One day a few months ago I received a phone call from a very excited husband, “I’ve just received an email nominating me to go to a Royal Garden Party.” That was exciting and the wait between receiving the nomination to the invitation landing on our doormat was unbearable.

We told a few people about it, (well, a lot of people!) and we were relieved when we finally received the invitation.

After the initial excitement the reality then struck, what are we going to wear? Phil loves dressing up and he decided at once that he was going to wear a morning suit and because it would probably be the only time he would wear one, we hired it from Moss Bros.

For me though, it was a different matter as I had to be careful about what type of dress I bought. I have a stoma bag fitted and I can’t wear close fitting clothes, so I prefer dresses that flow down from the waist, disguising the bag and nothing will be pressed down on it.

My dress is a long story, so I’ll cut it short (not the dress!)- I bought a dress from Phase Eight, which I was happy with and I borrowed a fascinator from a good friend which matched it. Then, on the morning of the Garden Party we went to the O2 shopping mall and I fell in love with another dress from Hobbs London, so I ended up wearing that one instead, luckily my fascinator still matched!

We booked a hotel for two nights in London, a Travelodge just by Waterloo Station. This hotel was a great choice and judging by the amount of women in fascinators and men in morning suits milling around the reception, lots of other garden party goers thought so as well.

We all gazed outside the reception doors and sighed as the rain fell, some had waterproofs on, others had umbrellas clasped in their hands, hoping against hope that they wouldn’t need to use them. We were in the latter category after Phil had hurriedly ran to a shop a couple of doors down to buy two umbrellas and had nearly had a heart attack when the guy asked for £18 for both!

We shared a taxi with two sisters, one of whom had worked for the NHS for 30 years and that’s why she was nominated. By the way, Phil was nominated for his work with Hampshire Constabulary, he is the Catering Manager for all the Hampshire Police restaurant sites and has worked there for over 30 years!

We had a lovely conversation with the two sisters on the way to Buckingham Palace and when we were dropped off, the rain had become a drizzle, but we weren’t prepared for the queue to get in. It was very long, but once it started moving, it went very quickly.

After going through security, we were in the Palace grounds and the rain was still just a drizzle.

We decided to go to the Tent and have our afternoon tea. It was very busy, but very well organised and we were ushered to a line by one of the assistants. The choice of food was great with both sandwiches, wraps, cakes and of course, scones with jam and cream! There was a choice of a cup of tea or an iced coffee – I had the iced coffee which was delicious.

The rain then began to steadily fall heavier and heavier, but we wanted to see the Royals and so we stood along the route that they would be taking.

At this point it really was raining cats and dogs and so we decided to take shelter in the tent and see if we could see the Royals later on. We did get glimpses of them and I could see that Prince William was there and also Mike Tindall.

We then decided to brave it and took a walk towards the Royal Tent, where again we caught glimpses of Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.

We were told by a member of the staff that they would be leaving the tent at 5.30 and then we had a stroke of luck. Phil remembered somebody telling him who had been to a Garden Party before that they left via a gravel path to a door on the side of Buckingham Palace. We walked up towards the exit and found that exact spot. We took our place at the front and waited hopefully for a sighting of the Royal Party.

Boy, were we rewarded, the Royals all came up the path, stopping and speaking to lots of people and I managed to get some video of Zara Tindall, who looked absolutely stunning, Mike Tindall and of Prince William posing for a photograph with some attendees.

I uploaded the video on my personal account on X, formerly Twitter, and I was gobsmacked by the amount of likes, reposts and comments (not all favourable towards the Royal family, I might add) that these videos received! The video of Prince William was also used by prolific Royal watchers – According2Taz, Harry’s Gray Suit and Rebecca English!

Then it was time to go back to the hotel. We walked through the park with lots of other damp Garden Partyers, the women with soaked shoes and soggy fascinators and the men with saturated suits and drops of rain falling from their top hats, but everyone was smiling and that’s what we British do best – we don’t let the weather defeat us!

Going down the escalator in the Underground, I heard a lady say, “Is there a posh wedding somewhere? Everyone is dressed very fancy.” Little did she know that we’d just had afternoon tea with the Royal Family.