The royal wedding celebrations started early yesterday as people celebrated the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which takes place tomorrow.

Gwent went regal today for royal wedding celebrations.

Schools across the region put up bunting and made cakes for specially themed street parties.

In Newport Alway Primary School held a tea party in their grounds and children dressed up as princes and princesses for the occasion.

Head teacher Richard Hughes said: "It was lovely to give the children an opportunity to involve themselves in the whole occasion.

"If we can turn it into education for the children we will. We have had lessons reading up about this about relationships and weddings.

Teacher Louise Bell "We had a fantastic day. I was dressed as Snow White for the party.

"The kids loved it. They loved making all the decorations, which they have been working on all week, and they have been really involved in the whole occasion.

"The parents brought in donations of food, and the party was a huge success."

Llantarnam Primary School in Cwmbran had a street party at the school and there were celebrations held at Ambito, an adult day service which is also based in Cwmbran.

There was a community party at the Garndiffaith Millennium Hall in the afternoon.

Carol Gulliford from the hall's committee said: "We has about 70 children and we played party games, Punch and Judy and balloon man, cakes jelly and ice cream.

"It was lovely and everyone enjoyed it. We will have an afternoon tea themed around the royal wedding for the senior citizens in the next few weeks."

Gwyneira Clark, who is also a committee member, added: "It was wonderful, we got Lottery funding through Awards for All and this was the first of three functions we are having.

"The children and parents appreciate that they can come and enjoy the facilities. Everyone loved it."

One school used the occasion to raise money.

New Inn Primary School held a fancy dress run with a difference to raise money for an outdoor classroom.

500 pupils dressed up in red, white and blue to take part in a royal race. The distance that all the children ran combined was the equivalent distance from New Inn to Windsor Castle.

Head teacher, Kate Prendergast, said: “We have all had lots of fun ahead of the Royal Wedding.

“The nursery children have been bouncing on a bouncy castle. That was a lot of fun.

“While reception to year 6 pupils have all been on sponsored laps around the field.

“An interesting fact is that combining the distances ran by each pupil equates to the distance from here to Windsor Castle. The distance from here to Windsor is 123 miles.”

Teacher Will Alston said: “The children have been looking forward to this for a number of days.

“They have really enjoyed the day.”

One Newport resident is already in Windsor for the event.

Alexander Willis has been invited to the wedding because of his work as a Member of Youth Parliament.

The 16-year-old told the South Wales Argus: "There's a really great buzz in Windsor, everyone is so excited and all geared up for the wedding.

"I can't wait, it's a real honour to be invited.

"It will be fantastic being there in person to take part in the celebrations, and I'm sure it'll be a truly unforgettable day."

You can follow all the events from the day and celebrations happening in Gwent on our website southwalesargus.co.uk

Tweet us using the hashtag #GwentRoyalWedding to get involved.

Send photos from your own celebrations to newsdesk@southwalesargus.co.uk.