The Priciest British Royal Family Weddings, Ranked From Least To Most Expensive

Between everything that goes on at a royal wedding in the United Kingdom, it's clear that the ceremony is never so simple as just a walk down the aisle or an exchange of vows. It's basically guaranteed that the budget will be controversial. The Windsors have traditionally paid for most aspects of these weddings, but that doesn't mean the British taxpayer gets off scot-free. While the royal family may pay for the trimmings themselves, from flowers and other decorations to the catering and drinks, the public ultimately foots the hefty bill for policing, crowd control, and other security measures. Putting an exact price on any royal "I do" is a bit slippery, since Buckingham Palace doesn't publish receipts, but regal love doesn't come cheap.

The wedding estimates below come from a variety of sources, including police disclosures, analysis by industry experts, and estimates compiled by news outlets. Some are quoted in their original value, while others have been adjusted for inflation. There's a little bit of everything here, from a post-war ceremony partly paid for with ration coupons to a bank-breaking blowout at St. Paul's Cathedral. You could rank the best royal weddings in terms of glamour, juicy rumors, or how iconic the gowns were, but money tells its own, often overlooked story. We'll be looking at the royal family's most expensive weddings in descending order, taking into account 

The late queen's younger sister, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was famously rebellious, which even manifested in her choice of groom. On May 6, 1960, Princess Margaret made history by marrying Antony Armstrong-Jones, who was a so-called commoner. It was also the first time a royal wedding was shown on television, which made the occasion all the more remarkable. They would also eventually become the first royal couple to divorce in hundreds of years.

As for the bill, it was rather modest by Windsor standards. The total reportedly landed at around £26,000, and a considerable amount of spending was devoted to a 5-foot confection built from 20 separate wedding cakes. Still, the affair was extravagant enough to have likely ruffled a few feathers in Britain at the time, with members of the general public certainly wishing they could be the ones going on an £80,000 honeymoon in the Caribbean.

Two years after the end of World War II, the 21-year-old Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in front of 2,000 guests. The exact cost of their more frugal wedding is somewhat hard to determine, but it was reported that it cost somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000. However, that does not account for the exorbitant additional cost of Elizabeth's dress.

Designed by Norman Hartnell, Elizabeth's wedding dress was made from ivory Duchesse satin and silk, along with a nearly 15-foot silk tulle train. In addition to detailed symbolic embroidery, 10,000 seed pearls were stitched into the dress after being specially imported for the United States. The dress alone cost $42,000, and today it is worth $1.6 million. As such, Elizabeth has had the most expensive wedding dress of all modern royal brides, but not a particularly expensive actual wedding. That's due to the economic fragility of post-war Britain and the need for austerity; ever resourceful, the future monarch paid for her gown's materials with ration coupons.

There never was a final tally for the wedding of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in November 1973, but a contemporaneous report from The New York Times indicates there was a lot of criticism over the cost, running around $240,000, at the very least. Adjusted for inflation at the time of writing, that's roughly $1.75 million. The sheer scale and pageantry of the ceremony corroborate the story. Princess Anne, the queen's only daughter, was married at Westminster Abbey before 1,500 guests, thousands of people filled the streets, and 500 million viewers across the world watched it on television.

Additionally, Princess Anne had a Glass Coach procession and a Tudor gown designed by Maureen Baker. It was a thoroughly grand affair by the standards of the time, which could explain why people questioned it. The country's Army and Navy set up collections for the wedding, which ruffled some feathers at a time of economic turmoil and global stagflation.

Princess Eugenie, the daughter of Prince Andrew, married Jack Brooksbank in the same St. George's Chapel that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were married in five months prior. The price tag of Eugenie's wedding was pocket change compared to theirs, though. The Express projected the October 2018 celebration to run about £2.7 million, or around $3.5 million, with security and flowers eating up the biggest chunk of the budget.

Among the most notable expenses was the bride's Peter Pilotto gown, with outlets estimating its cost at about a whopping $260,000. At the time of writing, that's more than the average U.K. citizen would make in five years. The York family covered the wedding itself, but the policing bill — some £2 million — fell to taxpayers, causing certain political parties and anti-monarchist groups to argue that, since Princess Eugenie had no public duties, her family should've paid for the entire thing themselves.

When the second-in-line to the throne married Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011, the ceremony dominated the news cycle due to how lavish it was. The spreadsheet total was estimated at $34 million, with security projecting the overwhelming expense. The cost of this wedding seemed to generate less controversy among taxpayers compared to some others, perhaps because William and Catherine, Prince and Princess of Wales, have consistently outranked other members of the royal family in favorability polls.

According to figures published by the Police Federation, £6.35 million ($8.5 million) was spent on security, and officer overtime accounted for £2.8 million ($3.7 million). Kate's Alexander McQueen gown also cost more than $400,000, while the two wedding cakes were a combined $80,000. Add in other figures, like the reception and the flowers, and the number starts to make sense. There were a lot of mishaps at Prince William and Middleton's wedding, but the spectacle still seemed worth the cost.

Looking back at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in hindsight is a jarring experience. The couple traded Westminster Abbey's pomp for St George's intimacy, yet they still managed to out-spend Prince Harry's brother without even trying. The celebration on May 19, 2018, cost nearly £32 million, or $42.8 million according to Bridebook, which broke down the entire budget. To the chagrin of taxpayers, a staggering 94% of that cost (or $40 million) went to security.

Sure, the guest list read like an award show, with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Elton John, George Clooney, and the Beckhams present, but the procession, reception, and aesthetic extravagance paled in comparison to what it cost the British government and its security forces to police the ceremony. This ultimately led to public criticism and popular petitions for the monarchs to pick up their own tab.

No wedding on this list — and not many royal occasions in general — can come close to touching the July 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, at least in terms of sheer expenses. There is a lot to unpack about this particular occasion, from rumors about the night before their wedding to all the ways it didn't go as planned. Perhaps the single biggest talking point, though, was the staggering bill.

The ceremony took place at St. Paul's Cathedral and drew 3,500 guests, with a television audience of 750 million watching the festivities in dozens of countries. More than 600,000 people filled the streets of London, as well, requiring an enormous police presence (and taxpayer cost).

There have been conflicting reports concerning the final price tag adjusted for inflation; outlets like Business Insider and Vanity Fair suggest $110 million, while sources such as People and Britannica claim the cost was closer to $170 million. Either way, it's safe to say that, of all British royal weddings, Charles and Diana's was the most expensive. It's certainly not without reason that it went down as the "wedding of the century."