Calcot Manor, a hotel and spa near Prince Charles’s house in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
There she put herself through her paces with a gym workout, swim, and finally for the no-nonsense Zara, a rather girly spa treatment.
Zara has been enjoying a series of indulgent beauty treatments at the 475EURO-a-night country house hotel, set in 220 acres of Cotswold meadowland, in the run up to her wedding.

And you thought preparing for your wedding was a big deal – The flowers, the bachelor and bachelorette parties, feuding moms and dads, your friend Jed saying he won’t come if his ex, Tina, is invited.
Now imagine doing all that in front of the world.
Maybe that’s why Zara Phillips and her fiancee Mike Tindall have been getting ready for the big day by having stag and hen nights (bachelor and bachelorette parties) that are conspicuously raucous. Prince William and Kate Middleton’s fetes seem downright tame by comparison. And Phillips has been at the gym more often than Larry Bird during his prime (that’s probably an exaggeration).
According to People, Tindall (32), captain of the English rugby team and outside center for Gloucester Rugby, did some boozing with a bunch of his friends in Miami a couple of weekends ago.
“The guys checked into the W and partied non-stop for three days” – a source told People.
Phillips went to Portugal with several girlfriends for her hen night. According to The Daily Mail, Phillips wore a tutu and brought along friends who included Sky Sports presenters Di Dougherty and Kirsty Gallacher, and an ex-girlfriend of Prince Harry’s, Natalie Pinkham. And there were “rowdy drinking games.”
And like many brides and grooms out there, Phillips, Princes William and Harry’s first cousin, has been hitting the gym “like a demon” – according to The Daily Mail. An unnamed friend is quoted as saying: “Although [Phillips] is a world champion sportswoman and has a fabulous figure, like most bride-to-be Zara has been throwing herself into a health-and-fitness regime and has actively been trying to lose weight.”
Phillips, 30, is an equestrian and a former Eventing World Champion. According to the BBC, Phillips’ dress is being designed by Stewart Parvin but the Huffington Post says reports of Parvin as the dressmaker are incorrect.
The wedding will take place in Edinburgh on Saturday with a reception at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen’s official residence when she visits Scotland.