Zara Phillips and her fiance Mike Tindall are famously as far from the royal mindset as they come

Although she counts Princess Anne as her mother, Zara Phillips and her fiance Mike Tindall are famously as far from the royal mindset as they come. Owing to Zara's non-royal status (while her mother has a royal title, she and her brother Peter do not), the wedding is beng independently funded, with even the royal reception venue, Holyroodhouse in Scotland, being paid for out of pocket by Zara's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Tindall's guests will include many fellow rugby players, while Phillips has invited members of her equestrian community. "She regards herself as a sportswoman not as a royal. Added royal historian Hugo Vickers, "I wouldn't say he is marrying into the royal family, rather she is marrying out of the royal family."

There is one indisputably royal element of the wedding: Friday night's pre-party on the famous Royal Yacht Britannia. More importantly, the Telegraph noted, four royal couples have bunked in the yacht's honeymoon suite after their weddings...and all have been doomed to failure: Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon sailed in 1960, Zara's mum Princess Anne and father Captain Mark Phillips shared the room in 1973, Charles and Diana honeymooned in 1981, and Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson used the boat for their honeymoon in 1986.
Phillips and Tindall will forgo a honeymoon as the groom returns to rugby training camp on Sunday night, writes the Telegraph.

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