William and Kate attend the Jordanian royal wedding

The Prince and Princess of Wales have been spotted at a luxury hotel in Amman ahead of Jordan’s royal wedding today.

The British royal family will see Crown Prince Hussein, 28, marry Saudi architect Rajwa Alseif, 29, at Zahran Palace, the same venue chosen by the prince’s father, King Abdullah II, and his grandfather, the late King Hussein.

Prince William was scheduled to attend, but it was unknown if his wife would also be in attendance until they were filmed walking through the bar of a 5-star hotel in the Jordanian capital last night.

Dressed in a smart blazer and white blouse, Kate is said to have grown close to Queen Rania of Jordan, the groom’s mother.

The marriage comes after a difficult period for Jordan’s royal family, including a public split between the king and his half-brother, and is seen as a way to bolster public support at a time of ongoing economic hardship.

Designed to convey a sense of continuity, Thursday’s ceremony is expected to feature some of the same features as previous royal weddings, including a motorcade of red Land Rovers escorting the couple through the streets of Amman after the ceremony.

Palace officials are tight-lipped about other elements of the wedding, including the full guest list and details of the bride’s dress.

US First Lady Jill Biden and several members of royal families from around the world have announced their presence, including the King and Queen of the Netherlands.

The celebrations kicked off last week with a henna party for Mrs. Alseif, hosted by Jordan’s Queen Rania and attended by several hundred women.

Ms. Alseif has a degree in architecture and has lived and worked in Los Angeles. Her father is one of the founders of one of Saudi Arabia’s largest engineering firms and her mother is a relative of Saudi King Salman.

On the wedding day itself, 140 guests, including members of the Royal Hashemite family, royal guests and heads of state, will watch the couple tie the knot in the palace garden.

Thursday has been declared a national holiday, with celebratory events being organized in all 12 Jordanian governorates to allow citizens to participate in the festivities.

The couple will marry at Zahran Palace in an “elegant and understated religious ceremony.”

The couple will then move to Al Husseiniya Palace in a motorcade procession for the wedding reception, with a diverse lineup of performers paying tribute to the Crown Prince’s military career, his bride’s Saudi Arabian heritage and traditional Jordanian artistry.

The wedding reception will be hosted by King Abdullah II and Queen Rania, as well as the bride’s parents, with more than 1,700 guests.

The rest of the evening features a variety of performances from local and regional singers, a choral group, Jordanian bands, the national orchestra and folk dance groups.

The reception ends with the cutting of the wedding cake by the bridal couple.

On Monday, several thousand young Jordanians attended a free concert at the Amman International Stadium. The performers included well-known Arab singers, including Egypt’s Tamer Hosny.

Midway through his set, Hosny took his performance off stage and encouraged the crowd to sing along.

“For His Excellency, the beloved Crown Prince let out a huge round of applause,” Hosny said as he was surrounded by a wandering entourage in the stadium.

Rajwa graduated from Syracuse University in New York and attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles after completing her high school education in Saudi Arabia.

She has worked at an architectural firm in Los Angeles and currently works at the Designlab Experience studio in Riyadh.

She is the youngest daughter of Khaled M. Al-Saif and Azza bint Naif Al-Sudairi.

Mr. Al-Saif is CEO of the Al Saif Group, a private company with a diverse portfolio of healthcare, construction and security services companies, and is a board member of the Saudi-British Joint Business Council, which promotes trade between the two countries.

The eldest of King Abdullah and Queen Rania’s four children, Crown Prince Hussein is a graduate of the prestigious Georgetown University in Washington DC and served in the military after graduating from Sandhurst in 2017.

In 2015, he made history as the youngest chairperson of a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

He made headlines last year when he hosted Prince William on a visit to the Middle East.

His proud mother Rania shared her joy on Instagram after announcing their engagement in September.

She posted a slideshow of images and wrote, “I didn’t think it was possible to keep so much joy in my heart!” Congratulations to my eldest Prince Hussein and his beautiful bride-to-be, Rajwa.

In Arabic, Rania continued, “I prayed to Allah – like me, like every mother – to…find the one you love, Rajwa came.

“Congratulations to my son, Prince Al-Hussein, and our precious and dear bride Rajwa – may Allah bless you and make you happy.”

One of Jordan’s last notable royal weddings took place in June 1993 when Abdullah married Rania, who was born into a Palestinian family in Kuwait.

They had met in Amman earlier that year, when he was not yet crown prince and she worked in marketing.

The couple’s trajectory changed in January 1999 when Abdullah’s father, who was near death at the time, gave the title of Crown Prince to Abdullah, his eldest son.

After Hussein died on February 7, 1999, Abdullah became king.