'I travelled 3200 miles to see the Royal Wedding…'

For me, it all started when I was six, during my first trip to the UK. We bought a jigsaw puzzle of King Henry VIII and I fell in love with everything about the Royal Family, the history of the monarchy, the castles and the grandeur. My family weren't really that into it all. I'm something of an anomaly.

That's where the seed was planted. But since the late Princess of Wales died in 1997, I've kind of had a one-track mind.

They announced the date of the Royal Wedding on 24 November. I booked my flights from Boston the very next day. For about $650 I took a direct, six-hour flight to London. I used to go to University in St Andrews and I'd get a cheaper flight with connections. But I just wanted to get straight there.

And as soon as I arrived, I made a beeline for The Mall. I remember coming up at Green Park at about 11am. It was sunny and beautiful, and there were these masses of people and that's when I knew it was something special.

There were a few tents already. I had a sleeping bag, but I gave away my mat to the person next to me. It was the coldest night of my life, lying on the bare ground with just a sleeping bag!

I slept from about 2am until 5am Friday, when my friend came from Greenwich to meet me - there were already thousands of people there. From when I arrived on Thursday morning until after the wedding on Friday, I only left my spot once, just to get some food from Tesco Express. I guess I was there about 29 hours.

But there was nothing between me and them. I had an unimpeded view of the royals!
I bought some garish flags and every newspaper I could get my hands on. I chose the Memorial instead of the Abbey because I wanted to be near enough to see the balcony.

It was incredible. The Queen was driving right past me. There was no one in the way. The Duchess of Cornwall was smiling brilliantly, waving at the crowd, and then she and I made eye contact, and I shrieked so loud. That was my favourite moment.

When I saw Kate in the Rolls Royce with her father, the only coherent thought I could register was 'She's an angel, with a halo!'. It was amazing.

I bought a biscuit tin… but it's not as garish as you'd think. I got an official Royal Wedding tankard, the official mug… I got plenty of the flags, and two more - very cheap - mugs on The Mall.

I came home with about $10 left. I spent about $250 on memorabilia. But I've probably spent about $6000 in my lifetime on the Royals. But when you're there and you're picking up Grazia and the Daily Mail and everything… well, it all adds up!

I even own a solar-panelled Queen Elizabeth II statue. Her handbag is the solar panel, and she waves, with varying degrees of ferocity, you know, depending on whether she's sat in the light or not. If Harry decides to get married, I'll probably look at flights again.

Sarah Binns was talking to Anthony Pearce.


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