LONDON — It’s a wedding planner’s nightmare.

The nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton have to satisfy the bride’s family and the groom’s royal relatives — but also a supportive but recession-weary British public. It must be grand, but not ostentatious; regal, but with a common touch; expensive but not a drain on taxpayers worried about their jobs and the nation’s fragile economy.

“I don’t even have enough money for my own wedding, let alone theirs,” said Scott Northgrave, 39, a London construction worker. “They have a fortune, why not use it?”

Who will foot the bill for the wedding, likely to be millions of dollars, is still being worked out, but the royal family knows they must not seem out of touch with the public’s cash-strapped mood. William’s office says “the couple are mindful of the current economic situation.”

Because William is second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles, the ceremony will not be a formal state occasion like the wedding of his grandmother the queen, then Princess Elizabeth, in 1947, or of Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Both Elizabeth and Charles were heirs to the British throne.

It will not lack in grandeur, however. Westminster Abbey is the leading contender for a venue after Middleton was photographed leaving the central London landmark on Wednesday evening.

The 1,000-year-old church where British kings and queens are crowned is grand but surprisingly homey, crowded with the tombs of poets, politicians and 17 monarchs. It has both happy and sad memories for the royal family. The queen and her late mother both married there, and Princes Diana’s funeral was held there in 1997.

It can hold 2,200 people and does not cost anything to book. It is likely to be available, since the list of people allowed to marry there is limited to the royal family, abbey staff and members of the ceremonial Order of the Bath and their families.