Royal Wedding Gift Bag: Lots of Promo Items, But Nothing Extravagant

By Tom Higgins

We’ll be honest: We were pretty hesitant about covering the royal wedding. Aside from a roundup of insane, expensive and clever Meghan and Harry themed merchandise releases over the past several weeks, we stayed rather mum on the whole ordeal. Until now, that is. It seems there has been a development in the promotional marketing world regarding the wedding that we simply can’t ignore: There was a royal wedding gift bag.

In order to make a show of their supposed generosity, the royal family invited 2,000 commoners to the royal wedding, and these guests were given a gift bag to mark the occasion. Printed on the canvas bag itself was the date of the wedding, as well as the location (St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle) and the initials “H” and “M."

Inside the bag, attendees could find an assortment of branded goods, including a water bottle, a magnet, a commemorative chocolate coin, a guest badge, wedding-themed shortbread cookies, a map of Windsor Castle, an official Order of Service for the ceremony, and a custom tumbler.

The gift bag that members of the public got at today's #royalwedding pic.twitter.com/RBX4OocDVD

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) May 19, 2018

Seeing an opportunity, one wedding guest decided to take to eBay, where they offered the whole set up for auction and promised that all proceeds would go to an as-yet-unnamed charity.

Royal wedding fanatics flocked (stampeded?) to the opportunity, of course, and eventually drove the price up to $1,374.40, at which point the gift bag and all of its contents were sold.

We get it. People love weddings, and they really love the British monarchy. Combine the two, and you get some of the most passionate and dedicated fanatics in the world lining up for every opportunity to be a part of the celebration, even if all that means is nabbing a sweet, sweet royal wedding gift bag.

But the contents of the gift bag itself? We're kind of disappointed! There's nothing wrong with the items themselves—everyone loves promotional drinkware and free cookies—but this was the royal wedding. We kind of expected something a little more extravagant. Maybe an all-inclusive vacation or two would have at least made up for guests having to bring their own lunch?

Anyway, the real story here is that even the royal couple knows the value of promotional products (and also someone spent over a grand to get their hands on them). In the end, it just goes to show that promotional products are worth way more than meets the eye. Oh, and at least the proceeds are going to charity.