Royal Mail

Back in early April, I sent a note to the future Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in anticipation of their wedding. In which I suggested it would be a lovely gesture if they wanted to chose to contribute a small token to my upcoming marriage, seeing as how we taxpayers are obliged to contribute to the cost of theirs... even if we can't afford it.

Here is my original letter:

Dear Ms Middleton and Prince William,

Congratulations on your forthcoming wedding. I hope you have a lovely day and a very happy future together. It certainly looks like it will be a very grand occasion from the press coverage that I’ve seen so far.

My fiancé and I are also getting married this year, on 28 October, and we are very excited to be getting married in the same year as such an important royal wedding. However, ours will be a much smaller affair than yours, owing to the fact that we earn low incomes and are struggling to keep our heads above water.

I was wondering whether – since, as taxpayers, my fiancé and I are obliged to contribute to the cost of your wedding – whether you would like to contribute anything towards the cost of our wedding? I appreciate this is an unorthodox request, but since we have had no choice about contributing to your ceremony (despite our low incomes, and the fact that only this week I’ve had to ring the electricity board to explain I cannot make the minimum payments), it would mean so much to us to know that you had chosen to support our ceremony.

I’m not sure what your final wedding budget is (some estimates say £20,000,000), but ours is £2,000: a fortune to us. So anything you could contribute would mean so much to both of us, as well as to our friends and family who are not only helping to pay towards your wedding, but are also chipping in to help my fiancé and me make our smaller-scale day as magical as possible.

Wishing you every happiness,


Well, they replied today... and while it doesn't look like they're coughing up, they do sound like they have lovely manners. Or, rather, their lady in waiting does.