Meghan Markle Arrives at Hotel with Mom and Says She's Feeling 'Wonderful' on Royal Wedding Eve

Meghan Markle has officially checked in.

Meghan and her mom, Doria Ragland, have arrived at the hotel where she’ll spend her last night as a single woman — and a commoner — the night before her royal wedding. Meghan and Ragland checked into Cliveden House Hotel, located about a 30-minute drive away from Windsor Castle.

Upon her arrival, Meghan said that she was feeling “wonderful, thank you.”

Meghan and Ragland smiled and waved to the photographers as they made their way inside the hotel. Meghan wore Roland Mouret’s Barwick Dress, and a pair of Manolo Blahnik heels as she made her entrance. Ragland wore a white dress with a black cardigan over it.

With an air of breezy confidence that belied the drama of recent days, she walked into the Cliveden House Hotel straight after she and her mother Doris Ragland had met the Queen at Windsor Castle.

• Don’t miss out! Tune in to Meghan and Harry – a Fairy-Tale Wedding on Saturday, May 19, starting at 6 a.m. ET/ 3 a.m. PT on PeopleTV — now available on PeopleTV.com and on your favorite streaming device.

Both women smiled warmly as they were greeted by the hotel’s general manager Kevin Brooke and his deputy Andre Bremermann on red carpet at the front of the hotel. Less than an hour before their arrival, the grounds of the estate, which is owned by the National Trust, were closed to the public to keep nosy onlookers and the press away.

Meghan looking glamorous in navy blue, even managed a friendly wave to the small group of media there to record her arrival. Asked how she was feeling, she said: “Wonderful, thank you.”

However underneath her confident exterior Meghan — like Prince Harry — is said to be suffering the “normal nerves” of any couple getting married, a royal source tells PEOPLE.

“They are both ready,” the source says. “The last couple of days all their friends have been arriving. I think everything has started to feel very real after a long time planning. All weddings are complicated to plan, and something on this scale is completely different. They have made every decision.”

A white tented portico covered the entrance to the east wing, where they are staying, to make sure no television crews or photographers get a shot of the dress when she leaves in the morning. The dress is understood to have arrived at Cliveden before Meghan did.

A team of around three assistants will be on hand to help the bride with the dress and her hair and makeup in the morning.

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Meghan Markle and Doria Ragland

Steve Parsons/PA Wire

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Even though they have been living in cosy domesticity together for the last few months in Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, the couple have decided to observe the marriage tradition of spending their last night apart.

While Meghan, 36, was staying at Cliveden, which overlooks the Thames at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, Prince Harry was staying with his best man Prince William 15 miles away at Coworth Park, on the other side of Windsor.

Tomorrow morning, Meghan will get ready in her room at Cliveden — luckily, all rooms come equipped with an attached dressing room. Ragland will accompany Meghan in the car to Windsor Castle. There, Meghan will walk down the aisle with Prince Charles, as her father, Thomas Markle, will not be attending the ceremony.

Located in the nearby town of Maidenhead, Cliveden is a stately British country home with a lot of history. Before the 350-year-old estate became a hotel, several aristocrats and even a royal called it home. Frederick, Prince of Wales — the father of King George III — rented the house in the 1730s. And the house had its place in pop culture, too: If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, you might remember that it’s where Lady Mary and her newspaper magnate fiancé Richard Carlisle were first introduced.

Meghan Markle

Steve Parsons/PA Wire

• Don’t miss out! Tune in to Meghan and Harry – a Fairy-Tale Wedding on Saturday, May 19, starting at 6 a.m. ET/ 3 a.m. PT on PeopleTV — now available on PeopleTV.com and on your favorite streaming device.

Meghan Markle and Doria Ragland

Steve Parsons/PA Wire

Prince Harry and Prince William will also spend the night at a hotel, the Dorchester Collection’s Coworth Park, which is located in the town of Ascot (near Ascot Racecourse). Harry and Meghan made their first public appearance together on the grounds of the five-star hotel, at a polo match in April 2017 — where they shared their first public kiss.

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