With the Spring season upon us it’s most certainly wedding season. The birds are chirping. The flowers are blooming. And brides across the country are getting reading to don the glorious white dresses they’ve always dreamed of putting on since they were little girls. But if it were only that simple. If only it were just about putting on a dress for a woman, a suit for a man and quickly saying “I do.” Those of us that are married know that it never works out that way.
The amount of preparation it takes to put together the perfect wedding sometimes feels endless. It’s a once in a lifetime event (or at least it’s supposed to be) and you’ve only got one shot to make sure those preparations are as perfect as can be. In order to make everything smooth, some people go at it alone but most hire wedding planners and most people spend quite a few dollars while doing so.
But just in case you’re wondering who has spent the most dollars on weddings, we decided to do a little research and find the numbers on five crucial elements to a wedding that ended up costing a bundle. Here are five of the most expensive wedding statistics:
The Most Expensive Wedding
If you’re old enough to remember, it was back in 1981 when the Royals Prince Charles and Lady Diana said their “I dos.” Their wedding cost an astounding $48 Million which if you adjust for inflation would be over $110 million in today’s dollars. In case you’re wondering Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding cost an estimated $34 million. The wedding was at St Paul’s Cathedral and was attended by dozens of royals; two million spectators; and a global TV audience of 750 million. Diana wore a puff ball meringue wedding dress with a 25-foot train of ivory taffeta and antique lace. The 27 wedding cakes and five-foot-tall main cake supposedly took 14 weeks to prepare, with a duplicate cake made in case of accidents.
The Most Expensive Wedding Dress
Japanese bridal designer Yumi Katsura created a gown so extravagant, it has yet to find a bride equally as extravagant to wear it down the aisle. Decked with a five-carat white gold diamond and 1,000 pearls, the ornate gown can be yours for a mere $8.5 million. There is one other dress that’s said to be priceless and that’s the David Emanuel gown that Prince Diana wore in 1981.
The Most Expensive Celebrity Engagement Ring
While Beyonce’s ring was a whopping $5 Million, that doesn’t compare to the amazing 33.19 carat (yes, you read that correctly) Asscher-cut Krupp diamond that Elizabeth Taylor got. It was auctioned in 2011 for a mere $8.8 million.
The Most Expensive Wedding Cake
Cake, a bakery in Chester, England, created what is reportedly the world’s most expensive wedding cake, valued at $52.7 million. The cat is an eight-tiered confection that is decorated with more than 4,000 diamonds and wwas be on display (then eaten!) at the National Gay Wedding Show in Liverpool.
The Most Expensive Wedding Invitations
The lucky bride was Vanisha Mittal. She is the daughter of Lakshmi Mittal, a steel tycoon who has made billions. In 2004, she married a London banker named Amit Bhatia. She was 23 years old at the time, and some of her wedding events were held at the Palace of Versailles (which has never hosted a private function), Hotel Bristol, and the Jardin-des-Tuileries. Guests stayed at the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris. The wedding festivities took place over 5 days, and when everything was said and done, the reported cost of the event was $60 million. About 1,200 guests received an invitation that was hand-painted. It included romantic poems, and one of them was written by one of Vanisha’s family members. The invitation was composed of twenty pages, and it had information for each event that was taking place during the five day celebration. While we may never know the exact value of an invitation, some research suggests that they would be valued at $1500 each.
And if you’re looking for the most expensive places to get married then look no further than this infographic:
From Blog.TheKnot.com
