The historic handshake planned between the Queen and Martin McGuinness is to take place behind closed doors, it emerged on Friday.
The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister will attend a cross-border event in Belfast on Wednesday, which Irish President Michael D Higgins will also attend.
But the initial meeting and handshake between the Queen and the senior Sinn Fein representative is expected to take place in a private room at the beginning of the engagement, sources close to the planning have said.
After receiving the invitation, Sinn Fein took time to decide whether McGuinness meeting the Queen was a good idea. The party had previously said it had yet to be presented with a "doable proposition" over such an encounter.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams after a meeting decided the handshake would go ahead
The meeting is nevertheless being seen as a major milestone in efforts to normalise relations between nationalists and unionists.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams confirmed that his party's ruling executive had backed the planned meeting.
But he added: "This will understandably cause difficulties for some republicans and nationalists, especially for those folks who suffered at the hands of British forces."
Earlier Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, a TD in the Irish Republic, said any handshake would not be considered part of Jubilee celebrations.
"I'm very conscious that this is a big ask of republicans," she said.
Mrs McDonald said she was expecting a reasoned debate at the ard chomhairle meeting in Dublin and added that Mr McGuinness was conscious of the views of a million unionists in Northern Ireland and their affinity with the monarch.
It had been believed that plans for a 20,000-strong celebration of the Queen's reign, to be held at Stormont during the Queen's two day visit, made it more difficult for republicans to hold a meeting there.