The 19 Best Royal Wedding Dresses of All Time (2024)

Princess Beatrice

Princess Beatrice, granddaughter to Queen Elizabeth, wore vintage pieces from Queen Elizabeth's personal collection to mark her big day—notably the Queen Mary diamond fringe tiara. Due to COVID-19, Princess Beatrice and Edo Mapelli Mozzi had to change their original plan, opting for an intimate wedding with 20 of their closest family and friends. To further honor her grandmother, Princess Beatrice wore a vintage ivory Peau de Soie taffeta dress designed by Norman Hartnell, which Queen Elizabeth has worn on several occasions.

Archduch*ess of Austria and Royal Princess of Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia, Eleonore

Archduch*ess of Austria and Royal Princess of Hungary, Bohemia, and Croatia, Eleonore von Habsburg, wed Belgian racing driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio in a chic modern dress. The couple had to pivot from their original wedding plans due to COVD-19, and instead opted for an intimate civil ceremony. She wore a just-below-the-knee dress with off-the-shoulder ruffled sleeves by Carolina Herrera that looked gorgeous for the Monoaco setting. She accessorized with a chic fascinator veil.

Princess Eugenie

On Friday, October 12, 2018, Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank in a Peter Pilotto wedding dress. Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter tapped the Brit and his design partner, Christopher De Vos, to create the elegant jacquard silk, cotton, and viscose gown, which featured an off-the-shoulder neckline with a folded collar detail, extended train, long sleeves, and back ruffle. Just like Meghan Markle (who also tied the knot at St. George's Chapel in Windsor), Eugenie's dress was lace-free. But unlike many royal brides before her, Eugenie chose not to wear a veil in order to highlight the surgical scars she has from an operation to treat her scoliosis.

Meghan Markle, duch*ess of Sussex

Meghan Markle, now known as the duch*ess of Sussex, continued the recent tradition of wearing a custom wedding dress by a British designer at her May 19, 2018, nuptials to Prince Harry. Clare Waight Keller from the house of Givenchy designed the boat-neck gown with three-quarter-length sleeves. The simple, streamlined shape and unadorned silk were dressed up with an embroidered veil by the same designer and a tiara borrowed from Queen Elizabeth.

Catherine, duch*ess of Cambridge

Catherine, duch*ess of Cambridge (née Kate Middleton)'s wedding dress was a wildly anticipated (but well-kept!) secret prior to her April 29, 2011, nuptials to Prince William. The result was an exquisite Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen dress featuring an ivory lace bodice with a V-neck and long, lace sleeves that has inspired hundreds of look-a-likes since.

Princess Sofia, duch*ess of Värmland

On June 13, 2015, at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, former model and reality TV star Sofia Hellqvist walked down the aisle to marry husband, Prince Carl Philip, wearing a custom Ida Sjöstedt gown (not unlike the duch*ess of Cambridge's Alexander McQueen dress), featuring long lace sleeves and an A-line silhouette.

Grace Kelly

On April 19, 1956, this Hollywood star became European royalty when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco wearing a gown designed Helen Rose. The Academy Award-winning costume designer made this iconic wedding dress from 25 yards of taffeta and 125-year-old lace embroidered with pearls.

Princess Diana

While the poufy sleeves and ruffled neckline of Princess Diana's taffeta wedding dress might seem a bit too '80s for today, there's no denying that David and Elizabeth Emanuel's design with its record-breaking 25-foot train is iconic. "The dress had to be something that was going to go down in history, but also something that Diana loved. And we knew it was going to be at St. Paul's, so it had to be something that would fill the aisle and be quite dramatic," Elizabeth Emanuel said in Diana: The Portrait

. Goal achieved.

Queen Rania of Jordan

When Rania Yassin wed Prince Abdullah, the eldest son of Jordan's King Hussein, at the Royal Palace in Amman on June 10, 1993 she wore a short-sleeved dress with golden details by Bruce Oldfield (a favorite designer of Princess Diana's).

Queen Elizabeth II

Royal brides, they're just like us, right? After World War II, the future Queen of England had to use clothing ration coupons to pay for her wedding dress. But Norman Hartnell's design was still worthy of a princess. Inspired by Botticelli's Primavera, he embellished the satin gown with thousands of seed pearls and crystals in an ornate floral pattern.

Charlene Wittstock

The other major royal wedding of 2011 was the marriage of Grace Kelly's son, Prince Albert II of Monaco, to Charlene Wittstock. The South African Olympic swimmer wore an Armani Privé duch*esse silk dress that featured 40,000 Swarovski crystals and a 16-foot train.

Princess Margaret

Choosing the same wedding dress designer as her older sister, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret commissioned Norman Hartnell to create this relatively unadorned silk organza gown for her wedding to photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones on May 6, 1960.

Queen Soraya of Iran

When she wed the last Shah of Iran in 1951, Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari wore a custom Christian Dior wedding dress made of 37 yards of silver lamé embellished with 20,000 feathers and 6,000 diamonds.

Queen Noor of Jordan

For her 1978 wedding to Jordan's King Hussein, the American-born bride wore a simple white silk crepe dress by Christian Dior with a high neckline and a loose, flowing skirt.

Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

Swedish designer Pär Engsheden created this ivory satin wedding dress with a wide boat neck collar for the future Queen of Sweden to marry her personal trainer, Daniel Westling in 2010.

Queen Fabiola of Belgium

Cristóbal Balenciaga designed Queen Fabiola's dress for her December 15, 1960 wedding to King Baudouin of Belgium. The drop-waist dress was made of ivory satin with white mink trim and is now on display at the Balenciaga Museum in Spain.

Queen Letizia of Spain

When you're marrying the future king of Spain, you need to pick a dress worthy of a queen. Journalist Letizia Ortiz did just that for her wedding at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral in 2004, where she wore a high-collared dress designed by Manuel Pertegaz with silver and gold embroidery around the edges of its 15-foot train.

Wallis Simpson

For her 1937 wedding to the former King of England who famously abdicated his throne to marry the two-time divorcée, Wallis Simpson wore a slim-fitting Mainbocher dress in her signature shade of pale "Wallis Blue" to match her eyes. The dress is now a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection.

Camilla, duch*ess Of Cornwall

While Camilla Parker-Bowles wore a stylish cream-colored dress and coat to her civil wedding ceremony on April 9, 2005, we much prefer this elegant blue and gold damask dress coat by designer Anna Valentine with a matching chiffon dress she wore to the service of blessing later on at Windsor Castle. And opting for a spray of gold feathers instead of wearing a tiara? Genius.