Americans are fascinated by the British royal family. To us, they are superstars and we follow them and their lives as closely as any other famous person.
On November 27th, 2017, it was announced that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were engaged, and Americans couldn’t be happier. That meant another royal wedding was going to happen soon!
And now, that time has come! This weekend, the prince and his beautiful bride will tie the knot. Because this is a financial blog, we can’t help but ask the question: how much does a royal wedding cost?
The average American wedding can shoot upwards of $34,000! To us, that’s a lot of money, but it pales in comparison to the amount the royal family will shell out. Back in 2011, Prince William married Kate Middleton at an astounding cost of $34 million!
Let’s look at this year’s epic ceremony and breakdown what the royal family is expected to spend this time around.
1) Reception
This part of the celebration isn’t as expensive as it could be. Being the royal family has some perks, meaning they own a lot of gorgeous, historic castles and buildings. They also own fleets of cars, too. That means holding the reception at George’s Great Hall and using Queen Elizabeth’s fleet of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces for transportation won’t cost a dime.
Not every part of the reception will be free, though. According to sources, the cost of luxurious portable toilets will cost more than the average American wedding at $50,000! It’ll cost them $500,000 alone for the marquee. So, while they’re ‘saving money’ by not having to rent a place, the added costs are unfathomable!
2) Food and Catering
Could you imagine spending $70,000 on a wedding cake? That’s what the royal family just did, hiring the talents of famed pastry chef Clair Ptak from California. The catering for this event is estimated to hit nearly 700,000! That seems like a lot of money, but when you consider the bottles of Bollinger champagne, costing $115 EACH, then you start to see why it’s so expensive.
3) Entertainment
What’s a wedding with entertainment? And when you’re filthy rich as the royal family, you can virtually afford whoever you want. They’re expected to spend around $510,000 for various entertainment surprises. $129,000 of this is for the silver-plated trumpets, personalized for each guest.
They also expect to have choirs, photo booths, entertainment for the kids, a DJ, a band, and even a fireworks display worthy of royalty. For that much money spent on entertainment, let’s hope the band is good! (Rumors say Elton John is scheduled to perform)
4) Wedding Dress
We all know that the dress is one of the most important parts of the wedding. It’s also one of the most expensive. It can take a future bride several months to find the right dress for her. It’s unknown what the future princess paid for her dress, but estimates are up near the $500,000 mark.
5) Decorations and Favors
Another $700,000 was spent on the rest of the wedding, including the decorations, floral displays, invitations, seating, dance floor, security, party favors, lighting, photographers, and so on. I’m sure you can imagine a gorgeous Windsor Castle converted into a wedding palace fit for a fairytale.
The invitations alone were over $200,000 and printed in gold ink. Now that’s money!
Wedding Controversy
While the U.S. is anticipating this major event, a lot of U.K residents aren’t happy. A petition has been going around, stating that the royal wedding is nothing more than what should be a private event dressed up like a national occasion to justify spending tax dollars to cover the event.
While the royal family gets millions from the government, most of the wedding won’t be paid for by taxpayers. They will have to pay for the massive security to keep guests safe during a high-profile event, costing them $10 million.
The cost is also measured in economic output. During the 2011 royal wedding, there was a 1.6% drop in production, which amounted to $3.1 billion lost. We can expect the same to happen this time around, which makes a lot of people in the U.K. wonder why they still have a monarchy to this day.
