Zara Phillips & Mike Tindall Wedding Details: Yacht Party, In-Laws' Opinions, Honeymoon & More (PHOTOS)
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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.
As Zara's future mother-in-law Linda Tindall told the Daily Mail, "Many-a-time Mike has said if she worked at Tesco [supermarket] at the checkout it would not matter, it's about her and the sort of person she is."
But while Phillips has been accepted into the Tindall clan with ease, acclimating Tindall to his new royal relatives has been harder.
The Telegraph reports that Princess Anne suggested he have corrective surgery on his nose, which is slightly misshapen from repeated sports injuries. "She's a bit worried about how the wedding photos might turn out," the Telegraph revealed.
She needn't worry too much, as the photos will most likely not be seen by the general public: as previously noted, Buckingham Palace thwarted Phillips' plans to sell wedding day photos to tabloid magazine Hello! for over $800,000.
Instead, Phillips and Tindall's nuptials this Saturday will be private, more of "a family thing" than a royal event, says the BBC.
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. She would even dispute the fact it's a royal wedding," said Joe Little, editor of Majesty magazine to the BBC.
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. Once described by Queen Elizabeth II as "the one place I can truly relax," the Royal Yacht Britannia is 83rd in a line of royal yachts and has seen Winston Churchill, Mahatma Ghandi, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan and Nelson Mandela (to name a few) come aboard its decks, writes the Telegraph.
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.
Looks like Zara and Mike's reported lack of honeymoon might actually be a blessing in disguise. Phillips and Tindall will forgo a honeymoon as the groom returns to rugby training camp on Sunday night, writes the Telegraph.
Take a look at photos from the wedding rehearsal at Canongate Kirk on Friday.
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The Huffington Post Ellie Krupnick First Posted: 07/29/11 12:38 PM ET Updated: 09/28/11 06:12 AM ET