What royal wore an $8 million dollar wedding dress? And who used ration coupons to pay
for her gown? Here's a look at some of the most expensive royal wedding dresses ever.
The first major royal wedding in decades, Kate Middleton and Prince William's nuptials drew an
insane amount of attention. The Knot reported that over 1 million people stood in the streets
between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey, 5,000 street parties were thrown,
162 million people tuned in to watch the cable and live stream feeds,
and 1,900 lucky guests lined the pews inside the church.
Another jaw-dropping number? $434,000, or the price tag on Kate Middleton's
fashion-changing wedding dress. Designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen,
the custom gown featured a long-sleeve, v-neck lace bodice overlaying a full-skirted ivory
silk gown. The Royal School of Needlework handcrafted the skirt's lace appliqué,
a beautiful detail that surely added several thousand dollars to the overall cost.
The look was completed with a lace veil and the Cartier Halo Tiara, on loan from the Queen.
Like other royal brides,
Kate managed to pay homage to her new husband, and their private relationship,
in a sweet, understated way. By adding sweet William flowers to her shield-shaped bouquet,
the new princess signaled her affection in a way a multi-million dollar wedding simply could not.
"Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
Like Kate Middleton and Prince William's wedding, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's big day garnered
international attention. The couple exchanged vows in front of some 600 guests in St. George's Chapel
at Windsor Castle, while 100,000 revelers crowded the streets hoping to get a glimpse of the royals,
and an estimated 1.9 billion viewers around the world tuned into the proceedings from home.
Whether enjoying the event in person or via a screen, every one of those onlookers
was almost certainly wondering what the newly minted duchess would be wearing.
For many, her classic gown, designed by the one-time artistic director of Givenchy,
Clare Waight Keller, was a hit. The white silk dress had a fitted waistline,
classic boatneck, and elegant three-quarter sleeves. Its long train was almost completely
covered by Markle's 16-foot veil. The veil itself was a work of art,
hand-embroidered with 55 flowers — one for each of the 53 countries in the commonwealth,
plus California poppies, an homage to the bride's home state, and Wintersweet, which blooms in
front of the couple's old home, Nottingham Cottage. The headpiece was secured with a
diamond bandeau tiara that was once Queen Mary's. While the exact cost of Meghan's dress, which
was paid for by the palace, has never been made known, Vanity Fair cites it as at least $265,000.
"I therefore proclaim that they are husband and wife."
While she may not have a title of her own, Zara Phillips Tindall is a granddaughter of Queen
Elizabeth. The equestrian is the daughter of Anne, the Princess Royal. Zara married
English rugby player Mike Tindall in 2011. Their wedding was a comparatively laid-back affair,
taking place at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland, with only 400 guests in attendance.
The bride wore a custom gown designed by Stewart Parvin, a royal couturier. A more traditional
designer, Parvin created a silk and satin ivory gown for Tindall, which featured a corseted waist,
teardrop train, and raw-edged tulle straps. Compared to Kate Middleton,
who had just gotten married a few months prior, Tindall's dress was almost understated. At $9,300,
the gown almost verged on affordable. The same cannot be said, however,
for the jewels Tindall wore. She completed her bridal look with the Meander Tiara,
which was originally given to Queen Elizabeth by her mother-in-law,
Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark, and now belongs to Princess Anne. The laurel wreath-esque
topper was paired with diamond frame earrings that were also on loan from the Princess Royal.
If Zara Tindall's wedding was an understated affair,
the same thing absolutely cannot be said of Princess Diana's wedding to Charles,
Prince of Wales. Over 750 million people tuned in at home to watch their nuptials take place
on July 29, 1981, according to the BBC, while an additional 600,000 onlookers
watched the wedding party make their way to and from the church. Often referred to as "the wedding
of the century," the over-the-top ceremony took place in St. Paul's Cathedral in central London.
It's only fitting, then, that Princess Diana's dress be as extravagant and iconic
as the day itself. David and Elizabeth Emmanuel designed the ivory taffeta gown,
which was kept under tight wraps until the bride stepped out of her car
moments before the ceremony began. Town & Country called the dress, which was
bedazzled with sequins and embroidered with 10,000 pearls and frilled lace,
"A stunning display of style and grandiosity."
At the time the princess wore it, it is estimated that the dress cost about $12,000 in 1981,
but that price doesn't include the Spencer tiara, tulle veil, or the silk shoes. Today, the dress
is worth quite a bit more thanks to its historical significance. Town & Country estimated a $115,000
value in 2020. The iconic gown is currently on display at Kensington Palace, which allows royal
watchers who couldn't make it to the fairytale wedding a chance to see it up close and personal.
In 1986, Prince Charles' younger brother, Prince Andrew, married Sarah Ferguson, the daughter of
a Major in the Life Guards. The event, which took place at Westminster Abbey in London,
was extravagant, but not quite as ostentatious as Charles and
Diana's — for example, only 500 million people watched the couple exchange vows.
That being said, the expectations for the Duchess of York's dress were just as high
as the expectations for the Princess of Wales' gown had been. And the Duchess,
who wasn't known as much of a fashionista, delivered. She asked a more obscure designer,
Lindka Cierach to submit several design options, and the winner featured a corseted waist,
17-foot train, and elaborate bee and thistle embroidery. The dress,
which cost an estimated $45,000, also had the young couple's initials stitched into the train.
Unlike her sister-in-law, Fergie didn't wear a tiara as she walked down the aisle. Instead,
she arrived in a flower crown that featured gardenias, the prince's favorite flower.
She also showed off the newly-crafted York Tiara, a wedding gift from the Queen and
Prince Philip, after the ceremony was over and she was officially a royal.
"Now it's not a fairy tale. It's real life in there."
In 1995, Marie-Chantal Miller, daughter of a billionaire and it-girl of the '90s,
married Pavlos, the Crown Prince of Greece. The wedding was massive,
reportedly costing Mr. Miller upwards of $8 million.
Marie-Chantal's dress, which was designed by none other than Valentino himself,
was made of ivory silk, and it featured a lace bodice and long sleeves that were embroidered
with flowers and studded with pearls. A Chantilly lace train four meters long and the Corsage Tiara,
borrowed from Queen Anne-Marie, completed the look. According to Vogue,
the bridal ensemble "took 25 seamstresses four months to make."
Hello! magazine reported that the gown cost £150,000 — or about $169,000 — at the time.
Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to around $300,000 today.
Another granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth,
Princess Eugenie married her longtime love Jack Brooksbank, a wine merchant and socialite,
in 2018. The couple tied the knot at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in front of 850 guests.
After the ceremony, the pair took a short carriage tour through the town of Windsor,
giving well-wishers an up-close glimpse at the bride's stunning Peter Pilotto gown.
Princess Eugenie's dress was made of white silk that bore a custom pattern combining
four special symbols for Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank: thistle, the White Rose of York,
shamrock, and ivy. The corseted waist, full skirt, bow-like ruffle, and low,
folded back which gave the dress its shape were all inspired by royal wedding gowns of eras past.
But those influences mark the end of Eugenie's adherence to tradition. The modern bride chose
to forgo a veil, opting to don the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara on its own, instead.
The lack of a veil worked to highlight Eugenie's scar
from a childhood operation to correct her scoliosis. Shortly before the big day,
the princess told ITV the decision to display the scar was a conscious one, saying,
"It's a lovely way to honor the people who looked after me and a way of standing up
for young people who also go through this. I think you can change the way beauty is,
and you can show people your scars and I think it's really special to stand up for that."
"Keep thee only unto him, so long as you both shall live."
"I will."
The original fairytale princess bride, American actress Grace Kelly became a bona fide
Queen when she married Monaco's Prince Rainier III back in 1956. The two met at the Cannes Film
Festival a year prior and tied the knot after a whirlwind year of globe-trotting courtship.
700 guests were in attendance at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral ceremony,
and 30 million viewers watched the televised coverage of the day.
On this occasion, the real star of the show wasn't the Hollywood beauty, as you might assume,
but her dress. The gown was a gift from MGM Studios, Kelly's former employer. It
took 30 seamstresses six weeks to craft, and an unconfirmed estimate from Brides put its original
cost at $60,000, only one of many other guesses. The finished product featured a high neckline,
long sleeves made of lace, and a silk skirt covered in thousands of pearls.
By the time Queen Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, she'd been in love with him for
nearly a decade. Per Harper's Bazaar, the story began when the 13-year-old heir to the throne
was given a tour of the Royal Naval College by the handsome 18-year-old naval cadet. Seven years and
thousands of letters later, the two got engaged in secret. Elizabeth's father, King George VI,
insisted a formal announcement be postponed until she turned 21.
On November 20, 1947, 2,500 guests lined the pews at Westminster Abbey to watch the future
monarch tie the knot. Billed as an austere wedding — the country was just emerging
from WWII, after all — the ceremony lacked many of the over-the-top decorations we've
come to expect from royal weddings. However, the government did grant Elizabeth one extravagance:
200 additional ration coupons to put toward her wedding dress.
Using the coupons, royal couturier Norman Hartnell was able to design a stunning gown made of silk
duchess satin. The ivory fabric was intricately embroidered with star lilies and orange
blossoms as well as 10,000 imported seed pearls. Botticelli's Primavera was the designer's muse.
The long-sleeved dress was completed with a 13-foot train, an embroidered tulle veil,
and a diamond tiara that snapped shortly before the princess was set to walk down the aisle.
Per an unconfirmed estimate from Insider, the dress cost
$42,000. Because the Queen also used ration coupons, the current value is also unconfirmed.
One dress cost more than every other gown combined. Worn by Queen Letizia of Spain, a former
journalist, in her 2004 wedding to Prince Felipe, the dress was a whopping estimated $8 million.
The gown was designed by royal couturier Manuel Pertegaz.
Made of off-white silk, it had long sleeves, a stiff, open-necked collar,
and a four-and-a-half meter train. Heavy embroidery edged the entire gown and was all done
with thread literally spun from silver and gold. A cathedral-length lace veil and a diamond tiara
worn by Letizia's new mother-in-law, Queen Sofia, on her own wedding day, completed the look.
The couple's wedding, which took place at the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, was the first royal
wedding to be held in the country's capital in nearly a century. Attended by some 1,600 guests,
including several heads of state and members of royal families, and watched by millions
of people in Spain alone, the ceremony, and subsequent celebrations, were as showy and ornate
as you might imagine. And of course, when you're going all-out the way these monarchs did, the last
thing you can skimp on is the bride's look. Check out one of our newest videos right here!
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