Windsor castle is reflected in the window of a shop selling royal wedding memorabilia in Windsor 08 April 2005. (AFP photo)

BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhuanet) -- British heir to the throne Prince Charles Saturday finally marries his true love Camilla Parker Bowles whom the public still bridles at accepting as a future queen, in a low-key ceremony on Saturday.

    Attendance has been limited to about 30 guests and the children of the bride and groom.

    As the weekend wedding of the 50-something divorcees approached ¡ª delayed for years by complications and put off for one more day by a pope's funeral ¡ª the town of Windsor was being buffed to a royal luster, and the faithful scouted sidewalk vantage points.

    And Queen Elizabeth, never a fan of the 35-year affair that spanned both partners' failed marriages, will not attend the civil ceremony for her eldest son in Windsor's lowly town hall.

    The 56-year-old Charles -- that's his Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland -- met Camilla Shand at a polo match in 1970.

    "She wasn't considered a suitable bride for Charles at that time," said Sally Cartwright, publishing director of the celebrity journal Hello.

    "She had some kind of history. She'd had lovers. She wasn't a virgin. And at that stage, we were still thinking in a kind of '50s way that any royal bride to be a guaranteed certified virgin coming pure."

    In 1971, Charles joined the Royal Navy, and drifted apart from his girlfriend.

    In 1973, she married a longstanding admirer, army officer Andrew Parker Bowles.

    The prince and Camilla remained friends -- but Charles' fairy-tale wedding to Diana made the the romance look like ancient history.

    But Charles and Diana separated in 1992.

    The same year, recordings of some rather amorous discussions between Charles and a woman widely assumed to be Parker Bowles came to light.

    In a 1995 interview, Diana told the BBC that "there were three of us in this marriage" and conceded her own infidelity. The royal couple divorced in 1996.

    Diana died in a 1997 auto accident in Paris, prompting an outpouring of worldwide grief.

    The wedding has been hit by blunders from the start.

¡¡  First the venue had to be switched from Windsor Castle to the town hall in a mix-up over marriage licenses.

    Charles then had to postpone the wedding by 24 hours because it clashed with Pope John Paul's funeral, which he attended on Friday as the royal family's representative.

    He was embroiled in yet another controversy after shaking hands at the funeral with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, officially shunned in Britain as a dictator.

    "The Prince of Wales was caught by surprise and wasn't in a position to avoid shaking Mr Mugabe's hand," said a spokesman for Charles.

    Camilla, hoping in vain for a low-key ceremony, said her big day was just a case of "two old people getting hitched."

    Saturday's civil ceremony is to begin at 12:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. GMT, 7:30 a.m. ET) in a guild hall outside Windsor Castle, one of the royal family's official residences.

    The day will inevitably stir painful memories for Charles's sons, Princes William and Harry, who witnessed firsthand the collapse of their parents' wedding and then lost their mother.

    Opinion polls show a majority accept Charles and Camilla finally tying the knot -- but less than one in 10 support her becoming Queen one day.

    (Agencies)