photo: @kensingtonroyal
It wasn't all spent on typical wedding frills though. The Wedding Planning Company, Bridebook has provided their expert thoughts on cost breakdown. Here are some notable ones:
Security: The bulk of the money, £30 million (over 14 billion Naira) was spent on security because of the current high terrorist threat level, and more specific threats made against the couple before the wedding. There were drones, undercover police, snipers, and high-tech security equipment to destroy any other drones, including those belonging to paparazzi. These royals don't play. Windsor, hometown of the castle also had to be on lockdown for a day and secured all around by police, with crowd control and restrictions placed on businesses.
Weddings can be costly but when it's a royal wedding, the cost can be record-breaking. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding reportedly cost a whopping £32 million. To put that in perspective for our Naija fam, that is over 15 billion Naira. As at today, it is exactly 15,385,704,480.00 Nigerian naira. Somebody pass the inhaler. This is probably one of the ten most expensive weddings of all time. Even though Harry and Meghan had a smaller wedding, it cost more than Kate and William's £20 million Westminster Abbey wedding in 2011.
photo: INSTARimages.com
Meghan's wedding dress: Her custom-made Givenchy dress is said to have cost over £300,000 (144 million Naira), along with that gorgeous halter-neck Stella McCartney second dress. Her 16-foot silk tulle veil was completely handmade and embroidered with flowers, each unique and representing the 53 countries of the commonwealth.
photo: getty images
photo: getty images
Venue: Like everyone else, they paid church fees of £175 and the reception venue at St George's Great Hall in the castle grounds was of course free. For the evening reception however, they had to fork out £300,000 to hire the luxury glass marquee in the grounds of Frogmore House.
photo: getty images
Catering: Also one of the more expensive bits at £286,000 (over 137 million naira). They had a formal lunch reception for state guests and then the evening reception for family and friends, not to mention hot tea and sausage rolls at £26,000 (12.5m naira) for 2,640 members of the public who were invited.
Flowers: Decorating with flowers quickly gets very costly and with two locations- the chapel and the reception, they paid about £110,000 (almost 53 million naira). Other decorations could come up to an additional £130,000.
photo: getty images
Cake: Have you ever eaten a 24 million naira cake? Well, their lemon buttercream wedding cake with fresh flowers and elderflower syrup (made from Queen Elizabeth's elderflower trees) cost just that- £50,000. It was made by London pastry chef Claire Ptak.
photo: @kensingtonroyal
Trumpets: Yep. £90,000 (43m Naira) for 20 silver-plated trumpets stamped with the coat of arms, announced the event.
Hair and Makeup: Estimated at £10,000 (4.8m Naira) for Meghan's wispy updo and very natural makeup look.
Photo: getty images
Harry's Attire: About £8,000 for his tailor-made Air force uniform for the ceremony, and sleek black tuxedo for the reception.
Other costs include music and entertainment (also in the realm of £300,000), outfits for the flower girls and page boys, photography, stationary, wedding rings, drinks, wedding favours, toilets, and of course the honeymoon.
So who's paying?
Tradition states that the father of the bride pays, but this is a royal wedding. Taxpayer money of the British people settled the bulk of it- the £30m for security. The other costs were covered by the Royal family, with some exceptions. Meghan is expected to have paid for her own dresses and is reported to be paying the £120,000 price tag for the honeymoon as a gift to her new hubby.
photo: @kensingtonroyal
Happy Married Life to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex! We can't wait to see what they accomplish together and how Meghan settles into her new role as a royal.