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A Royal Price tag for a Royal Wedding: How does the Meghan/Harry wedding compare to the average commoners special day?

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It should come to no surprise that the royal wedding of Meghan Markel and Prince Harry will be a little bit on the pricy side. With the wedding season beginning in the U.S. as well, many brides are planning to look towards May 19th as inspiration for their own upcoming nuptials, but can the average bride fit the bill?

The wedding is of course being paid for by the groom’s family, which means sky is the limit for this couples big day. Each royal wedding cost will be compared to the average wedding cost to see just how big of a gap there is. Brace yourself, it’s about to get pricy.

Total Costs
Let’s get the big number out of the way before we break it down. The total cost for the royal wedding is expected to be around $45,520,300. I’ll pause while you take that in.
However, a majority of the nearly 46 million dollar price tag is devoted to security, $42,700,000 to be precise. That leaves about 2.8 million for the normal festivities,

Average wedding: $25,515. Of course you don’t need 43 million dollars of security, which cuts out a huge portion of the cost, but the royal wedding is still 107x greater than the average wedding. That means their wedding is like paying for 107 average weddings. Woah.

Venue
Royal: $498,000. Although they don’t have to pay to use St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle where their ceremony will be held, the couple plans to build a luxury, glass marquee on the venue grounds costing $427,100.

Average: $3,611. If you are hoping for a castle wedding, you may be paying a little more than just the 3 thousand dollar average, but we’ll leave that up to you to figure out.

Food
Royal: $407,175. Granted they do have a lot more meals to pay for than the average wedding. The food service for the wedding will proceed as following: a lunch reception, an afternoon tea with 2,640 members of the public, and an evening dinner for family and friends. That’s a lot of meals and a lot of mouths to feed, but when it comes to feeding the Queen, you can’t have anything but the best.

Average: $4,667. Food is often the most expensive cost for a wedding. Many brides have switched to less traditional options like light appetizers or desserts only to save some money, but it you are set on luxury plated steak or salmon, be ready for a pricy bill.

Cake
According to Brides.com, the couple’s cake will be made by Claire Ptak of the London-based Violet Bakery and will cost $70,000.  This lemon elderflower cake with buttercream frosting and covered in flowers will capitalize on the time of the wedding.

Average: $418. You can still get a very beautiful, and delicious, cake for a far cheaper price, although number of mouths can affect the price the most. If you want lemon and elderflower, it probably won’t be too hard to find either at a more reputable bakery.

Dress
If you thought the dresses from Kleinfeld’s were expenses, hold onto your breeches. Although no information about the dresses designer or style has been revealed, Meghan’s dress is expected to cost around $420,000. Prince Harry’s attire clocks in at $11,000.

Average: $1,220. I’m sorry if you were hoping to get an exact replica on Meghan Markel’s dress when it is revealed Saturday, but it will probably be a little higher than you were ready to pay for.

Flowers
The couple spares no expense on decorations for their festivities and flowers are no exception. We all know flowers can add up fast, but a $155,000 floral budget is a lot of stems. We don’t know much about the flowers, except that she will be incorporating traditional white myrtle into the floral arrangements somehow.

The average couple spends around $1,870 on flowers for their wedding. Some brides have even switches to artificial flower bouquets and centerpieces to save even more money.  Flowers in season are often cheaper than ordering ones outside of season, so keep that in mind!

Lighting and Production
An elite London production company will help set up and run all the lights and fun for the reception for a bill of $183,000. That is one serious party!

Average lighting and reception production costs around $337. Do you really need more than a disco ball and a couple colored lights?

Music
Rumors of performances from Elton John, The Spice Girls and Ed Sheeran have been floating around for a while now, and we can’t expect them to perform for free. Additionally, the royal family will pay for the ceremony music from the church choirs to the organist which will cost a total of $420,000 for everything.
Depending on which way you go in the form of music, a DJ can cost about $736; or a live wedding band can be booked for about $1,700 a night. Just request some Ed Sheeran songs and call it close enough!

Photos and Video
Last, but not least is documenting the day! For top notch photography and video on their special day, the couple will rack up about $24,000 for his family to pay for. That’s right, just their photographer and videographer alone is the price of an average wedding.

An average wedding will spend $2,678 on a photographer and videographer combined. It’s a good place to put your money towards on your wedding day, so you can look back on your one day feeling like royalty.

While it is mind boggling to see all these expenses for one single wedding, we are also excited to see it all come together tomorrow! Whether your wedding budget is 2 million or 2 thousands, we want to wish you a happy royal wedding weekend and best luck on your own nuptials!

Photo Found from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/prince-harry-meghan-markle-engaged/story?id=46148130

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