It's no secret that
Meghan Markle and
Prince Harry's royal
wedding is going to be a pricey affair, but the highly anticipated royal event is slated to surpass that of Prince William and Kate's 2011 nuptials.
According to British wedding site Bridebook, Markle's upcoming wedding is reportedly estimated to cost around $44.9 million, or £32 million, about $20 million more than Prince William and Kate's reported $28 million nuptials. Bridebook also expects that the May 19 ceremony will land a spot on the top ten most expensive weddings list.
The wedding site broke down the royal wedding expenses and highlighted that the most expensive part of the ceremony will be the extensive security measures that Bridebook claims will include snipers, undercover police and military tech, and possible drones, adding up to an estimated total of $42.1 million.
Other key wedding expenses include: Twenty silver-plated trumpets that will announce the event for $125,000, a pricey $70,000 lemon elderflower wedding cake from Violet Bakery in East London, an abundance of decorative flowers outside of St. George's Chapel at Windsor for $150,000, a reported $420,000 to hire the glass marquee for the evening reception at the Frogmore House, $36,000 on sausage rolls and hot tea for all of the 2,640 invited members of the public, and lastly, a reported $420,000 to $560,000 on Meghan’s soon-to-be-iconic gown.
But despite the reported estimated price for Markle's wedding gown, royal expert Katie Nicholl, author of “Harry: Life, Loss and Love,” thinks that the soon-to-be royal will be a little more lowkey.
"Meghan is very mindful of wanting to send the right message with her gown," Nicholl told the Telegraph. “It’s going to be iconic and fit the backdrop of Windsor Castle, but it would send off the wrong message to wear a dress that in cost alone would upstage Kate’s.”
Kate's Alexander McQueen wedding gown, designed by Sarah Burton, cost a reported $350,000.
The countdown to the royal wedding continues on as invitations have been sent out and guestlist rumors are underway.