Here's How Much Princess Diana's Wedding Cake Actually Cost

Few weddings have captured the public's attention in the manner that Princess Diana's big day did. According to the BBC, 750 million viewers in 74 countries tuned in to see the beautiful Lady Diana Spencer take her glass carriage ride to St. Paul's Cathedral to walk down the aisle to become the Princess of Wales. It was a wedding for the ages and left an indelible mark on the wedding industry. Princess Diana's dress, veil, tiara, and flowers were quite the show stopper. She was truly regal in every sense of the word. But the perfection of her wedding didn't end there. Princess Diana's wedding cake still has tongues wagging, and in our case, salivating at the thought of the ultimate reason to attend any wedding: cake and frosting. Yeah, we love all the pomp and circumstance as much as the next person, but in the end, it is the cake that gets us excited.

Per Mini Museum, Princess Diana's wedding cake was a five-tier fruit cake created by Chief Petty Officer Cook at the Royal Naval Cooking School, David Avery. Okay, we must admit, a fruit cake does not sound all that appealing to eat at a wedding, or pretty much ever for that matter, but because it's Princess Diana's wedding cake, we will make an exception. But it does raise the question, how much did the royals spend on this cake?  

We know this royal wedding was expensive, with Smithsonian Magazine noting it cost $48 million in July of 1981 and would cost $137 million if this same wedding were held today. So, how much did that fruit cake cost the royal family? Per Bakingo.com, Princess Diana's wedding cake was a whopping $40,000. But according to Cheat Sheet, that was a drop in the bucket compared to what Princess Kate spent on hers. William and Kate apparently had two cakes and they each cost $80,000. To be fair, one was chopped up and used as a wedding souvenir. And CBS News reported that Meghan and Harry probably spent a little over $70,000 on their wedding cake. 

How do all of these royal cake costs compare to what the average American spends on a wedding cake? Brides.com suggests that there are a lot of factors to take into consideration when it comes to the cost of a wedding cake. Cake design, layers, flavors, transportation, delivery, and assembling all come into play. The bridal site reveals that the more economical wedding is going to spend around $125 on a cake, while a bigger budget wedding often spends $700 and up on their wedding cake.