Massive windfall from royal wedding

THE estimated total spend on the upcoming royal wedding will make your eyes water. But it will have some surprising benefits for the British economy.

The royal wedding is expected to cost in excess of 32 million pounds ($AU58 million). Picture: Matt Dunham/AP

WE ALL know weddings aren’t cheap.

It’s a multibillion-dollar industry, and in Australia alone the average special day costs over $50,000.

So what do you get when you combine a British prince, a Hollywood actress, an enormous castle and an estimated global audience of over two billion?

A hell’van eye-watering amount, that’s what. The royal wedding is expected to cost in excess of £32 million ($AU58 million) — most of which is allotted for security.

But according to Bloomberg, the wedding is predicted to boost the British retail sector by a one-off £120 million ($AU216 million), as people hold street parties and buy commemorative plates — not to mention all the tacky merchandise.

The march is out in full force, from SodaStream’s limited-edition royal wedding bottle “hats” to these rather discomforting Harry and Meghan swimsuits.

Creepy.

Royal tourism rakes in close to $AU1 billion per year, Bloomberg reported. At the same time, the national tourism body has flown in media representatives from all over the world, with around 150 journalists estimated to be covering the occasion.

According to the Morning Advertiser, pubs are expecting to reel in a £10 million boost to trade on Saturday.

Licensing hours have been extended on the evenings of May 18 and 19 until 1am the following morning.

A total of 350,000 visitors came to the UK for the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Tourism, however, may not make much of a difference this time around.

A spokesman for ForwardKeys, a company which monitors 17 million flight bookings per day, said there was “no discernible increase in bookings for the UK as a consequence of the royal wedding”.

Queen Elizabeth, 92, receives income through The Crown Estate, which has made more than £2.6 billion in profits over the last decade, which it gives to the British government.

In return, the royal family receives an annual 15 per cent of the profits.

HOW MUCH WILL THE ROYAL WEDDING COST?

Here’s a breakdown, courtesy of wedding planning app Bridebook:

Security — £30 million

This was the figure for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011.

While the May 19 wedding won’t be taking place in central London, security is expected to be extremely tight.

Venue — £350,000

The wedding will take place at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. While the pair don’t need to pay for the venue, they do need to cover a luxury marquee for the reception, which makes up the bulk of the venue cost at £300,000.

The catering, security and staff make up the remainder of the price.

Music — £300,000

The bell ringers. The organist. The choirs. The wedding band. The DJ. The prospective world-famous entertainers.

Bridebook estimates a music budget of around £300,000 all in all. With rumours Elton John rakes in a tidy £80,000 per song at private events, this estimate may not be too far off the mark.

Oh — and throw in an additional £90,000 for trumpets.

Bride’s attire — £300,000

Meghan Markle’s dress will be the showstopper, so you can expect a whopper of a price tag to go with it.

The rumour is Ms Markle has spent £300,000 on her look for the big day, including her second dress for the evening. It’s believed she will pay for the dress herself.

Catering — £286,000

According to Bridebook, London caterers will charge at least £100 per guest for a lunch reception and £300 per guest for a dinner reception.

Don’t forget, there’ll be 2640 members of the public invited to Windsor.

Drinks — £193,000

The royals are a tad refined for Passion Pop. Bridebook calculates at least 2300 bottles to keep guests happy, including roughly 1700 bottles of vintage champagne and 650 bottles of wine, whiskey and cocktails.

A bottle of Bollinger, the royal family’s favourite Champagne, is worth about £80 a bottle — which equates to roughly £136,000 on champagne alone. Yowzah.

Floristry — £110,000

We all know flowers ain’t cheap, with estimates the flowers for the marquee alone will be approximately £70,000, plus an extra £40,000 for the church.

Cake — £50,000

With 800 guests to feed, Bridebook estimates an eight-tier cake made with expensive fresh fruit.

Other costs include stationary, wedding invitations, photography and videography, bridesmaids’ outfits and groomswear, hair and makeup, wedding favours and luxury toilets.

WHO’S PAYING?

In a statement, the royal family announced it will pay for the “core aspects of the wedding”, which include the “church service, the associated music, flowers, decorations and the reception afterwards”.

Full statement from @KensingtonRoyal about #princeharry & #meghanmarkle’s wedding next May. The Queen & DoE will obviously be there, as will Meghan’s parents. The Royal Family will pay for the wedding. #RoyalWedding2018 pic.twitter.com/wzDh3wx1lx

— Emily Andrews (@byEmilyAndrews) November 28, 2017