Image source, Lewis Whyld/PA Wire

The US president will be wined and dined in the Buckingham Palace ballroom this evening, with around 170 guests expected to attend.

The Queen, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will be joined by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, along with prominent Americans living in Britain.

The prime minister is also expected to attend along with a number of cabinet ministers including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, House of Commons Speaker John Bercow and Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable are all boycotting the event.

Preparations for the banquet will have begun six months before and it takes palace staff three days to lay the table.

Every detail is inspected, checked and approved by the Queen.

The alcohol for the event is provided by the UK government, while the food is prepared by royal chefs.

The monarch will be seated next to Mr Trump at the top end of the vast U-shaped table, along with First Lady Melania Trump, Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Both Mr Trump and the Queen will make a speech, followed by the playing of national anthems.

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Sir Nigel Sheinwald, former British ambassador to the US, says tomorrow is when we will see "where the political rubber will hit the road" after the pageantry today.

He says pomp on its own is not enough to cement a relationship between leaders, and there also needs to be a shared agenda and shared values.

He adds that President Trump is visiting the UK at a time of "uncertainty and some weakness" for the UK, but he's "not necessarily taking advantage of it".

He says visits by previous US presidents have taken place when there was a "sense of a shared world view", but this is different now.

He says he thinks Mr Trump will use his meetings tomorrow to "put his strongest case" for British politicians to "overturn" the "apparent decision" to involve Chinese telecoms firm Huawei in the construction of the UK's new 5G network.

He says it appears the matter "has not yet been settled in the British government".

The US president tweeted that he was yet to see any protesters in London - but a small number have gathered outside Buckingham Palace, with significantly more expected tomorrow from 11:00 BST.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

Lucy Manning
BBC News Special Correspondent

The first demonstrations against Donald Trump's visit began today - although the main protests are planned for Tuesday, when thousands are expected to take to the streets.

BBC News special correspondent Lucy Manning says the protests so far have been "very low key" - with a couple of hundred people gathered near Buckingham Palace throughout the day.

“It has been a particularly British calm affair with posters next to each other saying welcome President Trump next to banners saying wish you weren’t here."

She adds that women's groups are expected to be demonstrating at the same time as the state banquet at Buckingham Palace by holding a "people's banquet".

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

There is going to be something rather curious about the meeting between Donald Trump and Theresa May tomorrow, not just because they’re such different characters – they are absolutely political chalk and cheese.

But also the prime minister has got one foot out of the door in Downing Street.

So while there will be serious conversations about Huawei, about Iran, about climate change, I don’t think this is going to be some huge meeting of minds that’s going to end up with some big change in policy on any of those kinds of issues.

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Cassie Smedlie, press secretary at the National Republican Committee, said the special relationship between the US and UK was "absolutely" as important to the US as it is to the UK.

She said regular scheduled programming in the US was stopped "to break in to watch the greeting with the royal family" earlier.

"It was a momentous occasion, seemed to be a very warm reception," she said.

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BBC royal correspondent Daniela Relph says: "Some of the household staff will be working out exactly the right distance with a ruler between each place setting, each piece of cutlery and crockery, where the chairs are place.

"The Queen also has an overview of how the whole thing looks. There is no holding back for a state banquet, it will be all the trappings that you'd expect."

Referring to the speeches, she adds: "Crucially, we will hear from the president and we will hear from the Queen. That is going to be really interesting - what does Donald Trump say, does he hold back a little bit?"

On the guest list will be more members of the Royal Family, including the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and perhaps some of Mr Trump's children.

At least two Tory leadership candidates - Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt - are expected at the banquet.