Who doesn’t want a fairytale wedding? After all, they say your wedding day is the most important day of your life — you shed your previous life and enter into ‘certified’ adulthood. A chosen few prefer keeping this momentous occasion in their life ‘affordable’ — which includes the likes of Facebook billionare Mark Zukerberg and Priscilla Chan who pulled off a ‘surprise’ wedding with a 100 guests and kept it simple by getting the catering done by their favourite sushi restaurant.

But there are those who go all out — they plan and execute their wedding like there is no tomorrow. The cost of their extravagance could possibly feed several villages around the world… for several years.

The Most Expensive Wedding title goes to that of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Often described as a fairy tale wedding, it was viewed by a global TV audience of 750 million people, two million spectators and held at St Paul’s Cathedral. Lady Diana’s dress was designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel and consisted of a 25-foot train of ivory taffeta and antique lace. A five-foot-tall cake was made for the main ceremony (with a duplicate cake made as a backup) along with 27 wedding cakes that were presented to guests. Today, their wedding would’ve costed $110 million.

Coming in at second place is the wedding of Vanisha Mittal and Amit Bhatia. Lakshmi Mittal, Indian billionaire steel-magnate spared no expense when marrying his daughter off to the groom who was a London-born banker and entrepreneur. Their wedding cost $60 million in 2005 ($66 million by today’s standards).

The wedding festivities took place at a 16th century chateau in France and at Versailles. The guests were flown to the venue and accommodated in five star hotels after having received the invitations in silver boxes. They also received complimentary Mouton Rothschild wines and jewel-filled designer gift bags. It was truly a wedding to kill to attend.

The Most Expensive Wedding Dress title goes to a five-carat white gold, diamond and 1,000 pearl creation by sought-after Japanese bridal wear designer, Yumi Katsura. The extravagant dress is priced at a staggering $8.5 million. That dress, however, is still looking for its bride.

Coming in at a close second is Kate Middleton’s ivory satin and lace Alexander McQueen wedding dress which cost a whopping $40,000. It had a nine-foot train which was made from French Chantilly and English Cluny lace, ivory and white satin gazar — and decorated with hand-stitched lace applique by the Royal School of Needlework. Needless to say, the dress took months to make.

The Most Expensive Ring title goes to the celluloid screen goddess, Elizabeth Taylor. Richard Burton (who married Taylor twice, in 1964 and 1975) proposed to this dark beauty by presenting her with an enormous 33.19 carat Asscher-cut Krupp diamond. It is a type 11a diamond — rare and the purest of all diamonds. Less than one per cent of diamonds in the world are type 11a. The ring was auctioned off at Christies in 2011 to an unnamed buyer. The ring is valued at $8.8 million.

Coming in at second is the 18 carat, flawless octagon-cut diamond ring set in platinum by jewellery designer Lorraine Schwartz, that musician and producer Jay-Z gave to singing sensation Beyonce Knowles. The ring is valued at $5 million.