ROYAL wedding fever gripped Dorset and the New Forest yesterday ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s big day.

The couple are set to tie the knot today in Windsor, with millions of people around the world expected to watch the ceremony.

In anticipation of the wedding, several schools across the county held celebratory events yesterday.

Pupils at Ringwood Infant School dressed in red, white and blue, and held a street party-style outdoor lunch, while children at Hillview Primary School in Bournemouth took part in a crown and tiara day.

Residents across the conurbation are holding street parties today and Dorset is also set to be represented up in Windsor.

Former Bournemouth student Adam Tuffrey, 23, is one of 1,200 special guests to be invited to join in the celebrations. The singer songwriter, who is taking his 20-year-old sister Chloe, survived a nearly fatal encounter with bacterial meningitis and septicaemia at the age of six.

In 2011, he was appointed as one of the first Young Ambassadors for the Meningitis Trust and has since raised more than £50,000 for Meningitis Now by holding his Music 4 Meningitis concerts in Bournemouth and Weymouth. On his invitation, Adam said: “It was such a shock to get an invite in the post. It’s quite surreal as everyone I know will either by watching it on TV or at a street party and I’m going to be there. It’s very humbling.”

Adam will be joined by Poole couple Charlotte and Curtis Watton.

Charlotte, 24, received an invitation for her dedicated volunteering over the past five years with Broadstone Brownies and a charity challenge to Machu Picchu, Peru, that she completed in aid of GirlGuiding UK in 2016.

The couple enjoyed their own wedding in September last year and Curtis admitted he never could have imagined attending Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding when their engagement was announced in November.

“I was completely shocked and full of emotion when I was told I was selected,” Charlotte added.

“We kept it quiet from our friends until we received our invite through the post on Thursday, which was slightly nerve racking with it being so close to the big day.”