Meet the super-fan traveling 3,000 miles for royal wedding

A royal family super-fan is traveling over 3,000 miles to watch Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s wedding in Windsor.

Charmaine Gooden has been obsessed with UK royalty since she was a young girl growing up in Jamaica, she told the BBC.

“I’ve been following the royals since I was 13,” she said. “Every child, especially if you grow up under British Colony, there’s all this fairytale,” she said about the royal family.

Gooden remembers the announcement of Prince Charles’ wedding to Diana in 1981 really making the fairy tale come alive for her.

“This was the first real life thing where it actually does exist,” she said enthusiastically. “A princess!”

The monarchy maven keeps all of her royal memorabilia in a glass-encased shelf, and showed off one striking piece – a pink porcelain plate with Queen Elizabeth II’s face on it.

“How much stuff has this woman seen,” Gooden said of the Queen. “From World Wars, and Churchill and all the decisions having to be made…”

Gooden, an HR manager for Microsemi, flew to London for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011 from Ottawa where she now lives. She’ll be making the trip again this week.

“I’m hoping it’s a similar atmosphere and that people come out to celebrate,” she said. “I care because I see it as an element of positivity.”

The aspect of the nuptials she’s most looking forward to?

“The dress,” she said.

Prince Harry, 32, and Meghan Markle, 36, will tie the knot at Windsor Castle on Saturday.