ROYAL WEDDING Prince William and Kate Middleton

Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to marry on Friday April 29, and Britain hasn’t seen a royal event like it for 30 years. The last comparable event was the marriage of Prince Charles and the then-Lady Diana Spencer. Hundreds of guests are expected at the ceremony, thousands will line the wedding route in London... and millions of pounds will be spent by the crown and the British taxpayer. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the key numbers of the wedding of the century to give you a clue of the scale of this wedding.


The ceremony


* 1,900 guests at Westminster Abbey.
* 600 guests at the reception at Buckingham Palace.
* 300 guests for dinner, followed by a dance at Buckingham Palace.

Security

* 5,000 police officers and military personnel deployed on the streets of London. This is fewer than the number which policed the wedding of Prince William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Costs and benefits

* 32 million pounds (36 million euros) will be spent on the entire event. Kate Middleton's parents, who made their multi-million pound fortune by creating a party supply company, are contributing nearly 100,000 pounds (113,000 euros). Some of this will be spent on the luxury central London hotel where Kate will spend her last night as a single woman. The hotel – famed as one of the most discreet – was a favourite of the Queen Mother. The wedding dress is expected to cost at least 30,000 pounds (33,000 euros).
* 107 million pounds "commercial benefit" for the London economy, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP survey.
 * Six billion pounds is being touted as the figure that the extra bank holiday will cost the British economy. 


 




The buzz

* At least two billion television viewers expected worldwide.
* More than 8,000 journalists, photographers and technical staff will be in London to cover the royal wedding.
* 800 BBC employees to cover the event.
* 600,000 tourists expected in London. This number, combined with Londoners, should see approximately 1.1 million lining the route on the big day.