Post Office expects worldwide demand for commemorative wedding stamps

The Royal Mail collectibles have been rolling off the presses ready for their release today, the Queen’s birthday, and will be available at all Post Office branches across the UK.

Produced with the approval of the monarch and involvement from William, they feature William and Kate’s official engagement portraits taken by fashion and celebrity photographer Mario Testino.

The formal image, on the £1.10 stamp, was taken in the Council Chamber of St James’s Palace, while the informal image, on the 1st Class stamp, shows the couple in the Palace’s Cornwall room.

Royal Mail said it is expecting strong demand for the collectibles, with its website already receiving thousands of visitors from the UK and around the world wanting to find out more about the stamps.

Stephen Agar, of Royal Mail, said: “It is a great honour to commemorate this very special event through this set of stamps.

“As the nation gets set to celebrate we are proud to be able to offer this everlasting reminder of such a historic occasion.”

The stamp sheet, costing £3.12, consists of two 1st Class stamps and two £1.10 stamps.

This is the third time Prince William has appeared on a Royal Mail stamp.

He featured on a sheet of stamps to celebrate the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday on August 4, 2000.

Three years later he became the first member of the Royal Family to have a set of stamps produced to celebrate their 21st birthday.

And the royal wedding stamps mark another first, as William is the first of The Queen’s grandchildren to have their wedding commemorated on a set of stamps.

The last issue of Royal Mail stamps celebrating events in the life of the Royal Family was brought out to commemorate the The Queen’s Diamond Wedding Anniversary in October 2007.

The marriage of William’s parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales, in 1981 was marked by two Royal Mail stamps – a 14p first-class stamp and a 25p one for overseas mail.

The first-class stamp marking William and Miss Middleton’s wedding will be priced at 46p – as the cost of a first-class stamp increased by 5p on April 4.

The new £1.10 royal wedding stamp covers the postage of letters and cards, weighing up to 20g, sent worldwide.