London tourists can follow in royals' footsteps

They have already bought their sapphire-and-diamond engagement rings from the Home Shopping Network, found wedding gowns at local thrift shops and planned their rehearsal dinner and wedding day events. Never mind that Gigi Baay and Marianne Swanson of New Orleans are married with children. The two friends have been planning a celebration of Kate Middleton and Prince William's nuptials for months. Though neither has an invitation to Westminster Abbey, what they do have are plane tickets to London, where they plan to spend the royal wedding weekend celebrating in regal fashion.

"It sort of began as a joke over lunch last December," said Baay, explaining that she and Swanson were discussing whether they should visit a third high school friend who now lives in London. "Suddenly we thought, 'Let's go for the wedding,' and that was it," she said, adding that the two of them planned to spend that very afternoon making toile veils to wear with their gowns around London on the big day.

"Sure it is an excuse to go to London," Swanson said, "but we are also going to take part in a very elegant part of history."

They are hardly the only tourists heading to England for the royal wedding on Friday, April 29, a day that has been declared a national holiday throughout Britain. Visit Britain, the official tourist organization, is anticipating more spectators in town for Will's wedding than those who came to the capital 30 years ago for his parents' marriage at St. Paul's Cathedral. "We expect at least an extra 600,000 visitors," said Mark Di-Toro, a spokesman for Visit Britain. "But it could be as many as a million this time."

So how can one celebrate the couple's union beyond watching it at home with what is predicted to be three-quarters of the world's television viewing audience? Easily, with this unofficial Royal Wedding Guide to London — for last-minute travelers (with lots of money) who want to be there for the wedding or for those who visit the British capital later this year and get the royal flavor.

Being there

Getting to London from Seattle for a few nights stay at wedding time will cost more than $3,000 round-trip on British Airways' nonstop flights to Heathrow.

Hotels throughout London are also offering wedding packages, but you'll pay royally: At the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, a minimum of three nights' stay starts at 840 pounds per couple, or about $1,395.

Cheaper stays: If you don't want to spend a king's ransom on a last-minute wedding visit (or a post-wedding trip to London), check out www.crashpadder.com, which has more than 500 hosts in London renting out rooms in their homes at an average cost of about $50 a night. Also check www.couchsurfing.com — a free travel-exchange with hosts offering a spare couch or bed — and www.airbnb.com for people's spare-room or apartment rentals.

A photo with William

What better way to celebrate the wedding than to have an engagement photo taken with the prince himself. The Stephen Friedman gallery, in London's Mayfair neighborhood, has a life-size wax statue of William, complete with a replica of Kate's engagement ring attached to his forearm. Link your arm through his, slip your finger through the ring, and in an instant, become Kate. www.stephenfriedman.com

Walk like a royalist

London Walks has a two-hour royal wedding walk for 8 pounds that includes "glamour, tradition, intrigue, scandal, insider info, royal nuptial bliss (or otherwise) down through the centuries." It will continue through the summer. www.walks.comCelebrity Planet also offers a royal wedding walk and chauffeur-driven tour. www.thecelebrityplanet.com

See the royal ride

Ride royally: Even though Buckingham Palace, where Kate and William are expected to kiss on the balcony, is currently closed to the public, one can visit the Royal Mews next door. It houses, among other transport treasures, the two carriages they are expected to use on their wedding day — the Glass Coach and the 1902 State Landau. Both will be on display before and after the wedding. Information: www.royal.gov.uk.

To the palace gift shop

Make sure to stop at the Buckingham Palace gift shop, where the only "official" royal couple merchandise is being sold — a pale blue-and-white line of bone china that includes a plate (40 pounds), tankard (35 pounds) and pillbox (25 pounds).

Eat like a king

Though Kate and Will have been spotted at various restaurants, two in particular seem to be favorites: for Will, Foxtrot Oscar, a clubby Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Chelsea; and for Kate, the Ebury Brasserie in nearby Pimlico, where she is frequently seen. For tea, reserve a table at the Goring Hotel — after the wedding since rumor has it that Kate's family will be staying at the 100-year-old hotel, once a favorite haunt of Winston Churchill's, during the wedding period.

Party on, Will and Kate

It is hardly a secret that the royal couple's favorite nightclubs are Mahiki, a tiki bar in Mayfair, and Boujis, a club in South Kensington, but a new favorite is 86, a sleek cocktail bar and restaurant in a Georgian town house in Chelsea — a place many think might feature in Kate's last bachelorette outings, though it is hard to imagine her ordering their Pornstar Martini.

Kristin Jackson of Seattle Times Travel contributed to this report.