Middleton will be driven by car to Westminster Abbey along the traditional processional route of the Mall, Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall and Parliament Square.

The service, at 11am on 29 April, will be conducted by the dean of the abbey, the Very Rev John Hall. The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, will marry the couple and the Right Rev Richard Chartres, the bishop of London and a longstanding friend of the royal family, will give the address.

The couple will return along the same route, but this time in a carriage procession.

The Queen, who has a larger pad than the Middletons, is laying on a reception for the couple's "official and private" guests. In the evening, when the VIPs have gone and granny and grandad have retired to bed, Prince Charles will host a private dinner followed by dancing for close friends and family.

The reception is being funded by the royal family with the Middletons, who are wealthy from their business in children's party accessories, chipping in. The state will bear the cost of security and the troops on parade will be drawn from detachments already on duty in London.

No word yet on the honeymoon.