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?

Yes, that was a fortune!

My parents paid for my wedding 🤷‍♀️

my grandmother insisted on buying my dress.

didn’t cost 9k though 😂 obviously

My Dad paid for my wedding in 2011 including my dress. It was a very traditional wedding.

DH & I paid for our honeymoon.

On further reasearch, Autumn Phillips’ wedding dress was reportedly only £2000 - £3000. I wonder if lack of funds was why they they agreed to the Hello magazine deal for the wedding? Although I don’t know much about her family background, maybe they could have afforded it?

I don't know of any brides who's parents haven't bought their dress. I'd say it's very normal

I paid for my wedding dress and I'm definitely not royal.

It was pretty traditional for the bride's parents to pay for most of the wedding including the bride's dress. Traditions changing now, obviously, with people marrying later in life and likely being in a position to be able to afford to pay for their own wedding.

My Mum and Dad paid for my dress (£30 off Laura Ashley sale rack!)

I paid for my dress, my parents paid for all the flowers and my costume jewellery. Was happy with that. They aren’t very well off so was actually surprised they paid for that much.

My mum and dad hosted and paid for my wedding except that DH’s family paid for all the drink and DH paid for the honeymoon. I paid for the hen.

DB’s wedding, DPs paid for the drink. I think among my friends that’s pretty standard.

In the aristocracy, the most common (but not only) way it's done is that the wedding ceremony takes place in a church and the reception in a marquee at home. This can be an extortionate cost, or be similar in price to a very average wedding. The reception venue itself is provided by the parents or close family or friends. Wedding dresses are often by a designer, but again prices can vary from a couple of thousand pounds upwards. See pictures from Lady Laline Sudlow's wedding, and information about her Philippa Lepley dress for an example. At the time, standard Philippa Lepley wedding dresses cost between £6k and £30k

I think there is probably an expectation that the bride and her parents will pay for all of this but is more likely to vary depending on who actually has money.

Report from 2011 on the cost of Kate Middleton's dress vary significantly (from £50k to £250k). Diana, Sarah, Sophie and Kate are all upper class or upper middle class their parents would have expected to pay for a whole expensive wedding if they had married non-royal husbands. Even though the dresses are very expensive, they might have been the same or less than a wedding and in fact, they may have welcomed the opportunity to contribute.

Meghan is a little different as her family are much more ordinary, but on the other hand, she is wealthy in her own right and could afford a dress. Similarly, I expect Camilla could afford her wedding dresses, as she already regularly bought from that designer.

There's also the possibility that they may not have been charged as much for the dresses as a private customer would be.

It is well-known that Charles paid for Meghan's wedding dress.
The Middletons paid for Kate's wedding dress

It is British tradition for bride’s family (father) to pay for wedding including dress. I’m American and know this. It is also tradition here. That doesn’t mean it always happens obviously but it is tradition, I don’t understand why you’re surprised. It goes back to providing dowry and all the rest of it, for woman to marry, fact of history. You may be surprised because the men in RF are wealthier than who they’re marrying. They’re just following tradition although in many cases the man will pay if bride has no money. Princess Catherine’s father paid because they followed tradition. Markle paid because apparently Harry had no money and made her buy couch on her credit card 😂

That was joke btw, we all know Markle gets other men to pay her way up through life, whole list of them. I’m sure the bill for the dress went to someone besides her.

DH and I paid for our wedding - and kept it very small because of that.

My DP offered to pay - we've had money for the kids since which TBH came at times when it was much more needed and after the wedding IL gave DH a thousand - they also rented his very ornate long jacket for him.

But I bought what I wore - and paid for most of the day.

I am a bit surprised how much Meghan had to pay.

I agree. Adults the ages of Meghan and Harry should split the cost of the wedding. Meghan clearly didn't pay half though, did she. So paying for her own dress was a small price for a lavish wedding in which she took centre stage over any of the people paying for it.

She wasn't forced to get a dress from a French haute couture house costing the best part of £400k if reports are to be believed. She could have used an independent designer, a British wedding dress maker, a woman of colour in the business instead, as she so seemed to enjoy being a symbol of a new, fresh, modern and multicultural royal family, and clearly thought they were stuffy and old fashioned. I'm pretty sure the Emmanuels, who created Diana's dress, were virtually unknown when Diana gave them the nod in. She was very good at supporting British designers.

it would also be quite awkward for in laws to set budget or inadvertently input on something very personal to the bride.

From what I've read Autumn Kelly's family background is more normal. Her father is or was high up in a public sector organisation and her stepfather a pilot. So a long way from poor, but not super rich either. Peter Philips is also one of the poorer members of the royal family. I think the £500k from Hello would have represented a lot of money to them.

Peter and Autumn were the first of their generation to get married and he isn't at all high ranking. The Queen lent them the venue but I don't know who exactly paid for the food and drink or the dresses and flowers and so on. The dress was by Sassi Holford, it doesn't look any more elaborate than any of her other dresses, and those numbers are the typical cost for that designer. At that price, Autumn probably could have paid for it herself.

I thought Charles paid for Meghan's dress?

They're not really normal weddings though. Didn't the Middletons do some thing at the Goring between the post palace bit and the night party? I presume they paid for that themselves.

Whether Charles paid for it or not, Meghan paid for nothing/nothing else, and for that, she should be hugely grateful (as should her loser husband).

Has it not occurred to you that if anyone might still abide by more traditional British customs it would be aristocracy/royalty?

I don't think we're ever told who pays for the bride's dress in royal weddings.

The official statement is just that the dress was 'privately paid for', but it's not usually said by whom.

I very much doubt that Kate or Meghan paid the real price for their dresses, I imagine they were given substantial discounts by the designers.

@GiltEdges Have you read my post where I ask exactly that.

Christ some of you are so antagonistic.

Perhaps. At the time it was reported that Diana's family paid a very small amount for her dress. About equivalent of £1500 now? I can't remember exactly, but I do remember everyone being shocked that it was so cheap for a Princess. But it is not what it would have cost anyone else.

@Ridemeginger Why should Meghan be extremely grateful that Charles paid for Harry and Meghan's wedding?
I do not think she should be extremely grateful. Of course you say thanks, but it is what I would expect.
And the taxpayers pay the largest cost of all the Royal weddings i.e. the security.