We may already have had one royal wedding this year, but we're preparing for another this autumn. Except there appears to be decidedly less excitement this time around than there was for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's May wedding.
In October, Princess Eugenie will wed Jack Brooksbank in a lavish ceremony that will reportedly cost the public £2 million, according to The Mirror.
That money obviously won't be used to pay for Eugenie's dress or an infinity-tiered wedding cake — those expenses come out of the royal family's pockets. But the millions taxpayers will contribute to the event will be used to pay for security. The security budget for royal weddings falls under "public safety" and, as such, comes from public funds.
The initial security budget for Eugenie's wedding was about half of what it's currently looking to be, according to The Mirror, but rising terror fears caused the number to balloon.
The issue is so troubling to British citizens that members of parliament are even weighing in.
"It really is an outrage when you’ve got people sleeping rough and gripped by poverty that people are indulging in this conspicuous consumption," the Labour Party's Chris Williamson said, according to The Mirror. "They are as far as it’s possible to be from being real normal people. No one else gets their wedding paid for by the public purse and they’ve got the resources to do it themselves."
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While Eugenie's security budget pales in comparison to those of other royal weddings (Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding security budget was £25 million and Harry and Meghan's was more than £30 million), Eugenie is considered a much more peripheral member of the royal family and doesn't participate in nearly as many official engagements as William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan.
What's more, the weddings of more direct heirs to the throne bring in significant amounts of money for the UK economy, offsetting the cost of footing the security bill. Harry and Meghan's wedding, for example, reportedly boosted the British economy by just over £1 billion.
