{"id":962,"date":"2011-04-25T12:14:06","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T16:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/?p=962"},"modified":"2011-04-26T14:10:22","modified_gmt":"2011-04-26T18:10:22","slug":"keep-calm-and-marry-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/2011\/04\/25\/keep-calm-and-marry-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Calm and Marry On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone loves a wedding, right? But there\u2019s no question a walk down the aisle costs money. On average, couples spend $24,066<\/a> on wedded bliss \u2013 and that\u2019s minus the cost of the honeymoon and engagement ring.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucky for England\u2019s William and Kate, much of the bill<\/a> for their royal union is being paid by the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Middletons. Taxpayers, however, must foot the cost of security, which some say could be the costliest<\/a> in history, considering the number of royals, senior politicians, VIPs and diplomats expected.<\/p>\n

It seems everyone \u2013 including the promo products industry \u2013 is jumping on the wedding bandwagon. As ASI\u2019s Counselor<\/em> magazine<\/a>\u00a0 reports from London, Friday\u2019s nuptials are causing a royal run on wedding-related memorabilia<\/a> and promotional products<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read the Counselor<\/em> story on the promotional trend and click here<\/a> for a reporter\u2019s blog with photos of some of the products.<\/p>\n

This week, the \u201cJoe Show<\/a>\u201d featured some of the many wedding products our reporter tracked down and shipped back to the states, including a commemorative booklet, tea cup, heart-shaped compact and even ashtray. My favorites are the Wills and Kate masks I\u2019m sure Joe will be wearing Friday morning when he tunes into the wedding along with about 2 billion others. Click here<\/a> to watch the special edition \u201cJoe Show.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Counselor\u2019s<\/em> reporter interviewed a number of manufacturers and distributors about the mugs, plates, commemorative pens, William & Catherine<\/a> compacts, ashtrays and even shot glasses available for sale.<\/a><\/p>\n

For those in need of a laugh, there\u2019s even a commemorative plate reading \u201cThanks for the free day off,\u201d a \u201cKeep Calm and Marry On\u201d poster and \u201cKiss Me Kate\u201d beer.<\/p>\n

Lucy Stuart, co-owner of Norfolk, UK-based distributor S R Print and Design, says the breadth of products available makes this occasion the biggest for promotional product consumer sales since the change of the millennium in 2000. The Telegraph<\/em> newspaper reports the sale of royal wedding merchandise altogether could top $42.5 million.<\/p>\n

Are you planning to get up at 4 a.m.<\/a> to watch events unfold? If so, post a comment or email me here<\/a>. I\u2019m also on Twitter<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone loves a wedding, right? But there\u2019s no question a walk down the aisle costs money. On average, couples spend $24,066 on wedded bliss \u2013 and that\u2019s minus the cost of the honeymoon and engagement ring. Lucky for England\u2019s William and Kate, much of the bill for their royal union is being paid by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-using-ad-specialties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timandrewsblog-asicentral.com\/timblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}