Gorgeous Gowns: The Most Expensive Celebrity Wedding Dresses
Ideally, you only get married once. So, you want your wedding day to be as special as possible. While the flowers, reception, and guest list are very important, it's the dress that takes center stage. That's why so many brides spend so much time (and oftentimes a lot of money) on the perfect gown.
Celebrities, socialites, and members of royal families have the luxury of plunking down a small fortune on their wedding day ensembles, which include the dress as well as accessories such as the veil, train, and bejeweled tiaras. Read on to see the most expensive wedding dresses ever worn.
Jessica Biel Accessorized Her Dress With A Very Special Veil
Actress Jessica Biel married pop star Justin Timberlake in 2012, and surprised fans by attending the ceremony in a custom pink Giambattista Valli haute couture gown. Biel told Elle magazine: "I wanted the dress to be very romantic and feminine and a shape that I very rarely wear. I have never been crazy about all-white wedding dresses..."
The strapless dress cost $135,000. It featured several layers of tulle for volume and was accessorized with a floor-length veil featuring heirloom pearls that came from her grandmother's wedding day tiara.
Kate Middleton's Gown Was Widely Copied
Kate Middleton and Prince William wed in 2011, and her dress was made by English designer Sarah Burton, who was the creative director of the luxury fashion house Alexander McQueen. It cost $427,000 and featured lace sleeves and a full skirt along with a silk tulle veil and nine-foot train.
The traditional dress was inspired by designs from the 1950s. One firm made a replica of the dress just hours after Middleton took her car ride to Westminster Abbey.
Katie Holmes And Tom Cruise Spent $3 Million On Their Wedding, Including A Small Fortune On The Dress
Actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes tied the knot in 2006, and the ivory dress Katie chose was designed by Giorgio Armani. The silk and lace off-the-shoulder custom creation cost $67,000. It featured Valenciennes lace as well as Swarovski crystals that took 350 hours to put in place.
The couple wed in a 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Italy, and the entire wedding allegedly cost around $3 million. Taking that into consideration, Katie really didn't spend too much on the dress itself.
Meghan Markle's Gown Was Elegant With No Embellishments
American actress Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in May 2018. She wore a simple white gown created by Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy that cost $180,000. The silk dress featured a boat neck and three-quarter-length sleeves. What really made the ensemble stand out was the cathedral-length veil and train.
The gown only included six seams and did not feature any lace or other embellishments. Despite being so simple, Markle's wedding dress was not cheap to make. Less than a week following the wedding, stores were selling dresses based on Markle's.
Catherine Zeta-Jones' Diamond Tiara Reportedly Cost More Than The Dress
Actors Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas got married in 2000. The actress wore a custom-made, hand-beaded Christian Lacroix gown that cost around $187,000. She paired the dress with a Chantilly lace train and a diamond tiara that reportedly cost more than the dress.
The couple allegedly spent $1.5 million in their nuptials, which included a slew of celebrity guests, including Goldie Hawn, Jack Nicholson, and Meg Ryan, as well as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Jimmy Buffett and Art Garfunkle also performed for them.
Princess Diana's Gown Featured 10,000 Pearls And Sequins
Millions of people tuned in to watch Lady Diana Spencer marry Prince Charles in 1981. Diana was just 20 years old when she walked down the aisle at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England, wearing a $154,000 ivory silk taffeta and antique lace gown. The dress featured 10,000 pearls and sequins that were attached with gold thread.
The dress also featured a 25-foot train and 153-yard tulle veil. Diana chose David and Elizabeth Emanuel to design the dress because she really liked a chiffon blouse they made for her.
Madonna Paired Her Gown With A Vintage Diamond Tiara
Madonna has worn two wedding dresses in her lifetime. She was married to actor Sean Penn from 1985 until 1989 and to filmmaker Guy Ritchie from 2000 to 2008. In 2001, she wed Ritchie in a ceremony at Scotland's Skibo Castle.
Her dress was designed by Stella McCartney. The ivory silk gown was strapless and featured a fitted corset bodice. The pop star spent a whopping $106,000 on the gown, and she accessorized it with a 1910 diamond tiara that Princess Grace once wore.
Mariah Carey Burned The Pricey Wedding Dress She Never Got A Chance To Wear
Mariah Carey intended on marrying billionaire businessman James Packer, so she spent $335,000 on a Valentino gown. But in 2017, she and Packer broke it off. So what does a girl do with an unneeded dress? Burn it. She even dropped a music video in which you can see her burning the gown.
In the middle of the video, the singer dragged the really expensive wedding gown into a roaring bonfire. She made it look like it was not a big deal, but it's obvious she felt badly burned by the relationship.
Princess Marie-Chantal Miller's Dress Took Four Months To Make
Socialite Marie-Chantal Miller married Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, Prince of Denmark, in 1995. It took 25 people four months to make her $300,000 ivory, pearl-encrusted Valentino gown. The dress featured long lace sleeves, a tulip-shaped front, and a Chantilly lace train that was 14-feet long.
The wedding ceremony reportedly cost $8 million and was paid for by Miller's father, billionaire Robert Warren Miller. Around 1,400 people attended the lavish event. Pavlos was one of the first heirs apparent of his generation to marry a commoner.
Kim Kardashian Spent More Than Half A Million Dollars On Her Third Wedding Dress
Reality star Kim Kardashian made sure she had a wedding to remember when she tied the knot with singer Kanye West in 2014. The pair wed in Italy, and she wore a custom Givenchy haute couture gown designed by Riccardo Tisci. It featured full-length sleeves, a fishtail bottom, and a long train made of lace.
The pair paid $530,000 for the gown. It was her third wedding, so there's no doubt that she wanted it to top the other two. What better way than to spend over half a million on the dress?
Grace Kelly Wore More Than One Dress When She Married The Prince Of Monaco
Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. Her dress was made by Helen Rose, costume designer for MGM. The gown was magnificent and featured 100 yards of silk and 25 yards of taffeta. It also featured hundreds of pearls. The dress was worth about $10,000 but when accounting for inflation it would be worth around $85,000 in today's dollars.
Grace actually wore more than one dress when she wed her prince. During a civil ceremony, she wore a pink floral ensemble with a Juliet cap. At a press conference, she wore a tea-length ensemble followed by a white silk Lanvin gown later that night.
Nicky Hilton Opted For A Classic White Lace Gown
Nicky Hilton told HuffPost Live of her wedding dress, "I knew in my mind that I really wanted to do something traditional, just classic, and white lace, and beautiful." She married James Rothschild at Kensington Palace in London, England, in summer 2015. She wore a Valentino gown that cost $103,000.
The dress was made of guipure lace and included a beautiful full skirt and a high neckline. It also featured crystal embellishments and a 10-foot long train. She paired it with a 10-foot-long train and cathedral length veil.
Victoria Beckham's Dress Had A 20-Foot Train
Victoria Beckham, also known as Posh Spice from the Spice Girls, married soccer star David Beckham in 1999 at Luttrellstown Castle, Ireland. Her Vera Wang dress featured a strapless corset bodice and a huge skirt that included a 20-foot train. She enhanced the look with an 18-karat gold tiara.
The couple's son, four-month-old Brooklyn, acted as the ring bearer. The wedding cost around $823,000, and the dress itself was $135,000. The pair employed 437 people to work at the wedding reception.
Petra Ecclestone's Famous Father Paid For Her Opulent Dress
In 2011, socialite Petra Ecclestone married financier James Stunt in the medieval Italian town of Bracciano. She tied the knot with her businessman fiance wearing a $137,000 Vera Wang strapless couture gown. Details about the dress were kept under wraps, but she did pair it with an elegant tiara and veil.
The couple really went all out on the three-day wedding. They reportedly spent nearly $15 million on the event, which was paid for by Petra's father, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. He paid the bill but did complain about the cost of the drinks.
Chinese Superstar Angelababy's Gown Featured Silk, Lace And Tulle
Chinese actress, model, and singer Angela Yeung Wing, a.k.a. Angelababy, married actor Huang Xiaoming in 2015 in an extravagant wedding. The superstar chose a beautiful wedding gown that featured 115 feet of ivory satin organza, 165 feet of tulle, and 100 hand-cut Chantilly lace rose bouquets.
The dress also featured a 10-foot train and took five months to produce. The entire wedding cost a whopping $31 million, and the price of the dress has never been revealed. But critics are confident it was a big part of the wedding budget.
Elizabeth Taylor's First Wedding Dress Was Later Sold At Auction For $188K
Although the legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor was eventually married eight times, the gown she wore to her first wedding might have been the most impressive. Just 18 years old at the time, Taylor was already a household name when she wed hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (yes, of THAT Hilton family) in a dress that cost $50,000 at the time.
She wore a stunning cream-colored, silk-satin gown. In 2013, the dress was auctioned off and the winning bid came in at a staggering $188,000.
Victoria Swarovski's Dress Was Covered In 500,000 Crystals
Is there such a thing as over-the-top when you're Victoria Swarovski, the jewelry heiress? The Austrian pop singer is a member of the multi-billion Swarovski crystal empire. She married real estate investor Werner Mürz in 2017 wearing a dress worth $1.2 million. Naturally, it was covered in crystals.
The custom-made creation featured more than 500,000 crystals and weighed a whopping 100 pounds. It also featured a 20-foot train and 26-foot veil. We can't imagine what it must have been like to stand, never mind walk, in the ensemble.
Coleen Rooney Feared Her Famous Footballer Husband Wouldn't Like Her Dress
TV personality and author Coleen McLoughlin married English professional footballer Wayne Rooney in Portofino, Italy, in 2008. She spent nearly $400,000 on the strapless Marchesa dress, which featured a satin bodice and skirt made of layers of pleated silk organza.
The bride later told OK magazine: "Everyone's been saying you only get married once so you may as well go for it! I was just nervous about whether Wayne would like my dress but luckily he said I looked lovely." What's very sweet about this couple is they met at age 12 and started dating just four years later.
Amal Alamuddin's Wedding Gown Was The Last One Oscar De La Renta Designed Before His Death
When English attorney Amal Alamuddin married actor George Clooney in 2014, she opted for an Oscar de la Renta gown that cost $512,000. "George and I wanted a wedding that was romantic and elegant, and I can't imagine anyone more able than Oscar to capture this mood in a dress," she later told Vogue.
The custom off-the-shoulder-gown was hand-embroidered with pearls, beads, and 14 yards of Chantilly lace appliques. The dress was the final wedding gown that de la Renta designed before his death.
Tori Spelling's First Wedding Didn't Last Long, But Her Gown Was Lovely
In July of 2004, 90210 actress Tori Spelling got married for the first time, to Charlie Shanian. The two were married at her parents' lavish Beverly Hills home.
Although her cream-colored flapper-style lace dress was relatively simple, its price tag was not. The lovely gown was designed by Badgley Mischka and cost $50,000, which isn't all that much in Spelling money. In fact, the wedding is said to have cost a whopping $1 million.
