As the whole world eagerly awaits the wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, Bridebook.co.uk, the number one wedding planning app in the UK, has compiled the Royal Wedding by numbers. With millennials already reinventing the way they plan their wedding, millennial royal couple Meghan and Harry will be throwing a celebration unlike any other.
The party of over 4,000 guests will be treated to 28,000 canapés and billions of champagne bubbles, but they won’t be the only ones celebrating the wedding. Thousands of tourists will be travelling to London to see the newlyweds, and thousands more will be partying in their honour. The celebration of the century will require millions of flower petals, miles and miles of bunting, and enough cucumber sandwiches to feed the entire British population.
With 3 billion global viewers and an expected £280 million boost to the British economy, this is the Royal Wedding by the numbers!
16,000 glasses of champagne
With 4,040 guests, each expected to have at least 4 glasses of champagne throughout the day and evening, that will be at least 16,000 glasses filled with 250 billion bubbles!
8 million flower petals to make 1 million handfuls of confetti
There will be 1 million handfuls of confetti in Windsor on the big day, eagerly awaiting to throw 8 million flower petals in the air to celebrate the newlyweds.
3 million kettles boiling after the service
The National Grid will see a staggeringly high demand for power following the wedding service, as the Brits go straight for the kettle for a relaxing cup of tea. 3 million kettles are expected to be boiled to celebrate the newlywed couple!
Meghan is getting 42% more search traffic than Brexit
Meghan Markle is currently getting 12 times more search traffic than British Prime Minister Theresa May, and on peak days has received 42% more searches than “Brexit”… and 32% more than “Jesus”.
£90,000 for trumpets
20 silver-plated fanfare trumpets stamped with the Royal Coat of Arms have already been requested, and they each come between £3,000 and £6,000 a piece/toot! That will be £90,000 for trumpets!
500,000 people at Windsor
500,000 people are expected to visit Windsor for the Royal Wedding. They will get to witness the most Disney moment of the day: the Royal Carriage procession!
£26,000 for sausage rolls
With 2,600 members of the public attending the wedding, we are hoping they each get a cup of tea and a sausage roll while they cheer on the happy couple.
200,000 flowers and 60 florists
With a budget of £110,000 on flowers, from larger stems to buttonholes and delicate bouquets, more than 200,000 flowers will be styled by around 60 florists across all three venues for the big day.
A banquet hall 10 times the size of the average British home
At 5381 square feet, the size of St George’s Hall will ensure no guests are stepping on each other’s toes during the reception. The hall is 10 times the size of the average British home!
28,000 canapés
28,000 canapés will be needed to keep the Royal Wedding guests happy throughout the day and evening events.
£35,000 for luxury toilets
If this wedding lives up to Pippa Middleton’s, there will be luxury mobile toilets for the guests at the 3 different events. With a guest list this big, it comes down to at least 40 super luxury mobile units with a likely price tag of £35,000.
1,000 waiters and staff for the day
Alongside the 500 people team who work at Windsor Castle on a daily basis, another additional 500 are likely to be on duty on the day. From waiters to chefs to porters to florists, a Royal army will be ensuring the day runs like clockwork. Plus the 5,000 police which will be on duty.
28,000 wedding photos
Although most won’t be revealed, Meghan and Harry’s wedding photographer, and the team to support him will make their flashes go off at least 28,000 times throughout the day and evening!
16,000 engaged couples signing up to British wedding planning app Bridebook
Since US media claimed Harry and Meghan have been using UK wedding planning app Bridebook.co.uk under a secret account, more than 16,000 couples have signed up to plan their wedding on the app!
3 Royal stag do’s
Harry has been rumoured to have enjoyed 3 stag do’s (bachelor parties) with different groups of friends. Including a skiing trip, a classic Scotland stag-do with his closest mates, and to celebrity hotspot Hedsor House, near Windsor.
52,750 British pubs with extended opening hours
Pubs all over the UK will extend their curfew to 1 AM for the Royal Wedding celebrations! That’s two more hours of toasting to Harry and Meghan, and an extra 10.5 million each drink served!
8,000 street parties in the UK
After 5,500 street parties were thrown for William and Kate on a Thursday in April, there are expected to be a lot more for Harry and Meghan. Councils will be busy managing the requests to allow over 8,000 street parties all over the UK.
London is where the most street parties will be planned
London is the council with the most street party requests, with over 900 submissions.
More than 100 million drinks in celebration in the UK
With at least 24 million people expected to watch the Royal Wedding in the UK, plus the FA Cup Final and extended pub opening hours, the whole of the UK is going to be toasting Harry and Meghan!
1.4 million cucumber sandwiches (and other fillings) at UK street parties
Start cutting off those crusts, as the UK public will likely munch through over 1.4 million sandwiches at their street parties alone! M&S are already stocking up.
330 miles of bunting
With 8,000 street parties along with endless garden parties, there will be a British bunting bonanza, stretching 330 miles of bunting across the UK. (In 2011, Tesco alone sold 120 miles of bunting for William and Kate’s wedding).
More than 200,000 bin bags of rubbish, weighing 2,500 tons
More than 200,000 bin bags of rubbish, weighing 2,500 tons, are expected as a result of royal wedding street parties and family get-togethers which will happen all over the UK.
8,500 journalists
8,500 journalists were in London alone to cover William and Kate’s big day, and the same number will be back to cover the momentous occasion of Harry and Meghan.
5,000 police on duty
From grenadier guards to armed police to snipers and undercover officers, 5,000 officers are expected to be on duty on the day to keep everyone safe.
£100,000 to rent a view
American tourists are hiring out homes that overlook the Royal Wedding route for six-figure values so that they can get the perfect view.
£268 million boost to the British economy
After 350,000 tourists came to the UK for William and Kate’s wedding, we are now expecting 450,000 flying over to see the beloved Meghan get married to Prince Harry. The average national spend of a tourist in the UK is £596 per visit, that is a tidy quarter of a billion boost to the British economy.
5,901 couples getting married on May 19th
5,901 couples will be getting married the same day as Meghan and Harry in the UK according to the Bridebook.co.uk – the UK’s leading wedding planning app – which plans over 100,000 UK weddings per year.
3.3 million web pages about the Royal Wedding
From lifestyle blogs about Meghan’s wedding dress to online betting sites predicting the odds of rain on May 19th – there are already over 3.3 million pages online about the Royal Wedding!
The hashtag #RoyalWedding has been used 730,000 times
Since their engagement was announced, the hashtag #RoyalWedding has been used 730,000 times on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Twitter takes the cake with the most discussions, with an average of 1,200 tweets using the hashtag every day.
460 Royal Wedding dedicated Instagram hashtags
Instagram has over 460 Royal Wedding hashtags. However, not everyone has the #RoyalWeddingFever, with some couples tagging their photos as #HarryandMeghanStoleMyDate.
3 billion global viewers
After more than 2 billion people watched William and Kate’s wedding, and the global rise of the smartphone and social media since then, more than 3 billion people are expected to watch this Royal Wedding, which is expected to be the most viewed event in history.
1.5 billion tissues to mop up global teary eyes
With a total audience of 3 billion viewers, and half expected to shed a tear, that is a distance of tissue almost enough to get you to the moon! 300,000 kilometres of tissue to be precise, or a mere 7.5 times around the Earth.
Half a million bets on the wedding
The Royal Wedding is going to be one of the most significant non-sporting events of 2018 for betting sites. With over half a million bets expected on the Royal Wedding.
17 leading dress designers
More than 17 dress designers are in the running for designing Meghan’s dress, with leading odds on Ralph and Russo, Erdem, and British bridal-designer Philippa Lepley!
More than 5,000 baby Meghans to be born next year
If the name Meghan is as predicted expected to become the top baby name of 2018, we can expect more than five thousand baby Meghan’s to be born in the next year in the UK, knocking “Olivia” off the top spot.
£1 million in donations
Continuing the tradition started by Kate and William, Meghan and Harry have asked guests to donate to their chosen charities. If they are as successful at the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the newlyweds should get at least £1 million in donations.
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We calculated the above numbers following an analysis of over 170,000 weddings via Bridebook.co.uk‘s wedding planning tools and budget calculator, and a review of more than 70,000 wedding industry suppliers listed on Bridebook.co.uk’s wedding venue and supplier directory. Over 100,000 UK couples are using Bridebook.co.uk to plan their wedding, and therefore we have an unparalleled understanding of the wedding planning process, as well as relationships with brides and grooms and wedding industry suppliers across the country.
For further information, please contact Harriet Hunt Communications: [email protected] T: 0208 871 2246 M: 07886 96908
“Meghan’s dress will undoubtedly be the most well-kept secret leading up the Royal Wedding. Once Meghan’s dress is revealed it will inspire brides for generations to come!”
“People from the UK and all over the world are eager to witness what will be the most iconic Royal Wedding of the century. Half a million members of the public will be in the streets of Windsor to celebrate and greet the newlyweds.”
“Meghan and Harry’s wedding is expected to be the largest social media event of all time. With “Meghan Markle” already getting more search traffic in the UK than “Brexit”, global interest is going to be stratospheric.”
“It’s no secret that British people love to party, and this is the Royal Wedding is the perfect occasion to bring out the barbeques and throw roaring neighbourhood parties!”
“With 8,000 street parties planned all over the UK, the amount of bunting alone will be enough to cover 330 miles!”
“Meghan and Harry’s wedding will be more spectacular and iconic than any Royal Wedding we have ever seen. The millennial couple are already defying and giving way to new Royal Family traditions!”
Notes To Editor:
Bridebook.co.uk is the UK’s no. 1 wedding planning app, currently being used by 1 in 3 UK couples to help plan their wedding.
Launched in 2016, Bridebook.co.uk‘s leading wedding planning toolkit, with fully personalised Wedding Checklist, Wedding Budgeter and Wedding Guestlist Manager, gives engaged couples the power to plan their entire wedding from any device, anywhere, anytime, all in one place, for free. With over 70,000 wedding venues and suppliers in its directory, Bridebook.co.uk stretches the digital presence of wedding industry professionals and connects them directly with engaged couples. Bridebook.co.uk has also partnered with leading industry experts such as Bobbi Brown, Marry Berry and Jimmy Choo, to provide reliable expert advice and inspiration to couples.
Bridebook.co.uk was founded by Hamish Shephard, an industry professional and recently married groom who used Bridebook.co.uk to plan his own wedding back in 2016. Visit Bridebook.co.uk online and the Bridebook.co.uk App on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.
Find out more about the Royal Wedding!
Discover the Royal Wedding Budget Breakdown
Harry and Meghan’s Royal Wedding Planning
Take the Royal Wedding Quiz and find out which Royal Wedding guest you are!
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