Designed by David Emmanuel who was especially commissioned by Diana to create her royal wedding gown, the replica dress was never called into use on the actual wedding day itself, however it was seen by thousands when the dress was used on a waxwork model at Madame Tussauds for a special royal wedding display.

The ivory taffeta dress was sold by Madame Tussauds several years ago to an American collector who kept the dress in a private collection until its sale this week. The iconic gown sold for £48,000 yesterday with a fashion museum in Chile reportedly winning the bid.

The ivory slippers were designed to be an exact copy of Diana’s wedding shoes so that either the left or right shoe could be replaced with one of the replicas should either of the slippers had been damaged or stained during the wedding day.

The replica shoes were never actually paid for by Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand-Kidd, as she was unhappy with the final bill. The size 6.5 slippers, which feature the letters C and D on the soles, remained the property of the designer Clive Shilton, until this week when they sold for £36,000 at auction.

Displaying all of the same key features as seen on the original Pippa dress, including covered ivory buttons running down the back of the dress, capped sleeves and cowl neckline, the Debenhams version of the royal wedding bridesmaid gown is a dead-ringer for the Sarah Burton for McQueen designed gown – plus it’s a snip at just £170.

The high street version of the Pippa bridesmaid dress was officially launch in the Oxford Street Debenhams store this week, with a Kate Middleton lookalike drafted in to model the £170 gown.

As well as the ivory bridesmaid dress, Debenhams have also introduced their own adaption of the Alice Temperley emerald green gown worn by Pippa Middleton to the evening reception of the royal wedding, which is priced at £99.

The popular high street store say they are also in the process of developing flower girl dresses to match those worn by the young attendants at the wedding of the now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey. The flower girl dresses are expected to be revealed in the coming months and priced between £48 -£52.

The viral video which features royal family lookalikes, and also a very convincing Archbishop Rowan Williams lookalike, has become a YouTube sensation after reaching 20 million hits in just one month.

The video, which promotes T-Mobile, sees the various lookalikes sashaying down the aisle while busting some daring dance moves. Prince Harry and Prince William lookalikes leap frog each other coming down the aisle, while the Prince Charles and Camilla lookalikes indulge in a spot of hit bumping to the tune of House of Love by East 17 as they make their way through the church in the promotional video.

Despite its popularity, some have criticised the video for mocking the royal family. The Church is keen to make amends as it doesn’t want to be seen to be involved in the stunt which some believe pokes fun at the royals. With this in mind, senior clerics have advised Rev Dr Martin Dudley, who allowed his church to be used for the backdrop for the viral, to donate the fee he received from the media company to one of Prince William’s charities as a gesture of good will.

However the mobile phone network has defended the video saying it wasn’t their intention to mock the royals, but instead reflex the celebratory mood of the nation in their tongue-in-cheek video. Check out the clip on YouTube and let us know what you make of the spoof royal wedding video.

The now notorious fascinator has already attracted a whopping opening bid of £5,000 which was put forward by Dragon’s Den businessman, Duncan Bannatyne. All money collected from the sale of royal wedding hat will be divided between two children’s charities, Unicef and Children in Crisis.

To publicise the auction, the two charities involved have released a mock-up of entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne wearing the recognisable fascinator.

Princess Beatrice received wide spread criticism for her choice of headwear when she stepped out at the wedding of her cousin, Prince William, to Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29^th. The one-of-a-kind nude giant bow fascinator was mocked by many fashion commentators and members of the public.

The headpiece made such an impression that two Facebook pages have been created in its honour one of which, Princess Beatrice’s Ridiculous Royal Wedding Hat, has attracted over 136,000 “likes” on the social networking site.

The auction is now live and will continue to run for nine days in total.

Thousands of visitors are expected to descend on the capital city on April 29^th when Prince William marries Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey, but with the vast majority of hotels booking out within hours of the announcement being made, home owners in London could cash-in on the biggest royal event in 30-years by renting their property out to visitors.

The survey conducted by Findaproperty.co.uk which found that 1 in 4 London home owners are contemplating letting their property over the royal wedding weekend estimates that the city could make as much £100 million from renting out private homes over the last weekend of April.

The average nightly rate for a room in London on the weekend of the royal wedding is £38, however some landlords have increased their prices dramatically with some commanding the equivalent of top hotel rates of £300 or more per night. Townhouses in central London can expect to rent out for £4,000 for 7 days during the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

However you don’t need to have an inner city pad to attract the royal wedding tourists as holiday lets across the city are being snapped up as Kate and Wills fever grips the capital. Visitors from as far afield as Australia, Europe, Japan and America are expected to make the trip to the UK for the April 29^th nuptials.

Mexican teen on hunger strike in bid to secure royal wedding invite

A Mexican teenager has gone on hunger strike in a bid to secure an invite to the upcoming royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.

As news emerges that the coveted invites have already been posted, and that all of 1,900 spaces for the ceremony at Westminster Abbey have been taken, 19-year-old Estibalis Chavez is defiant and says she’ll keep up her vigil until she “can’t go on.”

The high school student set up camp outside of the British Embassy in Mexico City last week and claims to have drunk only water for the last 9 days. The teen has spent her time camped out in a blue tent, painting a picture of the royal couple, and handing out leaflets to passers-by to notify them of her plight.

Describing herself as a “royalty fan” Chavez says she believes William and Kate will invite her to their big day on April 29^th when they hear of her efforts. The 19-year-old says it’s her “only dream” to attend the royal nuptials.

The British Embassy have confirmed that they are aware of the student’s vigil, however they revealed that there are no spaces left for the eagerly anticipated wedding so it’s highly unlikely Chavez will receive the invite she so desperately wants.

High profile names who have reportedly made the guest list include David and Victoria Beckham, and also former Wales rugby star Gareth Thomas, who is the first rugby player to be openly gay, is also said to have received an invite.

Prince William and Kate Middleton announce their wedding attendants

The attendants for the eagerly anticipated royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton have been revealed.

The majority of those invited to take part in the royal wedding as either bridesmaid or pageboy all have royal blood, or a connection to the royal family, with just Kate’s sister, Pippa, representing the Middleton family in the line up of helpers who will follow the 29-year-old up the aisle on April 29^th.

The bride-to-be chose her 27-year-old event planner sister Pippa to take on the role of maid of honour when she marries the prince at Westminster Abbey.

Another four bridesmaid have been chosen to accompany the brunette on her big day, those being Lady Louise Windsor, the queen’s youngest granddaughter, Eliza Lopes, the Duchess of Cornwall’s granddaughter, the hon Margarita Armstrong-Jones, the daughter of Viscount Linley, and Grace Van Cutsem, the daughter of Prince William’s close friend, Hugh Van Cutsem. All of the bridesmaids are aged between 3 – 8 years old.

The male wedding attendants are headed up by the Prince’s brother, Prince Harry, who will perform best man duties on the big day. The Prince shied away from the royal tradition of choosing two “supporters” and instead opted for just one best man.

Two pageboys will be included in the bridal party, these will be 10-year-old William Lowther-Pinkerton, whose father is William’s private secretary, and 8-year-old Tom Pettifer, whose mother, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, was William and Harry’s nanny.

According to a palace official, Kate and William decided on their wedding attendants together.

Peter Andre mysteriously clears his diary for April 29th prompting royal wedding invite speculation

A tabloid newspaper is reporting that Peter Andre may have found his way onto the Royal wedding guest list after the reality TV star mysteriously cancelled a planned performance on April 29^th.

The Mysterious Girl singer was lined-up to perform at a fund raiser event for an autism charity, Dominic’s House, at Preston’s Guild Hall. However the charity has confirmed that their star act has pulled out of the gig which is due to take place on the same day as Prince William is due to marry Kate Middleton.

The fundraising event has now drafted in former X-Factor contestants Aiden Grimshaw and Jamie Archer to perform at the function in Preston in place of Andre.

The move to cancel the engagement on April 29^th has prompted speculation that the 37-year-old has received an invitation to the royal wedding.

However Peter Andre’s management have failed to either confirm or deny the rumour, although the singer’s spokesperson did concede that they were in the process of rearranging a number of live performances around this April date, but didn’t give a reason why.

Famous faces from P Diddy, to JLS and Nicole Scherzinger are all clamouring to receive an invite to the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. But despite the desperate celeb pleas for invites and mounting speculation over who will make the cut, the official word from Clarence House is that no one has received an invite yet.

A slice of the 1981 Diana and Charles wedding cake has been sold for £180

A slice of royal wedding cake believed to be from Prince Charles and Diana Princess of Wales’ 1981 wedding has been sold on an online auction website for £180.

The small bite-size morsel of iced fruit cake has spent the past 30 years packed away in a Tupperware box until the owner decided to sell it on Trade Me, an internet auction site in New Zealand.

The seller, Katrina Greenslade, explained that her father had been given the slice of royal wedding cake after one tier was gifted to the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1981 where her father was a sergeant.

According to Katrina, the air base drew lots to decide who would have a piece of the royal cake, and her father won the chance to try a slice. However instead of eating it there and then, he took it back home to show his family where it seems, no one had the heart to actually eat it.

After 30 years in an airtight container, Katrina conceded the white icing has turned a yellowish shade, and the piece of royal history does smell like exactly you’d expect a 30-year-old cake to smell – which isn’t good we’re guessing.

The item attracted 40,000 hits as royal fans bombarded the advert on the auction site. The morsel of royal wedding cake eventually sold to a bidder only known as “Paul” for £180.

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall have announced their plans to marry

Just weeks after her cousin Prince William announced his engagement to Kate Middleton, Zara Phillips has revealed her plans to marry long-term partner Mike Tindall.

According to Buckingham Palace, the pair became engaged yesterday after the England rugby star Mike Tindall went down on one knee at the home at the couple share in Gloucestershire.

Like William and Kate, Zara and Mike have also enjoyed a long courtship having first got together back in 2003 when the rugby ace was part of England’s squad who won the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

After two years of dating, the pair moved in together in Gloucester. The 31-year-old sports man plays for Gloucester’s premiership rugby side.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have been described as “delighted” at the news of the engagement of their 29-year-old granddaughter.

Zara, who is currently 12^th in line to the throne, is the daughter of Princess Anne from her first marriage to Captain Mark Phillips. In 2006 Zara won an individual gold medal at the World Equestrian Games, and was later named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the same accolade her mother won back in 1971.

No date has been set for what is expected to be the second royal wedding in 2011.