Ouch! That’ll be £500,000... excluding the £200,000 ring!

PUTTING on the society wedding of the year doesn’t come cheap – with Pippa’s nuptials estimated to have cost £700,000.

That figure includes the bride’s £200,000 engagement ring – a dazzling 3.5-carat Asscher-cut diamond set in a halo of smaller stones on a platinum band.

British designer Giles Deacon was paid about £40,000 to produce two dresses for Pippa’s big day, which she paired with custom-made £2,000 heels by Manolo Blahnik. Guests sipped £75-a-bottle sparkling wine from Sussex vineyard Nyetimber and tucked into £40,000 worth of Russian caviar.

While the church ceremony was a modest £500, the stunning 150ft-long glass marquee specially shipped in from Belgium cost a further £100,000.

The three-course wedding breakfast for 320 guests at up to £200 a head was laid on by a crew of 30 chefs followed by a performance by one of the groom’s favourite jazz bands.

The stunning six-tier cake by Fiona Cairns, who made the cake for the Royal Wedding, is thought to have cost up to £15,000, while the groom’s party wore £900-a-pair hand-made shoes from Edward Green.

The couple’s parents must at least have been relieved that the Spitfire flypast by the Boultbee Flight Academy was donated for free!