Queen Elizabeth to host dinner for visiting royals

Britain's Queen Elizabeth will welcome a host of foreign royals at a special dinner the night before the royal wedding.

Although the bride-and-groom-to-be Prince William and Kate Middleton aren't expected to attend, senior members of the royal family and others from around the globe will join the monarch at London's Mandarin Oriental hotel on April 28, before the wedding in Westminster Abbey the next day.

Hosted by the queen's cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson - who runs Party Planners, a firm that specialises in organising high society events - the dinner is expected to be attended by Queen Margrethe of Denmark, King Harald of Norway, and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden.

Also joining the party will be King Abdullah of Jordan and his wife Queen Rania, Prince Felipe of Spain and his wife Princess Letizia, the Sultan of Oman, the Sultan of Brunei, Prince Albert of Monaco and the Sheikha Mozah of Qatar.

British royals to attend include the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and possibly Prince Charles and Camilla.

Displaced royals who have been invited are ex-King Constantine of Greece and his Danish wife Queen Anne-Marie, as well as Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia and his wife Katherine.

Meanwhile, it is feared the 85-year-old monarch is working too hard in the build-up to her grandson's nuptials as she was forced to miss a public engagement for the first time in five years this week when she suffered a heavy nosebleed.

The queen was due to attend a service of the Royal Victorian Order with other senior members of the Royal Family at Windsor on Wednesday (13.04.11) morning but pulled out at the last minute.

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said "The queen had been due to attend the service but was forced to pull out due to a nosebleed. She did, however, attend a reception afterwards."