Stephanie Mills and Nigel Stanley attend garden party with the Queen

Stephanie Mills and Nigel Stanley at the Queen's garden party

Stephanie Mills and Nigel Stanley were invited to attend a garden party with the Queen last week (Tuesday 3 June).

Stephanie, a former councillor for Littleborough Lakeside, was invited to the party due to her work in the local area.

She said: “It was a good day. They really did look after us all and put on a lovely afternoon.”

During the afternoon, Stephanie, who attended the party with her partner Nigel, got to see the gardens at Buckingham Palace as well as being treated to afternoon tea, which included sandwiches such as mint and cucumber, egg and cress and cakes with the royal crest stamped on.

Nigel said: “It was very surreal to walk through Buckingham Palace and into the garden but it was a good day and was definitely a once in a lifetime thing.”

Stephanie and Nigel didn’t get to meet the Queen but were close to her during the party.

“You are sort of held back a little so you don’t actually get to meet her but were we were standing, we were quite close to her,” said Nigel.

As well as the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla and the Duke and Duchess of Wessex were in attendance.

Stephanie added: “People had been invited to the party because of work they had done in the community and for good things that they had done. There were people who had done charity work, people who had worked with local government and people from selected businesses there.”

After the party, Stephanie was back to work riding horses at Dickey Steps Riding School.

She added: “It’s back to work now and back to normal. Back into my wellies and riding the horses.”