Every Bride Expects To Have A Fairytale Entrance On Her Wedding Day, Especially Royal Brides. Here Are A Selection Of Royal Wedding Dresses Throughout History.
Astrid of Sweden
Astrid wore different dresses for her two ceremonies, both of satin. The Swedish dress featured a scooped neckline with scalloped layers of lace-trimmed satin at the hem. At the Belgian wedding, was a cream wrap dress with sprigs of lilies of the valley at her waist. The train was trimmed with embroidered flowers and seed pearls. The skirt of her dress featured more Brussels lace, with a long train. She carried a bouquet of lilies of the valley and orchids. Her veil was made of Brussels lace – the same for both ceremonies. During the Swedish ceremony, Astrid wore a crown of myrtle in her hair, typical for Swedish brides. She wore the same veil for both weddings, the wearing of the Swedish myrtle crown made a slightly different style.
Astrid of Sweden
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria started the tradition of white weddings and white bridal gowns in 1840. The plain, cream satin gown was made from fabric woven in Spitalfields, London, and trimmed with a deep flounce and trimmings of lace hand-made in Devon. This demonstrated support for English industry. The lace motifs were appliquéd onto cotton machine-made net. Orange blossoms, a symbol of fertility, also trimmed the dress and made up a wreath, which Victoria wore instead of a tiara over her veil. The veil matched the flounce of the dress and was four yards in length and 0.75 yards wide. Her jewelry consisted of a necklace and earrings made of diamonds presented to her by the Sultan of Turkey, and a sapphire cluster brooch given to her by Albert. The slippers matched the white color of the dress. The train carried by her bridesmaids was 18 feet (5.5 m) in length.
Queen Victoria
Noor al-Hussein of Jordan (Lisa Halaby)
King Hussein I of Jordan and Lisa Halaby were married on June 15, 1978, at Zahran Palace in Amman, Jordan the traditional site of royal marriages. King Hussein gave Lisa a new, Arabic name: Noor al-Hussein, “Light of Hussein.” She persuaded the hairdresser to arrange her hair as simple as possible, a band of white flowers holding her hair in place with a simple veil and she wore no makeup. She partially followed the Western tradition and wore “something blue and something new.” The something blue was a wedding present from her father, a sapphire stick pin from Tiffany. Something new was a pair of diamond drop earrings from a set of jewelry, a gift from Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia. The diamond drop earrings were quite dramatic, she decided to remove the drops and wear the tops.
Noor al-Hussein of Jordan
Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
The 1999 dress featured a wide v-neck with a strong shoulder shape formed in heavy off-white satin. The slim fit bodice has a cross seam detail and the long sleeves and back are accented with embroidered and beaded buttons. A longer train extended from her waist at the back. Like many family members before her, Alexia opted to drape her great- grandmother Crown Princess Margaret’s Irish lace veil over her chignon, and topped the whole thing with the family’s traditional wedding tiara, the Khedive of Egypt Tiara, and a pair of diamond earrings.
Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
Princess Eugenie of York
It features a wide-neck V shape, folded shoulders and a low back “that drapes into a flowing full-length train”. Eugenie asked the designers to make an open-back dress as she wanted her scar from the scoliosis operation that she underwent at the age of 12 to be revealed. The fabric featured different symbols in form of rope-like motifs, woven into a jacquard of silk, cotton and viscose blend. These were a Scottish thistle, to show the couple’s fondness for Balmoral”, an Irish shamrock, a nod to the bride’s [maternal] family”, a York Rose, a reference to her family name of York, and ivy, which represented the Ivy Cottage, the couple’s residence at Kensington Palace. Eugenie wore the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara, which was lent to her by the Queen. It is made of brilliant and rose cut diamonds set in platinum, with six emeralds on either side.
Princess Eugenie of York
Queen Silvia of Sweden
Silvia chose to go to France for her wedding dress, to Dior and Marc Bohan. The result is 1976 a silk duchesse gown almost stark in its simplicity, with a high neck, long sleeves, slim skirt and train extending from the shoulders. Silvia was wearing both an intricate veil and a showpiece tiara. The veil, a Swedish wedding tradition, dates from Queen Sofia and had been worn by Carl Gustaf’s late mother Princess Sibylla among other family members. She wore it intriguingly folded up under the Cameo Tiara – another Swedish wedding tradition she helped to solidify. A tissue is strapped to her wrist by a rubber band (insisted upon by her mother, and forgotten but seen in nearly every shot of her waving her right hand).
Queen Silvia of Sweden
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary consort of Iran
The 1951 bride wore a wedding dress by Christian Dior consisting of 37 yards of silver lame with 20,000 feathers and 6,000 diamond pieces sewn on the dress and jacket. She difficulty in walking under such a heavy load and the dress with the long train. A skillful lady-in-waiting was summoned with a pair of scissors who cut off yards of the petticoat and the trail without her having to take off the wedding gown.
Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary
Princess Alexandra, Lady Ogilvy
The bride wore a wedding dress of Valenciennes lace, with matching veil and train, designed by John Cavanagh. The lace had to be made in France. The wedding dress included a piece of lace from the bride’s later grandmother, Princess Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and the veil worn by Lady Patricia Ramsey at her own wedding in 1919. She wore the diamond fringe tiara given to her mother by the City of London as a wedding gift in 1934.
Princess Alexandra, Lady Ogilvy
Marie Antoinette
The 14 year old bride wore an enormous white and silver dress decorated with white diamonds. The dress was to small miscalculating her measurements, the dressmakers had constructed the gown so that it did not fit the new dauphine. No matter how tightly they tried to cinch the body of the dress it didn’t properly cover the lacing and shift poking out from the back which meant there was a strange gap between the rows of diamonds.
Marie Antoinette
Alexandra of Denmark
The 1863 dress was made of white silk satin trimmed with orange blossoms, myrtle, tulle puffs and Honiton lace. It had a similarly trimmed 21-foot (6.4 m) silver moiré train, which was carried by eight young ladies aged 15 to 20h. A matching lace veil, train trimming and handkerchief were also made. The pattern of the lace depicted cornucopias filled with English roses, Irish shamrocks and Scottish thistles. She wore a wreath of orange blossoms and myrtle and carried a bouquet of orange blossoms, white rosebuds, lily of the valley, orchids, and myrtle.
Alexandra of Denmark
Farah Diba of Iran
The 1959 Yves Saint Laurent dress featured a scoop neck, with a modest coat to go over top. The whole affair was embroidered with Persian motifs depicted in sequins, imitation pearls, and silver thread. The train had a distinctive fur-lined hem; unseen, blue was sewn in to some of the hems as a sort of a good luck charm for the birth of a boy.
Farah Diba of Iran
Marie of Edinburgh, Queen of Romania
Princess Marie was dressed in a robe of white corded silk embroidered with pearls. The skirt was trimmed with bouquets of myrtle and orange blossoms, the body bordered with white velvet and adorned also with myrtle and orange blossoms. The bridal veil was tulle and a gift of her mother. Her only ornaments were the diamond necklace presented by the King of Roumania and Prince Ferdinand, and a diadem and cross of diamonds, the gift of the Duchess of Edinburg.
Marie of Edinburgh, Queen of Romania
Princess Madeleine of Sweden
Princess Madeleine chose the Italian designer Valentino for her dress. It was made of silk organza with ivory colored Chantilly lace, with a wide skirt ending in a four-meter train. Her veil was also silk organza, edged with tulle and small lace orange blossoms. Breaking from tradition, Princess Madeleine chose to wear the Modern Fringe Tiara instead of the Cameo. The bride’s bouquet was a mixture of several different white roses with lilies of the valley and myrtle. The myrtle comes from a bush brought to Sweden by Princess Margaret of Connaught after her marriage to the future King Gustaf VI Adolf in 1905. Since the 1930s, royal brides of Sweden have traditionally worn or carried a sprig of this myrtle at their weddings.
Princess Madeleine of Sweden
Jetsun Pema of Bhutan
The wedding featured traditional Bhutanese attire. The bride had ordered several elaborate kiras, the national dress, from among prominent weavers in the country. She chose a Kira, which took three years to weave. An ankle-length dress consisting of a rectangular piece of woven fabric, wrapped and folded around the body which was pinned at both shoulders. The kira was colored red, yellow, green and white, along with red earrings to match her red wonju, the colours are also symbolic of astrology. A light yellow tego (a short jacket) with a long-sleeved blouse inside was also worn.
Jetsun Pema of Bhutan
Sophie, Countess of Wessex
The 1999 dress is made of hand-dyed silk organza and silk crepe. It’s full-length, with long sleeves and the detail consists of rows of pearls and crystal beading around the neck, sleeves and train, and beading down the back and front of the dress-coat. 325,000 cut-glass and pearl beads are sewn on the dress, which is corseted, with a v-neck. The veil is one inch longer than the train. It is made of silk tulle, and hand-finished with spotted crystal detail. She carried a bouquet of ivory roses. She wore a black-and-white pearl necklace, interspersed with white gold rondels, and matching black-and-white pearl earrings. She wore a diamond open-work scroll motif tiara, from the Queen’s collection.
Sophie, Countess of Wessex
Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
The Grand Duchess, who became the Duchess of Edinburgh, wore a silver and gem-set sarafan, a traditional dress worn by all Russian imperial brides for the wedding, a glittering coronet and a mantle of crimson velvet trimmed with ermine and a sprig of myrtle, specially sent by Queen Victoria. With the traditional kokoshnik headdress. Queen Victoria’s lady-in-waiting Lady Augusta Stanley wrote in a letter to the Queen that her new daughter in laws head ‘must have ached with the immense weight of jewels, the necklace of diamonds….the most beautiful I ever saw’.
Maria Alexandrovna
Queen Fabiola of Belgium
The dress features a high neckline and three-quarter length sleeves with a drop waist and a full skirt. The neckline is trimmed in ermine, which extends back to border the 7 meter (about 22 feet) long train. The skirt is also trimmed in ermine. She accessorized with white silk gloves and the Nine Provinces Tiara to anchor the tulle veil in place. The tiara had been a gift to Baudouin’s mother, Astrid, from the Belgian people. The dress was heavy, and complicated to move. The Catholic bride had been up most of the night in prayer, and was fasting in order to receive the Eucharist on an empty stomach. As a result, Fabiola was teary and nearly fainted during the course of the four hour wedding.
Queen Fabiola of Belgium
Danica Marinkovic
She married Prince Philip of Serbia in 2017. Danica was the modern bride in a full-length silk gown that featured billowy sheer long sleeves, a thick belt and a sweeping train. Her hair was styled into an elegant low chignon and decorated with pearls. The graphic designer accessorised with emerald diamond drop earrings, a matching pendant necklace and her new wedding band.
Danica Marinkovic
Mary of Teck
The front of the 1893 dress was made of white satin, featuring three small flounces old Honiton lace which had been used on the wedding dress of her mother. It featured embroidery of the emblems of a rose, shamrock and thistle, trimmed with traditional orange blossom and true lovers knots. The bodice, cut at the throat was long, pointed and made of white and silver brocade. The rich satin manteau de cour fell from her shoulders. The train was long and plain and the veil of her mother’s which she wore was made of Honiton lace, fastened by diamond pins, a gift from Queen Victoria. Small wreaths of orange blossoms were placed all the way around the bust and hair. Mary completed the outfit with a diamond tiara from Queen Victoria, a diamond rivière necklace from the Prince and Princess of Wales and diamond earrings and anchor brooch, a wedding gift from Prince George.
Mary of Teck
Princess of Tatiana of Greece
Her 2010 gown was traditional yet sophisticated. Created from 131 feet of French chantilly layered lace, the strapless dress featured a molded bodice that showed off her slender waist, before falling to her feet and finishing in a sweeping train. Her hair was fashioned into elaborate coils at the nape of her neck to set off a tiara she’d been lent by her mother-in-law, Queen Anne-Marie.
Tatiana of Greece
Princess Birgitta of Sweden
Birgitta wore a 1961 creation in thick pale ivory silk duchesse with a wide neckline, three-quarter sleeves, and a slim waist above a full skirt and a train of around 4 meters.
Princess Birgitta of Sweden
Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll
For her 1871 wedding Louise wore a white silk wedding gown, heavily decorated with national and royal symbols, with deep flounces of flower-strewn Honiton lace, and a veil of Honiton lace that she designed herself, held in place by two diamond daisy hair pins presented by her siblings, Princes Arthur and Leopold and Princess Beatrice. A beautiful bracelet was a present from her fiancé. The center could be worn as a pendant, with a large sapphire mounted with brilliants and pearls and pearl drop. Princess Louise wore this pendant on a diamond necklace on her wedding day, and it can be seen in her wedding photographs.
Princess Louise
Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (Alix of Hesse)
Her outfit was so intricate that it took nearly an hour for her to dress. Her stockings were of lace, her shoes embroidered and decorated. Over these she wore layers of stiff petticoats. The wide, full skirt of silver brocade opened from the waist down to reveal a second underskirt of silver tissue, edged with fur. It was cut low, to reveal the neck and shoulders, and the gown had sleeves trailing ermine-edged tippets. The tightly fitted, boned bodice was sewn with diamonds. The folds of the overskirt fell back to form a train. She wore the imperial mantle of cloth-of-gold, lined and edged with ermine. These robes were so heavy that four pages had to help carry them. She wore her hair swept back. Two long, twin side curls were attached to her own hair. Her long veil of tulle was held in place by a Russian Kokoshnik tiara, of diamonds in platinum, and the Romanov nuptial crown of diamonds sewn on crimson velvet
Alix of Hesse
Queen Letizia of Spain
Manuel Pertegaz, well into his 80s at the time, designed a dress that appears quite simple but is in reality a pattern-making wonder. He took bespoke natural silk woven with silver thread by a Valencian firm and cut it continuously from shoulder to floor, creating a gown that is slim in front and flows out into a large round train (4.5 meters, or nearly 15 feet, long) in the back. Silver and gold threads are embroidered in shapes of fleur de lys and fleur de lys flowers, clovers, strawberry tree fruits, and ears of wheat around the sleeves and the base of the dress and train. The high collar is embroidered on both sides. She wore the Prussian Diamond Tiara on loan from Queen Sofia paired with diamond earrings. Her veil was three meters long and two meters wide, it was cut to echo the shape of the train. Made of off-white silk tulle, it was hand-embroidered with garlands, ears of wheat, and fleur de lys.
Queen Letizia of Spain
Lady Gabriella Windsor
The 2019 dress was a design by Luisa Beccaria, featuring lace, embroidered with flowers and embellishments that continue over elegant sheer palest blush sleeves. There is a light tulle corset that holds the dress’s strapless part. The sleeves are transparent lace doubled with light tulle. The color of the dress, which looks white is actually a shade of palest blush, obtained from different layers of tulle and organza that make the body of the gown. The front of the dress is quite pure and fluid, while the back of the dress is more dramatic the skirt fans out into a long train. Her six metre veil was made from layers of tulle, together with embroidered flowers. Finished with a pale yellow bouquet.
Lady Gabriella Windsor
Princess Astrid of Norway, Mrs. Ferner
Princess Astrid was a very determined royal bride. Her choice of husband was Johan Martin Ferner, a businessman, commoner and divorcee. The bride would lose her HRH as a result. Her gown was pure white with a high scalloped neck, long fitted sleeves and a full skirt that spread out rather discreetly from the waist. It was made of point d’esprit and the skirt had bands of silver embroidery running around it. What sets this apart from other royal wedding dresses is that there was nothing else. No train and no big long veil. Astrid kept that very simple with a small tulle veil placed at the top of her head and held in place with a white clip. No tiara, no foray into the royal jewellery box, just a simple 1960s headdress that wouldn’t look out of place in any other wedding photo of the time.
Astrid of Norway
Louise Margaret of Prussia
The 1879 bride wore a heavy white satin dress, a band of lace ten centimeters long encircling the waist. The skirt was sewn with lace 30 centimeters wide and decorated with a bunch of myrtle-leaves, the emblem in Germany of the bridal state. The train was four meters long and surmounted by a lace flounce one meter in width made in Silesia, in which a sprig of myrtle was fixed. The bridal veil was about three meters square, made of point d’Alençon lace, the design representing orange blossoms, roses, and myrtle- leaves intertwined. The veil was fastened to her hair with five diamond stars, the gift of the bridegroom. The Princess carried a bouquet of white flowers.
Louise Margaret of Prussia
Princess Sofia Of Sweden
The gown was created in three tones of white it featured intricate couture lace and a train that was handcut and hand -stitched. The 2015 gown had a strapless base of silk crepe with a flowing train and a long-sleeved Italian silk organza overlay with applied lace. Lace created flattering lines down the front of the dress and train and was concentrated on the sleeves and the wide neckline. Hand- embroidered cotton lace also adorned her sheer tulle veil. Complementing her gown was a cascade-style bouquet of cream and coral garden roses with a traditional sprig of myrtle from Sofiero. For the reception the new princess hitched up the full flowing skirt with a wrist clip so that she could waltz into the night with her new husband. Sofia received a tiara as a gift from the King and Queen, it has a diamond base of honeysuckle motifs and is topped by emeralds. (Personally this and Lady Sarah Chatto’s dress are two of my favorites)
Princess Sofia Of Sweden
Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester
The dress was constructed of Swiss organdie with floral embossing, a high collar, a simple skirt, long sleeves and a small train. Instead of wearing a tiara, the bride secured her white tulle veil with a grouping of stephanotis flowers. The dress was regarded by some as one of Norman Hartnell’s more modern creations for the time, incorporating some stylistic features of 1970s fashion.
Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester
Stephanie of Luxembourg
It took a total of 3,900 hours to make and an extraordinary 3,200 for the embroidery. The design complete with a 13 ft train was embellished with 50,000 pearls and threaded with ethereal silver filigree. The flattering A-line hem was set off by a fitted bodice with three-quarter length sleeves that enhanced Princess Stephanie’s petite frame, whilst a skirt embossed with 80,000 transparent crystals spread upon the steps as she walked up to the Cathedral in Luxembourg. She wore the Altenloh de Bruxelles tiara. The leaf motif of the dress complemented the design of the diamond headdress.
Stephanie of Luxembourg
Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom
On 23 July 1885, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom wore a wedding dress of white satin, trimmed with orange blossom and lace, the lace overskirt held by bouquets of the blossom entwined with white heather. There was lace on the pointed neck line, and sleeves, for the Princess was a lover of, and an expert on, lace. One of her most treasured possessions was a tunic of old point d’Alençon which had belonged to Catherine of Aragon. Knowing her daughter’s love of lace, the Queen allowed Beatrice to wear the Honiton lace and veil which she herself had worn on her wedding day. It was a very precious possession to the Queen, and Beatrice was the only one of her daughters to wear it. Her veil was emblazoned with a diamond circlet with diamond stars, a wedding gift from her mother.
Princess Beatrice
Princess Sophie of Isenburg Prussia
Sophie’s 2011 dress was created by German designer Wolfgang Joop and includes multiple kinds of silk with unique asymmetrical pleats and insert. Sixty meters of material were used for the gown. Over the dress, she wore a transparent silk organza jacket that extends back and creates the longer portion of her train. The dress is dyed to match the particular antique white shade of the Isenburg family veil, which is well over 100 years old and is fragile enough it had to be stitched on to the train to ensure it wouldn’t drag on the ground. The ensemble was capped with another one of Sophie’s family heirlooms: the Isenburg Tiara, a beautiful and delicate diamond floral diadem.
Princess Sophie
Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg
Her 1981 wedding dress was made of white silk embossed with an intricate pattern. The floor-length dress had rather simple lines, with a bell skirt and subtle leg-o-mutton sleeves. It featured a jewel neckline and fitted bodice, with the cuffs, collar, and hem of the dress trimmed in fur. The dress also had a train that descended from the shoulders and extended about two meters, meeting the length of Maria Teresa’s lace-trimmed veil. She wore attached to her veil the Congo Diamond Tiara, brought to Luxembourg from Belgium by her mother-in-law, Belgian princess Josephine-Charlotte.
Maria Teresa
Princess Margaret of Connaught
Princess Margaret’s gown, made in France, was white satin with orange blossoms and myrtle, covered with white Irish lace. Instead of a tiara, she wore a floral crown which held her veil in place. The veil was a gift from the Ladies of Ireland, and was later worn by her daughter, Ingrid of Sweden and all of Ingrid’s female descendants. The flowers in her hair and the bridal bouquet featured daisies a nod to her name (Margaret comes from Marguerite, which is the French word for daisy).
Princess Margaret of Connaught
Kendra Spears Princess Salwa Aga Khan
She wore a traditional sari in ivory and gold, teamed with delicate jewellery, nude sandals and a soft chignon.
Kendra Spears
Princess Margaretha of Sweden
Margaretha studied dressmaking and for her 1964 wedding designed a simple silk design, with a straight silhouette, short train, and long sleeves. she wore the lace family wedding veil from Queen Sofia. She the bridal crown belonging to the church she married in, perched atop a myrtle wreath. Bridal crowns are traditional, and occur in various forms in different cultures, but the height and size of this crown makes quite the statement.
Princess Margaretha of Sweden
Narriman Sadek Queen consort of Egypt
In May 1951, at the age of 17, she married Farouk of Egypt. The couple’s wedding was lavish and extravagant. Narriman wore a white satin bridalgown embroidered with 20,000 diamonds and a 16 feet train.
Narriman Sadek
Sarah, Crown Princess of Brunei
In September 2004 an event dubbed “the Asian wedding of the year” took place. What’s more, the marriage of Prince al-Muhtadee Billah of Brunei and Sarah Pengiran Salleh cost millions of pounds. The teenage bride’s stunning blue outfit was decorated with gemstones and diamonds even her bouquet was made of solid gold!
Sarah of Brunei
Princess Martha Louise of Norway
Norwegian designer Wenche Lyche designed the 2002 dress. The Swarovski crystal-embellished coat has two major sources of inspiration: the Märtha lily, and the Gothic arches of Nidaros Cathedral where the ceremony took place. The color of the off-white duchesse satin used echoes the color of the lily, and the form of the coat also mimics the flower. The Gothic inspiration is most prevalent in the pointed arch tip of the three meter train on the coat. Sentimental touches abound: the letters “A” and “M” are woven into the design, a “thread of life” vine is embroidered around the edge of the train and the end of the train features an embroidered circle of five lilies. The clasp of the the jacket is a bejeweled “A” for Ari made of cultured pearls, 16 diamonds and gold. Topped by a silk chiffon veil in the same cut as the train, anchored by Queen Maud’s Pearl and Diamond Tiara. The dress under the coat, sewn by Anna Bratland, is a much simpler affair of sleeveless white silk crepe.
Martha Louise of Norway
Lady Helen Windsor
Walker was riding high on the Diana wave when Helen, the Duke and Duchess of Kent’s daughter and reformed royal wild child, commissioned her to design the gown for her 1992 wedding. The venue St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, and the ornate architecture inspired the designer who drew from the arches in the creation of the unique wide neckline and sleeves. The embroidery was chosen for the diamond and pearl tiara the bride was to wear. The creation of the dress, assembled from 10 full length panels, was technically complicated – so much so, that Walker writes that she had to bribe her talented team to work on it. Getting the right fit was key to the success of the dress shape, and Walker even decided to re-cut the bodice frighteningly near the wedding after the bride had lost weight. The bodice flared out to a full skirt with a cathedral-length train and tulle veil to match.
Lady Helen Windsor
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