Four days before her big day, it’s Pippa’s £100k crystal palace
HER sister had Buckingham Palace as the setting for her reception when she married Prince William.
Now Pippa Middleton is clearly keen that her own wedding should feature a palace – albeit a crystal one.
For this is the £100,000 glass conservatory-style structure that she is having installed in the garden of her family home for Saturday’s celebrations.
Not content with a traditional canvas marquee, Pippa, 33 – who is marrying multi-millionaire hedge fund boss James Matthews, 41 – has had the bespoke glass orangery shipped from Belgium. The process is being overseen by Peppers Marquees, which holds the only royal warrant for supplying marquees to the Prince of Wales.
According to sources, workmen have been busy since the weekend putting up the structure on a camouflaged stage in a field at the rear of Michael and Carole Middleton’s home in Bucklebury, Berkshire. The building, expected to take up to six days to finish, is so large and distinctive that it can be seen from both the main road and a public footpath running alongside the estate.
Although there will be 100 or so guests at St Mark’s Church in the nearby village of Englefield for the ceremony, more than 300 are expected back at Middleton manor to dance the night away.
One expert estimated that it would cost around £35,000 plus VAT for the structure and floor system – but that was just ‘the basics’. With internal lighting, decor, carpeting, heating, sound and service marquees, the total could be more than double that.
‘It’s from a Belgian company called PBI and they are shipped over especially for events. For the full works, your bill would easily be around the £100,000 mark,’ the expert said.
PBI Event Architecture’s website is crammed with examples of how spectacular the marquee could look on Pippa’s big day.
A spokesman for the firm declined to comment yesterday other than saying: ‘Imagine I was the person putting it together, I would say strictly nothing. Let’s leave it there. You can imagine that, whoever my client is, this isn’t something that is shouted about from the rooftops.’
Pippa, a former party planner, has decreed that her big day should have a ‘relaxed’ country wedding feel – but is leaving nothing to chance.
Sources have told the Mail that Pippa’s father is tearing his hair out at the complexity of the arrangements. ‘But he is hugely excited by everything, particularly in giving his youngest daughter away,’ they added.
Although the Middletons maintain the wedding is a private family event, the eyes of the world will be upon it as it is being attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry with his girlfriend, actress Meghan Markle.
Pippa’s niece and nephew will also take a starring role – Princess Charlotte, two, will be a bridesmaid while three-year-old Prince George will be a page boy. A controlled media facility has been arranged to capture their arrival at church, while normally accessible public footpaths in the area are being closed.
Pippa, who shares a £17million mansion in West London with her husband-to-be, was busy yesterday stepping up her prewedding beauty regime with a trip to a spa in South Kensington offering such treatments as £100 sugar cane facials.
‘Shipped over especially’