The gown that Meghan Markle will wear to her wedding this weekend costs six figures and the bride is said to be buying it herself.
Meghan Markle, 36, is set to wed Prince Harry, 33, on May 19 at St. George’s chapel at Windsor Castle. And the gown she’ll wear to walk down the aisle reportedly costs £100,000, or $135,593, according to sources who spoke to the Daily Mail. That’s roughly three times the average salary of American workers ($44,564), and about 87 times the typical cost of wedding dresses across the U. S.: $1,564 .
But Markle’s isn’t your typical wedding. Bride Book estimates that the royal affair will cost around £32 million ($43.4 million), mostly thanks to security costs like snipers and undercover police that, alone, could add up to £30 million ($40.7 million).
And spending six figures on a dress is standard when it comes to royal wedding gowns: Princess Diana’s wedding dress, which featured 10,000 pearls and a 25-foot train, was estimated to cost $115,000, and Kate Middleton’s Alexander McQueen gown reportedly cost $434,000 .
The Daily Mail reports that Markle will wear a gown by British couture designers Ralph & Russo — for her first dress, that is. Markle is expected to change into something less restrictive after the ceremony.
Markle will likely cover the cost of the dresses herself, like Middleton did in 2011. But that’s all she’ll have to pay for. Kensington Palace will cover the rest of the costs of the eight-figure wedding.
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