The Most Expensive Wedding Ever?

April 29, 2011 - PRLog -- http://www.economywatch.com/in-the-news/the-most-expensive-wedding-ever.29-04.htm

Kate Middleton and Prince William may be tieing the knot today, but while the rest of the world obsesses with the royal wedding in Westminster Abbey – EconomyWatch can’t help asking: What’s this really costing the UK taxpayer - and indeed the world?

Two billion people are expected to tune in. That’s two-thirds of the world. That’s more people watching the fairy-tale “I dos” than the World Cup. Only 750 million people watched Princess Di and Prince Charles get married in 1981.

According to an article in Global Trader:

The CBI reported the bank holiday alone will cost the country £5bn in lost production.

The cost of the wedding: Just under the £70m it cost Charles and Di to tie the knot in 1981.

In the real world, the cost of the average wedding in the UK is about £20,000: the dress £1,500; engagement ring and celebrations £1,200; stationery £500; stag and hen nights £280; and the service £520.

Extras such as the flowers, invitations and photographs add up too, but the biggest hike in recent years has been the cost of the honeymoon: £4,000.



However, the royal wedding is expected to boost the £7bn a year wedding industry in the UK. And give the UK plenty of global tourist promotional value. Or, billions in tourist receipts.

Another report on thinq estimates:

"The cost of the hitching is estimated at some £30 million, which benefit scroungers the Royal Family will fork out directly from other peoples' pockets - ours.

On top of that there's policing, traffic management and the raiding of squats around the country in search of pesky anarchists, which will also cost the taxpayer a few million. Let's put that at £6 million, plus another few hundred thousand for the cost of supervising - or beating up - drunks stumbling out of the pub later today after consuming a full holiday's worth of booze.

The biggest cost - a day off granted by His Haughiness David Cameltoe - is estimated by none other than the Confederation of British Industry to cost the UK economy about FIVE BILLION POUNDS."

Royal Wedding Media Coverage

A tongue-in-cheek image making the rounds right now shows Twitter co-founder Biz Stone putting up a server labelled "Wills & Kate" just to handle the expected surge of Twitter activity during the British royal wedding: matching Lady Gaga, but falling short of the 2 that teen pop sensation Justin Beiber has dedicated to him.

Sensational events like these are bound to stir a media frenzy. The 2011 royal wedding is expected to be the biggest TV event in history. Global news organisations are pulling out all stops to cover the event online, on TV, on mobile, social media, print and radio.

The BBC, the Home of the British Royal Wedding, will have the live feed beamed on BBC World News, BBC Knowledge Asia, BBC Entertainment in India and Asia.

Besides its television coverage, the online audiences will also get a chance to keep pace via the special Royal Wedding section on BBC.com.

CNN is incorporating Facebook, Twitter and iReport, connecting users to share their experiences and contribute first-person reports on the day.

CNN is also offering up special two-dimensional barcodes that will appear throughout CNN’s special coverage of the Royal Wedding allowing viewers with smartphones to “scan” the code, which automatically loads the CNN Mobile Royal Wedding Planner.

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