The Queen and Prince Philip married in 1947, two years after World War II ended. Rationing was still in full swing, so the Queen’s Norman Hartwell wedding dress was famously paid for with rations. Britons, who were delighted their future monarch was getting married, donated their rations to the Queen so she could have the dress of her choice.
At the time, the rations used were worth £30,000. However, that sum in 2022 would be worth a whopping £1,200,000.
This research by wedding experts at Hitched looked at the cost of royal weddings over the last 70 years, and what they would cost after inflation in 2022.
Zoe Burke, the editor of Hitched told Express.co.uk: “There’s nothing like a royal wedding, and we’ve been truly blessed with some incredible ones in the past 70 years.
“It’s amazing to think that the Queen paid for her iconic (and now super-costly) wedding dress with her rationing coupons. It was a pretty savvy investment.
“Royal wedding spend has increased vastly during the Queen’s reign, as these events become country-wide celebrations with high expectations.
“The impact of a royal wedding cannot be underestimated though.
“We’re still seeing echoes of royal brides from days gone by in wedding fashion today, with puff sleeves, flounced full skirts, and sumptuous satin fabrics all over the bridal runways this year.
“This proves that those royal dresses truly were a timeless investment.”
The UK’s royal weddings are considered to be some of the most expensive in the world but are also some of the most talked-about for years to come.
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Whilst the Queen married Prince Phillip in the most expensive wedding dress worth £1,200,000, who came in second place?
Kate and William are second with the Duchess of Cambridge’s dress now worth £325,000.
Her Alexander McQueen gown was first purchased in 2011 for a reported £250,000.
But the dress is now worth around £325,000 in today’s money – an inflation of 30 percent.
Princess Eugenie follows next, then Princess Diana and finally Meghan Markle.
Eugenie’s Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos gown, worth around £216,000 in 2022, has had an increase of eight percent since the 2018 purchase price of £200,000.
The most iconic of the royal wedding dresses is Princess Diana’s 1981 Elizabeth and David Emanuel gown, with its infamous 25-foot train.
Worth around £11,000 at the time, this impressive piece of couture is now worth an estimated £151,000 in 2022 – an increase in value of more than 1,200 percent.
Meanwhile, Meghan’s Givenchy wedding gown was purchased in 2018 for £110,000 but has only reached £120,000 in the four years that have followed.
