The Most Expensive Royal Wedding Dresses

On Febuary 10, 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in a ceremony that changed the course of the wedding industry. Prior to this occasion, royal weddings had been small, private ceremonies held in the off hours of public duty. The bride-to-be typically wore her best dress or the crimson velvet robes of state, and common well-wishers were kept clear of the parade route, not invited in.

However, when the young queen set out to tie the knot, she insisted on a daytime ceremony with hundreds of guests. She invited her subjects to line the route between the palace and the chapel, waiving to them amiably as she passed by. And, perhaps most importantly, she wore white. Her gown was made of English lace, and was as much an attempt to bolster the lace industry as it was a fashion statement.

Queen Victoria's wedding was one of the first weddings to be photographed extensively, and images were distributed widely throughout the world. As a result, any well-off bride who could afford it began copying the various aspects of the monarch's big day, which led to the establishment of some of the longest-standing bridal traditions in the western world.

To this day, modern brides take inspiration from royal weddings. While some things are easy to copy directly, other things, like dresses, are much harder to replicate. The reason? Cost. It's expensive to dress like a royal bride. Here's a look at some of the most expensive royal wedding dresses of all time.

While she may not have a title of her own, Zara Phillips-Tindall is a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, and as much of a royal as her cousins, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. 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 corsetted 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. In fact, the Daily Mail noted that for once, the "dress did not upstage the bride." At $9,300, the gown was significantly cheaper than anything worn by her cousins, and almost verges on affordable (considering its royal owner).

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 Andrew 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.

In 1986, Prince Charles' younger brother, Prince Andrew, married Sarah Ferguson, the daughter of a Major in the Life Guards. The affair, 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 vs. Charles and Diana's much higher number.

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 (via People), 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), and 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.

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 (via Vanity Fair). After the ceremony, the loved-up 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 (via The Knot). 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."

All told, the beauty-redefining dress cost an estimated $225,000 to $260,000 (via the Daily Mail).

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 (where the ceremony was taking place), 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. Numbers that, when you stop to truly think about them, are mind-boggling.

Another jaw-dropping number? $434,000, or the price tag on Kate Middleton's fashion-changing wedding dress (via Page Six). 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 (per Town & Country), 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.

By the time Queen Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, she'd been in love with him for nearly a decade. Per Harpers 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 (via Harpers Bazaar). Botticelli's Primavera was the designer's muse, per the Royal Collection Trust. 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 (high) value is also unconfirmed.