{"id":947684,"date":"2026-05-09T05:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947684\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T05:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T05:56:24","slug":"made-to-measure-11-of-the-most-spectacular-wedding-dresses-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/947684\/","title":{"rendered":"Made to measure: 11 of the most spectacular wedding dresses of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In consultation with the then-Princess Elizabeth, Norman Hartnell was tasked with making the dress just three months before her marriage to Philip Mountbatten. Embroidered with seed pearls \u2013 10,000 of them \u2013 the design was executed in a record seven weeks by a full-time workforce of 350 women. With post-war rationing still in effect, the princess saved up clothing coupons to pay for her ivory silk gown.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Katharine, Duchess of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/kent\" isautogenerated=\"true\" class=\"text link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kent<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>237 yards of silk<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Harry Liedtke Prince Edward Duke of Kent Genevi\u00e8ve Page Michel Poniatowski and Lizabeth Scott\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Wedding_300426_GettyImages-1450917510.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Duke of Kent marries Katharine Worsley at York Minster, June 1961<\/p>\n<p>Mirrorpix\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Katharine Worsley\u2019s John Cavanagh gown required 237 yards of silk gauze, and was so heavy that there was concern she might struggle to walk or kneel. (With Queen Elizabeth II a guest, the bride practised her curtsey intensively.) More practically, she had three veils: one for the day, one for rehearsal and one in reserve at home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tatler.com\/topic\/princess-diana\" isautogenerated=\"true\" class=\"text link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Princess Diana<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>25 feet of taffeta<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Charles Prince of Wales Diana Princess of Wales Clothing Dress Fashion Formal Wear and Gown\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Wedding_300426_GettyImages-877443232.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Prince Charles and Princess Diana<\/p>\n<p>David Levenson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In consultation with the then-Princess Elizabeth, Norman Hartnell was tasked with making the dress just three months before&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[260825,53,16,15,672],"class_list":{"0":"post-947684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-paywall-sample-for-0-days","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-weddings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116543080903100021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}