It’s been reported that the £10 million raised from Buckingham Palace ticket sales this summer will be donated to charitable causes. A proportion of the money raised will also go towards the upkeep of the paintings and artefacts which form the Royal Collection.

Tickets priced at £17.50 for adults, sold out in a matter of days when they went on sale ahead of the summer opening of the London palace with extra time slots for official tours being added in order to cope with the demand. On the last weekend of the opening, people started queuing at 6am for their last chance to catch a glimpse of the Sarah Burton designed Alexander McQueen lace wedding gown which was displayed in the palace ballroom.

As well as the lace and tulle wedding gown, the veil, shoes, tiara and jewellery worn by the Duchess of Cambridge on her wedding day were also displayed, as was a number of official wedding photographs, and a tier from the intricately decorated wedding cake.

It’s estimated that 600,000 people visited the royal wedding exhibition as part of the summer opening of Buckingham Palace, beating the previous record of 420,000 visitors in 1994. However the final number will not be known until the official audit is completed.

Prince William and Kate Middleton finally announce their engagement

Clarence House have released a statement confirming that Prince William and Kate Middleton are engaged, and planning to marry next year.

The announcement has ended months of speculation as the media and royal sources have indicated that a royal wedding was imminent. The biggest hint came when Kate’s parents were invited to the Queens’ Scottish estate in Balmoral, last month, suggesting an engagement announcement was on the cards.

According to the official statement, William went by tradition and asked Kate’s father for permission to marry his daughter before going down on one knee during a holiday in Kenya last month.

The Queen was informed of the news by the William, and Prince Charles is said to be “delighted”.

The wedding will take place in London during either the spring or summer of 2011. It’s likely the ceremony will be held in either St Paul’s Cathedral, or Westminster Abbey, both of which have a personal resonance for William as his parents were married in St Pauls in 1981, while his mother, Diana Princess of Wales’ funeral, was held in the Abbey in 1997.

Following the royal wedding, the newlyweds will set up home in North Wales where the prince will continue to serve in the Royal Air Force as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.

The couple have been together for 8 years after meeting as students while studying at St Andrews University where they lived together in student accommodation. Save for a brief split in 2007, the pair have been together ever since.

Will Prince William and Kate Middleton finally make it up the aisle next August?

The rumour mill has gone into overdrive once again as news of a new potential wedding date for royal couple Prince William and Kate Middleton is leaked.

High profile sources have revealed that the royal aides have been hard at work making top secret plans for the eagerly anticipated royal wedding with senior officials at Westminster Abbey with the second weekend of August 2011 being singled out for the big occasion.

A wedding at Westminster Abbey would be preferable to the Queen who was also married there in 1947. It is also a place which will also mean a great deal to the Prince as the funeral of his mother, Princess Diana, took place the Abbey 13 years ago.

Prince William is currently finishing his training to become an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot, however it is believed that by August next year, he will be in a position to take time out for a wedding. A wedding the following year would be difficult to accommodate as the Queen is celebrating her Golden Jubilee, and the London is hosting the Olympic Games so unless Waity Katy doesn’t mind holding out until 2013, next year looks like the best time for the nuptials.

William and Kate have been together for 7 years after meeting as students studying at St Andrews University. A source has revealed the couple will finally announce their engagement in the autumn.

The bookies are also convinced a royal wedding is on the cards with William Hill bookmakers announcing they are no longer taking bets on a 2011 wedding for Kate and Wills as they believe it is a dead cert.

Kate Middleton is helping to sell wedding accessories from her family's company

As the world waits eagerly for news of a possible royal wedding between Prince William and long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton, the potential bride-to-be is busy selling wedding accessories to other couples from her family’s own Party Pieces company.

The Middleton family business which is headed up by Kate’s parents, Caroline and Michael, specialises in accessories for all kinds of parties including children’s birthdays, garden parties and seasonal parties amongst others, and now the business has launched a new line in bargain wedding accessories.

Some could accuse the savvy family-run company of cashing-in on their daughter’s high profile relationship by introducing a wedding range just as the world’s media is speculating about a possible Royal wedding later this year.

Kate, who has been dating the Prince for the past 7-years, works at the family company which is based near the Middleton’s home in Berkshire. Previous to this she worked as an accessories buyer for a junior fashion range at Jigsaw.

If a royal wedding is on the cards for November 2010 as has been rumoured, Kate will certainly have picked up a few tips on how to keep the cost of the a wedding down with some of the discounted accessories on offer at Party Pieces. The company has a range of confetti available from £1.99, plus a three-tier wedding cake stand for just £19.99 and invitation card packs for £6.99.

Rumour has it Prince William will announce his engagement to Kate Middleton this June

Speculation is mounting that Prince William and long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton could be about to announce their engagement in June after a leak from a palace source.

Former Vanity Fair editor, Tina Brown, broke the news in her blog saying that she had received her information from a “high placed source” at Buckingham Palace. An elusive gap in the Royal diary on June 3^rd and 4^th has prompted the rumour. It is speculated that these dates have been put aside for the official announcement of the Prince’s engagement to his girlfriend of 7 years.

Ms Brown, who is reported to be extremely well connected and was a friend of Princess Diana, goes on to say in her blog that a wedding is likely to be scheduled for November. This would fall after the General Election, and prior to William taking up his 3-year post as a Search and Rescue RAF pilot.

If a November wedding is on the cards they’ll be following in the footsteps of the Queen herself who married Prince Phillip in November 1947.

It has been reported that the Royal family would like to see William married before the Queen celebrates her Diamond Jubilee in February 2012, which marks 60 years on the throne.

Prince William declares we'll have to "wait a while" for a wedding with Kate Middleton

Prince William poured cold water on any hopes Kate Middleton might of had of a imminent wedding following an off-the-cuff remark this week. The 27-year-old laughed off a question regarding a potential marriage from an injured serviceman during a public visit.

The Prince was visiting a rehabilitation centre in Llandudno, North Wales, when serviceman Simon Brown who has been blinded, cheeky asked for invite to the Prince’s wedding.

William took the question in his stride and answered good naturedly: “You’ll have to wait a while I think.”

That was probably not the response long-tern girlfriend Kate Middleton was hoping for. The pair have been dating for the past 7-years after meeting at St Andrews University as students. They’ve been playing the dating game for so long that the press have invented their own nick-name for the 28-year-old, Waity Katy, as she’s hung on so long for an engagement with the Prince.

The pair split up back in 2007 but remained friends and by the end of the year, they were back together again. Kate and William have been forced to spend a lot of time apart in recent months whilst the Prince has been away in Anglesey, at RAF Valley training with to become a helicopter pilot, leaving Kate alone in London.

Reports had surfaced that the Royal family were working behind the scenes in preparation for the nuptials. However given William’s recent comment, this seems unlikely. Although speculation has been mounting that a wedding could be planned between William and Kate in 2012 to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Prince Willam and Kate Middleton mingle with the other guests at a friend's wedding last week

Kate Middleton looked every inch the princess-in-waiting when she accompanied her royal boyfriend to a friend’s wedding last week. Dressed in an elegant cornflower blue tailored skirt suit with matching hat, the 27 year old beauty looked relaxed as she chatted with the other guests.  Prince William, along with his brother Harry, were ushers at the ceremony which took place at the Guards Chapel near Buckingham Palace.

The high profile were there to celebrate the marriage of their friend Captain Nicholas Van Cutsem, an Army Officer, to 25-year old Events Organiser Alice Hadden-Paton. 31-year-old Captain Nicholas is due to be deployed to Afghanistan at the end of the year.

Whether the happy union of their friend will spur the royal couple into announcing their own wedding remains to be seen. Kate and William started dating in 2001 after meeting at university in St. Andrews. Kate’s patience has earned her the nick-name Waity Katy as she has been a permanent figure in the Prince’s life for 8 years, without the hint of an engagement.

Rumours surrounding the couple and a possible wedding have been rife for years. Recently it has been suggested that the wedding will take place before the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, meaning wedding bells should be imminent.

The couple certainly looked the picture of love’s young dream as they enjoyed their friend’s wedding reception in London last week. Kate looked tanned and healthy after enjoying a long break on the exclusive private island of Mustique in the Caribbean. William looked less sun-kissed as he has spent the last few weeks in Anglesey, North Wales, where he is undergoing pilot training.