Royal wedding no lavish repeat of Charles and Diana, says aide

The marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton will be inspired more by the Queen's post-war "austerity wedding" than his parents' lavish ceremony in 1981, royal aides indicated today.

The couple are said to be looking to the 1947 union of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten to set the tone for a royal wedding during hard economic times.

Then, as now, the Government was faced with huge cutbacks, after borrowing heavily to pay for the war effort.

The then Chancellor Hugh Dalton decreed that only the decorations in Whitehall and outside the palace could be funded by the taxpayer.

Even the Queen's £1,200 dress was partly paid for with 300 rationing coupons, with the balance coming from the civil list.

In his address in 1947 the Archbishop of York described her wedding as "in all essentials" the same ceremony as it would be for a commoner "married this afternoon in some small country church".

A royal aide said: "It will be done properly and well, but not in an ostentatious and lavish manner. This time is more analogous with 1947.

"In 1981 a lot more people were invited to the wedding. The route to St Paul's was also longer than it is to the abbey. It was undeniably a bigger wedding."

There is also unlikely to be such a glittering line-up of world leaders as in 1981. If heads of state are invited it will be because they are friends of the family. Even President Obama may not be asked, as the Prince is only second in line to the throne.