Weddings are special life events that signify a new beginning for the married couple. A couple’s wedding night is the culmination of their love, witnessed by families and friends, and the first step they will take into a new beginning of togetherness.
Weddings can range from simple to utterly extravagant. In recent years, weddings have gotten bigger and bigger and are in another league compared to what we’ve seen over the last decade. From elegant event styling to extraordinary flower arrangements, the wedding industry is truly a luxurious display of money, beauty, and love. Some weddings even feature some of the most expensive champagnes in the world for their guest's enjoyment. Not to be left behind, wedding dresses are also pushed to the boundary of extravagance and exquisiteness.
A bride’s wedding dress is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime chance that she will get to walk down the aisle and marry her happily ever after. With this in mind, wedding dresses are often influenced by fairy tale princesses but nowadays, incorporated with a modern and unique twist to truly stand out. And if you're going to be spending this much on a dress, you might as well check out the most expensive lipstick that matches well with it!
The more extravagant and unique the wedding dresses are, the more expensive they will be. It is now unusual for wedding dresses to reach up to $100,000. Designer wedding dresses that are customized are more expensive, but you can rest assured that you will be the only one who will get a chance to wear this dress, so it is truly an excellent investment.
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Here are the top thirteen most expensive wedding dresses of all time:
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13. Grace Kelly’s Wedding Dress
Cost: $10,000
In 1956, actress Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco was the event of the century. To further cement her status as the new Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly commissioned the work of famous MGM costume designer Helen Rose to design her wedding dress.
The wedding dress is luxurious in its own right, with over 100 yards of silk and 25 yards of tulle. You might think that $10,000 is not much money, but that was the price of the dress then. In today’s prices and inflation, the same wedding dress is valued at around $85,000 which is considered as one of the most valuable wedding dresses of all time.
The wedding itself is a great spectacle with over 600 guests consisting of politicians, foreign dignitaries, celebrities, and royalties. The wedding was also televised which is only fitting for a total wedding of this caliber.
12. Kate Middleton’s Alexander McQueen Wedding Dress
Cost: $388,000
A wedding dress fit for royalty, Kate Middleton’s wedding dress is a sight to behold. Kate opted for a Sarah Burton-designed wedding gown, the main designer for fashion house Alexander McQueen. The wedding dress is truly iconic and made the fairytale wedding a dream wedding turned into reality.
The Duchess of Cambridge donned a wedding dress characterized by a long train that measured nine feet long and a narrow Victorian-style bodice that accentuated her slim figure. After the wedding, numerous replicas were produced and the style was quite popular among brides for years to come.
11. Kim Kardashian’s Givenchy Wedding Gown
Cost: $500,000
When she tied the knot with Kanye West, Kim Kardashian wore one of the most expensive wedding dresses ever made. Designed by Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy, Kim’s custom-made gown with a trumpet silhouette is truly a sight to behold. Like the other brides on this list, Kim also donned an Olivier Rousteing creation as a second look for her special day.
10. Guo Pei’s Gold Chinese Traditional Wedding Dress
Cost: Approximately $870,000
Auction house Sotheby’s is auctioning off a Guo Pei-designed wedding dress that is valued at 500,000 to 700,000 GBP. Guo Pei is a Chinese designer best known as the first Asian to become a member of the prestigious Parisian guild called Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.
With over 5 years to make, this traditional wedding dress is made entirely of gold, and the designer used 30 types of stitches to create a three-dimensional look. The wedding gown is adorned with intricate patterns and symbolism that are often used in Chinese wedding and marriage traditions.
This gown is still available in Sotheby’s as an auction item or a private sale. If sold, Guo Pei’s gold wedding gown will be one of the most expensive wedding dresses sold at auction.
9. Christina Mourad’s Elle Saab Wedding Dress
Cost: $1 Million
Famous gown and wedding dress designer Elle Saab designed her daughter-in-law’s wedding dress and is seen as one of the most exquisite wedding dresses ever made. With a 14-foot long train, tulle, and half a million sequins, this is truly Elle Saab’s best work and is truly beautiful.
8. Danasha Wedding Gown
Cost: $1.5 Million
Designed by Jad Ghandour, the Danasha wedding gown debuted in Miami Fashion Week in 2010 but is still making rounds this year because this dress is truly unique and one of a kind. The dress itself is covered in diamonds and gold sourced from Antwerp. The main thing that sets this dress apart is that the gemstones are woven into the fabric instead of placed above it. The designer’s goal is not to be too over the top but rather to use the materials together and showcase them without being too flashy.
7. Victoria Swarovski’s Wedding Gown
Cost: $1.5 Million
As an heiress to the multi-billion dollar Swarovski crystal empire, it comes as no surprise that Victoria Swarovski’s wedding gown is on the list as one of the most expensive wedding dresses ever. With over half a million Swarovski crystals, Victoria Swarovski’s wedding dress is accentuated with a plunging neckline. This wedding dress is something out of a real-life fairy tale. Designed by Michael Cinco, the ball gown has an eight-meter train and is truly spectacular.
6. Serena Williams’ Alexander McQueen Wedding Dress
Cost: $3.5 Million
Designed by Sarah Burton for fashion house Alexander McQueen, Serena Williams’ wedding gown is truly a sight to behold. The wedding gown is characterized by a sweetheart neckline and a cascading cape which are both fitting for the undisputed queen of tennis. Serena did not stop with just one wedding gown for her special night, she donned two additional gowns throughout the night.
5. Amal Clooney’s Oscar De la Renta Wedding Dress
Cost: $4.6 Million
Amal Clooney’s off-shoulder Oscar de la Renta wedding gown was truly iconic in its own right and memorable because it is one of the last gowns that the designer had designed before ultimately passing away. The wedding gown accentuates Amal’s fashion style which is classic and timeless.
Because it was one of the last gowns that was designed by a famous and esteemed designer, there is no denying that this wedding gown is one of the most valuable wedding dresses of all time. As a testament to this, the same gown was even temporarily featured in the Museum of Fine Arts.
4. Yumi Katsura White Gold Wedding Dress
Cost: $8.5 Million
World-renowned Japanese designer, Yumi Katsura designed a silk and satin wedding gown that is made up of more than 1,000 pearls, 5-carat gold diamonds, and to top it all off, an 8.8-carat green diamond that was used as an emblem. For brides that are looking for something that is one of a kind and truly unique, this dress is only one of two that are made in the world.
3. Diamond Wedding Dress
Cost: $12 Million
The Diamond Wedding Dress is a collaboration between Renee Strauss and Martin Katz who is a famous jeweler. With a total of 150-carat diamonds, and made with the finest silk, the diamond wedding dress is truly iconic.
One of the features of this wedding dress that truly makes it unique is the fact that whatever angle the bride moves and turns, the diamonds sparkle and catch the light. This wedding gown is still on sale, and the two designers are in no hurry to sell it because they see the diamond wedding gown as the epitome of their aesthetic and design. They use this wedding gown to promote their designs in luxury exhibitions and bridal shows.
2. Hany El Bahairy Wedding Gown
Cost: $15 Million
Hany El Behairy is an Egyptian designer who debuted one of the most expensive wedding gowns in Paris Haute Couture Week. Embroidered with hundreds of diamonds and precious stones, the wedding dress is truly a masterpiece and took a total of 800 hours to make.
1. Anglebaby's Custom Chanel Wedding Dress
Cost: $31 million
With an estimated cost of $31 million, singer and superstar Angelababy’s wedding dress tops any most expensive wedding dress list. She commissioned Haute Couture powerhouse Chanel to make her wedding dress for her special day which took almost 5 months to finish. The dress has 7 petticoats, a 10-foot train, and about 100 Chantilly roses. More than a dress, this wedding dress is a work of art.
