Page 4 | I was surprised in Royal marriages, bride pays for dress

babsanderson · 2023-01-13T16:01:23+00:00

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?

Nicecow · 13/01/2023 20:45

llareggub · 13/01/2023 16:03

Doesn’t every bride buy her own?

Great point!!! Yes!

Blossomtoes · 13/01/2023 20:45

don't know how I feel to have a faux royal copy dress.

It’s about 12 years too late to worry about it 😉

Original poster

babsanderson · 13/01/2023 23:58

FurAndFeathers · 13/01/2023 20:23

Celebrity didn’t exist in the early 1980s like it does today

it was a much less showy era

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Demi Moore, Brigitte Nielson.
Sure there weren't instagrammers and influencers who got famous for no discernible reason.

OP posts:

SabbatWheel · 14/01/2023 00:03

It was traditional in C of E weddings that the bride’s family paid for the dresses and reception and the groom’s family paid for church costs - licence, vicar’s fee, flowers, organist, bells etc.

MonsoonMadness · 14/01/2023 00:08

I don’t know where you got that info from. Meghans dress was reportedly paid for by Charles.

Changingmynameyetagain · 14/01/2023 00:22

DH and I paid for our own wedding with a small contribution from my parents and my in-laws but I paid for my dress myself, it was only £400 but it was important to me that I bought it, I also picked it on my own as well, none of this say yes to the dress rubbish with a huge entourage.

Catherines dress was beautiful, not what I’d have picked but she looked great, Meghans dress would have been lovely if it had fitted her properly but Eugenie's dress was my favourite, she looked stunning.

Original poster

babsanderson · 14/01/2023 00:26

"Meghan Markle's wedding dress is estimated to have cost £110,000, and the Duchess of Sussex paid for it herself. The timeless gown was the handiwork of Clare Waight Keller, of Parisian fashion house Givenchy, and the level of intricacy is surely reflective of its price.21 Oct 2022"
www.hellomagazine.com/brides/20221021154857/expensive-royal-wedding-dresses-the-queen-meghan-markle/#:~:text=Meghan%20Markle's%20wedding%20dress%20is,surely%20reflective%20of%20its%20price.

"A statement from Kensington Palace revealed: “As was the case with the wedding of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Royal Family will pay for the core aspects of the wedding, such as the church service, the associated music, flowers, decorations, and the reception afterwards.""
www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/956827/royal-wedding-cost-who-will-pay-meghan-markle-prince-harry-latest-news

"Markle is expected to buy her own dress..."
www.businessinsider.com/prince-harry-meghan-markle-royal-wedding-who-pays-2018-5?r=US&IR=T

"Meghan Markle will have to pay for her own wedding dress..."
www.vogue.com.au/brides/news/this-is-who-is-paying-for-prince-harry-and-meghan-markles-wedding/news-story/ee26a497117d8b12fcb25f5a434f0644

OP posts:

Kedece2410 · 14/01/2023 02:03

MissMarpleRocks · 13/01/2023 18:13

Why are posters referring to Meghan as Markle? I’m not her greatest fan but find that quite rude.

Kate is still referred to as Middleton and she's been married a lot longer. No idea why the media etc insist on doing it. Sophie never gets called her maiden name & Zara gets called Tindall not Phillips. Yet Kate & Meghan if not being called by their titles always get their maiden names. It's ridiculous

sausage767 · 14/01/2023 02:26

I seriously doubt Meghan paid a cent for her dress. She and Harry have been quite open about the fact she accepted freebies from designers, despite royal protocol.

Same as the engagement portrait dress, she didn’t buy that.

Givenchy are a celebrity label, Kanye, Kim etc.

Insaneinthemembraneee · 14/01/2023 02:29

The tradition in the UK is brides family pay for everything, MM got off lightly as did Catherine & Diana 😏

OrangePomander · 14/01/2023 02:47

I bought my own dress and had no idea that it’s traditional for the bride’s family to do this.

sashh · 14/01/2023 02:48

Harrysfrostbittentodger · 13/01/2023 16:20

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.

I doubt that would ever happen.

If it did then you would either buy something off the peg, which I think Zara Phillips did or you ask a friendly designer to donate one.

Mummyoflittledragon · 14/01/2023 03:25

x2boys · 13/01/2023 17:49

But it was ok for William and Kate to.have a lavish wedding g?
And Eugenie?
Three of the Queens children all.had lavish first wedding ,s I think it was only Edward who had a relatively modest wedding
Why is it ok for others to have lavish wedding,s but not Harry and Meghan?

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Eugenie? Her wedding bill was £2.7 million. Lavish but under 10 per cent of that of H&M which according to a quick google was £32m. W&K wedding, £30m. Ergo the king and the Met police treated both his children equally.

WandaWonder · 14/01/2023 03:31

I brought my own wedding dress, I am not royal well i wasnt last time I sat on a throne

Yesthatismychildsigh · 14/01/2023 04:07

limoncello23 · 13/01/2023 16:49

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.

i googled the laline wedding. The dress was beautiful, totally suitable for an older bride. Would have suited someone in their 20’s and 30’s too. Classic.

Eyerollcentral · 14/01/2023 04:07

babsanderson · 13/01/2023 16:08

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.

What in god’s name are you on about? Never heard of any bride in Ireland, Britain, America where the bride/her family didn’t buy her own dress in certainty the last 60 years. Are you from Britain? Many couples now pay for their own weddings as they marry later but for younger brides here in Ireland a great deal are still mostly covered by the bride’s family. Are you trying to make a point about Meghan buying her own wedding dress? That will really offset the £32 million quid spent on the do 🙄

Eyerollcentral · 14/01/2023 04:18

HaroldeVwilliam · 13/01/2023 20:41

How much was megs dress. Apparently Diana would have been around 50 grand.at the time I wasn't keen.
Now I think hers was a sensation.
The way the tiara's glitters and her veil...the mounds and mound's of fabric...

Indore it.

Didn't like Kate's.

Same. Think Diana’s dress looking at it now is just so spectacular, though I was a newborn when she wore it so had no opinion then! Kate looked very pretty but the dress was v bland for my taste

StartupRepair · 14/01/2023 05:37

Sophie was not from a wealthy family. Wonder who paid for her dress?

MissMarpleRocks · 14/01/2023 07:50

Kedece2410 · 14/01/2023 02:03

Kate is still referred to as Middleton and she's been married a lot longer. No idea why the media etc insist on doing it. Sophie never gets called her maiden name & Zara gets called Tindall not Phillips. Yet Kate & Meghan if not being called by their titles always get their maiden names. It's ridiculous

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I should have been clearer it wasn’t the Meghan Markle I was commenting on but the use of just Markle. I’ve also seen someone refers to Kate with just Middleton. I just find it rude to refer to the women with just their surnames. Almost like it’s dehumanising them. Imo.

Ridemeginger · 14/01/2023 08:11

Sophie was a successful businesswoman and owned her own PR firm prior to marriage. She probably wasn't loaded in the millionaire sense, but probably had enough to pay for her own dress.

sunglassesonthetable · 14/01/2023 10:59

I don't know anyone who didn't either pay for their own dress or have it paid for from within their own family.

I don't think it's an 'aristocracy' thing. My mum kindly paid for mine.

sunglassesonthetable · 14/01/2023 11:01

Cost a lot less than any of those royal dresses ! 😁

OfCourseChangs · 14/01/2023 11:04

We paid for our wedding but my Mother paid for my dress 25 years ago, it was £150 reduced from £750. We had our own mini tiara gate as I wore the tiara from the 1930’s that had a rather sad history in the family, not diamonds but very pretty and it annoyed my sister.

Samcro · 14/01/2023 11:18

MissMarpleRocks · 14/01/2023 07:50

I should have been clearer it wasn’t the Meghan Markle I was commenting on but the use of just Markle. I’ve also seen someone refers to Kate with just Middleton. I just find it rude to refer to the women with just their surnames. Almost like it’s dehumanising them. Imo.

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i do it now. Meghan has been called "markle" along with lots if horrid names. so if thats ok on these threads, kate must be just "middleton"

limoncello23 · 14/01/2023 11:20

I think Sophie or her dad probably paid for her dress. It looks expensive but not ridiculously so.

If you want to see what it looks like when royalty marries someone from a very ordinary working class background, you want the wedding of Tessy Antony to Prince Louis of Luxembourg. Her dress is the same kind of wedding dress that many women get married in. (Tessy and Louis divorced a few years ago)