PRINCESS CAROLINE
For Caroline’s first wedding to the boulevardier Philippe Junot in 1978 the Monegasque royal went traditional with a romantic white dress in silk organza scattered with white appliqué blossoms. Most of the detail was on the loose, lace-edged sleeves. Sadly, the marriage ended after 28 months.
But when in 1999 she married Prince Ernst of Hanover, the man her mother Princess Grace had hoped she would choose the first time around, Caroline was a widow. Her second husband the Italian businessman Stefano Casiraghi had been killed in a speedboat accident in 1990. She was pregnant with her and Ernst's first child - a daughter called Alexandra - when she tied the knot, which explains why she chose a loose-fitting blue-grey suit, which neatly concealed her condition.
Caroline has always been dressed by Karl Largerfeld, who is a close friend, and it was to him she turned for advice when choosing something suitable for a third wedding.
The stark simplicity of her suit was relieved by eye-catching buttons, which cleverly draw attention away from her expanding waistline.
PRINCESS MICHAEL OF KENT
As a Catholic marrying a Protestant prince, Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz, was unable to wed the Queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent in England. In fact, Michael had to relinquish his position in the line of succession when he made her his bride. So, when they tied the knot in a civil ceremony in the neo-Gothic town hall of Vienna in 1978, the bride wanted to look wonderful in a low-key way.
Princess Michael, who was divorced from her first husband Tom Troubridge, chose a cream coatdress. The timeless simplicity of her heavy silk outfit will never date. And by wearing her long, fair hair coiled into a soft chignon, Marie Christine managed to look regal in a non-fussy way.
She had hoped to have a church ceremony at Vienna’s Catholic Schottenkirche, but the Pope forbade this, as Prince Michael had declared that any children of the marriage would be brought up as protestants. To compensate for this lack of religious blessing, the couple had a wedding ball in Vienna, for which the bride was at last able to wear a gorgeous, long gown.
VICTORIA SPENCER
When Victoria Spencer walked down the aisle of Great Brington parish church, just half a mile from Althorp on a cold, rainy day in 1989, she surprised everyone by wearing a very unusual wedding gown. The dress designed by Tomasz Starzewski was made of 15 metres of lace, ten metres of silk, and had taken 70 hours to create. Victoria had asked him to create for her “something beautiful, like a painting”.
The heavy lace gown was trimmed around the hips with fur, which many people thought highly original if slightly odd. Victoria had met Tomasz when she was modelling in New York and, although he did not normally design wedding dresses, he agreed to do one especially for her.
With young Prince Harry as one of her attendants, she and her groom wanted to create a wedding tableau inspired by the romantic mid-Eighteenth century, which was historically relevant to the Spencer family. In keeping with this period Victoria wore her wedding dress to go away in, as the custom for changing into a different honeymoon dress did not start until the beginning of the 19th century.
For her second wedding earlier this year, she again opted for a romantic look. It was a warm, mid-summer day in Capetown – where she now lives – so her white dress adorned with lace on the bodice and hips by London-based South African designer Gert Van De Merwe did not look out of place.
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