While the hoopla around the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will not do much to help U.S. contractors battling shrinking government budgets, we have detailed the many opportunities existing for their British counterparts. It should be noted that the only major cost said to be borne by taxpayers is security, for which they shell out 128 million pounds ($213,004,800) annually.
Image by Flickr user americanistadechiapas, used under Creative Commons license.
Some of the contractor opportunities include:
Both the dressmaker and shoemaker will be kept secret until the wedding. The secrecy is in response to Princess Diana’s dressmakers Elizabeth and David Emanuel having to deal with journalists rummaging through their trash, staking out apartments opposite their studio and trying to bribe their staff. Her cobbler Clive Shelton could not deal with the pre- and post-wedding adulation and eventually turned to landscape gardening.
Pre-Wedding City Cleaning – The fountains in Trafalgar Square may have had their tiles polished and the bronze light fittings buffed for the first time in 20 years, quipped one contractor.
Post-Wedding City Cleaning – A contractor expects to remove approximately 140 tons of waste left along the processional route
Canadian Stamps – Remember, Will and Kate represent a whole commonwealth. The contractor had to overcome the short window between engagement and wedding, as well as not turning Kate’s blue dress purple during printing. Blue dress discoloration seems to be an issue for governments on both sides of the pond.
Tow Trucks – Don’t park on a closed street (even if you live there).
Wedding Planner – Though the person(s) doing the job is unknown, we can only imagine what it is like to be “organizing place cards and fielding calls from guests, who somehow have obtained her cell phone number and want to know if it’s going to rain Friday; and what precisely are the transportation arrangements from the church to Buckingham Palace; and can she do something about upgrading their nasty hotel room; and what in the world are they supposed to do in the five hours between receptions?”
Contractor Spoils
The palace general cleaning staff is trying to point to the millions of dollars spent on the wedding to press for a raise up to the London Living Wage Rate of 7.85 pounds ($12.31) per hour. At the very least, they will likely get a slice of wedding cake, even if they are not invited to the festivities.
Hopefully, the sweet taste of the confection (or the price of selling it) will improve the mood of the media stand-building contractor who said of the wedding, “”I’m sick of it, to be honest.”
Anthony Critelli follows the latest GovCon developments as news editor for GovWin.com, the network that helps government contractors win new business every day. He can be reached at [email protected]
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