Queen Elizabeth II: What is it like to meet royalty?

In a small Canadian town and on a plane between Hong Kong and Japan - Wendy Perkins met the Queen in some interesting places.

While most people gave Her Majesty flowers, Wendy was actually given a bouquet from the Queen - and still has one of the roses 47 years later.

Queen Elizabeth II met thousands of people during her reign, from presidents to victims of tragedies.

For those who spent time with her, the memories remain vivid.

The interactions were as varied as the people she met - eating beans on toast, saving one star from embarrassment and talk of the Duke of Edinburgh's dislike of a famous beard.

"It's looking a bit sad now," Wendy said, looking at the rose she received from the Queen in 1975.

At the time, she was working as cabin crew for British Airways and was selected to work on the royal flight to Japan and Hong Kong.

Describing the pride and excitement, she joked the only downside was working on her day off to clean silver for the Royal cabin.

"Prince Philip came to chat to us and I don't know how he knew where I lived, but he said to me 'oh that's interesting, you live in Wales'. I was just star-struck," said Wendy, who lives in Broughton, Vale of Glamorgan.

After the visit to Hong Kong, as the Queen boarded the plane, she asked Wendy if she had a lovely time.

"I told her I loved the fireworks at the ceremony and then she gave me her bouquet of flowers. I kept one rose.

"Since that time, I always felt like I knew her. I know that's funny, but I just felt such admiration for her."

Her first glimpse of the Queen was in 1957 when she and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled through her hometown of Lynden in Ontario, Canada.

Wendy was a child at the time and recalled Queen Elizabeth II standing on the back of the royal train, adding: "We lived in such a small, rural community. She made us feel really special."

While many people are star-struck when meeting Neath-born soprano Katherine Jenkins, she admitted to similar feelings when meeting the Queen.

"I was invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace and that was quite nerve-racking as it was very intimate, just the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and some people from a charity and the military," she said.

"Just eight of us in total. I was a little nervous going into this lunch about my table manners.

"I was 25 or something and I was worried they might not be up to Buckingham Palace standards."

Jenkins admitted panicking when a bowl of water, piece of gauze and tray of fruit was passed around, saying: "I didn't know what to do with it.

"I felt that the Queen sensed my panic and I didn't know what to do and she very sweetly caught my eye and almost said without saying it 'follow me'.

"And I was so grateful that she saved me in that moment and what you did was wash the fruit in the bowl and take the gauze out and dry the piece of fruit.

"But she saved me from embarrassment and I was grateful... I might have drank it!"

Cardiff-born royal author and journalist Brian Hoey had a very different insight into royal eating habits away from formal settings.

On one visit to discuss a book he had written, the Queen had already read it and said: "I see that my daughter Anne has told you that her favourite meal is smoked salmon and scrambled eggs."

Mr Hoey replied "yes ma'am", to which she responded: "I don't know where she gets these expensive tastes. Certainly not here."

Mr Hoey said: "It could have been intimidating but the Queen made it so easy. She asked me what I liked to eat and I couldn't think of anything sophisticated.

"So I said 'beans on toast' and she said 'oh, I like those'. It was rather endearing."

"I was stood in a crowd and I had a notice on me, saying 'I am born on the same day as the Queen - 21 April 1926'," said Hilda Price, originally from Carmarthen.

Mrs Price described the Queen going over to her, excited to find someone sharing her birthday: "That was a wonderful day, I couldn't believe she had spoken to me.

"It struck me how ordinary she was when she spoke to us, it was just as if I was a next door neighbour to her. I expected far more poshness - she was lovely."

Opera star Bryn Terfel was worried about the Queen understanding his Welsh accent in 1992, but of a second meeting in 2005, he said: "I remember vividly going to a side room and all the Royal Family nearly were there and the Duke of Edinburgh said he didn't like my beard.

"So my accent, my beard... all these things... etiquette, when to shake hands, how to talk to these people who do such incredible work for the British Isles."

Artist Dan Llewellyn Smith's portrait of the Queen is hanging in Cardiff's Principality Stadium.

He said: "Because she was always being in the public eye, to get them off guard is actually quite difficult.

"But in those situations the sitting is essential because you are looking for that moment of insight into the personality."

He said she enjoyed "a bit of gossip" as he tried to capture that.