I was surprised in Royal marriages, bride pays for dress

[babsanderson]

In Royal marriages the bride seems to pay for the dress, or her family.
So Meghan paid for her own wedding dress.
Kate's parents paid for her wedding dress.
Diana's father paid for her wedding dress. Maybe that explains why Diana's dress was only £9,000, although now she has worn it its valuation has soared.
I can't find who paid for Camilla's wedding dress.

Is this a common custom in the aristocracy?

9000 40 years would have been a lot of money.

Doesn’t every bride buy her own?

£9000 for a dress now is crazy.

Are you British? Because the usual custom here is that either the couple pay for the whole thing together or more traditionally the bride's family pays. It has always been seen as a nice thing for the Royals to pay for the big ceremony and the bride to pay for the dress as a nod to tradition. It has never been seen as an imposition to ask the bride to arrive for her wedding wearing a suitable dress!

Isn’t it tradition that in non royal weddings the brides family pay for the whole thing? They’re lucky they’re only buying the dress!

@Samcro£31,822

www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

More than I would spend, but way less than most celebrity wedding dresses. Kate's wedding dress is reported to have cost £250,000

£9,000 in 1981 is equivalent to £44,000 today so it wasn’t a bargain by any means!

My parents were pretty insistent on paying for my dress. Definitely not aristocracy though!

Its a way for them to keep one small part of the tradition of the brides family paying for the wedding.

As posters are saying, it’s not surprising at all.

My parents paid for my dress ( and much of the wedding ), DH paid for the flowers and the cars as I recall.
but that was 30+ years ago. I certainly can’t imagine the groom’s parents paying for the bride’s dress .

The Brides family paying has not been British tradition for years. It died away when brides stopped getting married very young and leaving home to get married.

£9k was a fortune in 1981!!!!

@TheCraicDealer Your figures are out. I used an inflation calculator tool linked.
£31k is cheap for a celebrity wedding dress.

It’s a British tradition that the brides family pay for the wedding, and while I agree it’s less common now it’s certainly not obselete at all

I'm pretty sure that if the bride came from a hard up family (unlikely), the RF would give them money to buy their daughter a dress!

I'm surprised that you're surprised, OP. Who would you expect to pay?

It is absolutely a British tradition that bride's parents pay for the wedding, definitely not obsolete. And the royal family is all about the continuation of tradition. It's their raison d'etre!

It used to be traditional for the bride's family to pay for everything but now it's more usual for that to be split/paid for by the couple But if you watch Say Yes to the Dress it's nearly always bride's mum/gran/parents buying the gown.

Sounds normal to me. Why shouldn't the bride, or brides family, pay for her dress?

What would happen if they end up marrying a normal working girl/woman from an average working class family?

My parents are by no means poor but they would never buy me a wedding dress in the £10,000+, never mind £100,000+ like most of the other royal brides have had. I wouldn’t even want them too. And I certainly couldn’t afford it on my own.

You might not believe it still happens but my parents bought mine, I bought DD's and DIL's parents paid for hers. Tradition might not be universally followed now but I think most dresses are bought by brides or their families and I have never heard of a grooms family paying for it

Royals don't marry people who can't afford £10k gowns.

It's definitely still traditional for the brides family to pay for the wedding, though probably becoming more uncommon now. Would certainly not say it has already died out.
Not surprised at all that the Royal brides pay for their dress.

I don't think this scenario would ever happen tbh. They don't really date outside of very privileged circles.

Who would buy it?
My Dad have us his daughters money towards paying for our weddings as is tradition… we topped up the rest ourselves in our couples.

Gave not have