Prince William and Kate Middleton will marry on Friday, April 29 next year it was announced today.

The ceremony will be held at Westminster Abbey and Downing Street today confirmed that it will be a bank holiday.

St James’ Palace revealed the date and venue of the royal wedding exactly a week after the couple announced their engagement.

The Royal household has been in deadlock over the timing of the ceremony for seven days, with courtiers struggling to secure an agreement.

William, 28, is understood to have insisted on a spring wedding and has now won over officials who wanted a summer ceremony to ensure good weather.

Kate was pictured leaving Westminster Abbey last Wednesday night and it had since been regarded as a certainty for the venue.The Abbey has space for 2,000 guests, while hundreds could potentially gather in Parliament Square and the surrounding streets.

St Paul’s Cathedral was regarded as the other main contender, but this was where Prince Charles married Diana back in 1981

.Holding the wedding at the Abbey will also have bad memories because it was where William’s mother’s funeral took place in 1997.

But the prince has already showed he will not hide away his family’s complicated family history by giving his fiancee his mother’s engagement ring.