The Most Stunning Wedding Dresses in American History
The British royals have some stiff competition.
America may lack royals, but we have wealthy society families in spades. We're talking monikers like the Vanderbilt's, the Astor's, the Kennedy's, and so on. Naturally, when members of these families tied the knot, major $$$ was spent and, of course, the gowns were to die for. Relive the most expensive and historical gowns to date, ahead.
Jacqueline Bouvier's Wedding Dress
Jacqueline Bouvier married John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1953, in Newport, Rhode Island. Her gorgeous wedding gown was created by African-American fashion designer Ann Lowe—who didn't receive credit for the dress until much later in life—and is now on display at the Kennedy Library in Boston.
The dress consisted of 50 yards of fabric made out of ivory-colored silk taffeta and Jackie wore a lace wedding veil that belonged to her grandmother. She also wore a single strand pearl necklace, which was a family heirloom, a diamond pin from her parents, and a diamond bracelet from her groom.
Dolores Costello's Wedding Dress
Drew Barrymore comes from a long line of Hollywood stars and this is her grandfather, acclaimed actor John Barrymore, with her grandmother, his third wife Dolores Costello, in 1928. Some of Barrymore's most well-known films include Grand Hotel (1932), Twentieth Century (1934) and Midnight (1939), which have been inducted into the National Film Registry. Dolores was a well-known silent film actress in her own right when the two were married; she was his co-star in The Sea Beast.
According to her New York Times obituary, Barrymore said of Costello: “I have just seen the most beautiful woman in the world. I shall not rest or eat until I have seen her again.” The two spent their honeymoon on his yacht, visiting Panama, the Galapagos Islands, and Ecuador. They hunted alligators and mammoth lizards and explored wild regions of Central America before returning to Hollywood and moving into a hilltop mansion in Beverly Hills.
Talitha Pol's Wedding Dress
Talitha Pol, an actress and dancer, was married to John Paul Getty Jr. from 1966 until her death in 1971. His father, Jean Paul Getty, founded the Getty Oil company and was one of the richest Americans in the '50s.
On their wedding day, December 10, 1966, Talitha wore a creamy velvet mink-trimmed hooded minidress. The dancer later became a style icon thanks to her boho fashion sensibility—Pol was the muse for Chloe’s 2002 spring collection—and her lavish yet tragic life (she died of a heroin overdose at 31) is well documented on screen in the FX show Trust.
Laura Steinberg's Wedding Dress
Jonathan Tisch and Laura Steinberg married in 1988 at the Central Synagogue in NYC. Their wedding made the pages of The New York Times, obviously, though the couple later divorced. Jonathan's wealth can be traced back to his family's empire of hotels, which now all fall under the Loews Corporation. The American conglomerate has diversified its portfolio to include insurance, oil drilling, and pipeline transport.
Laura wore an off-white taffeta dress that was delicately embroidered in gold and had a seven-foot train. Her tulle veil was held in place by a diamond and pearl tiara. Meanwhile, her matron of honor and bridesmaids all wore dresses by Arnold Scaasi. As reported by The New York Times, "The families declined a request by Life magazine to document what was being called the wedding of the 80s." More than 500 guests attended the wedding, including the likes of Barbara Walters and Helen Gurley Brown.
Cornelia Vanderbilt's Wedding Dress
Heiress Cornelia Venderbilt's 1924 wedding to British diplomat John Cecil was the party of the century, and took place at the family's famous Biltmore estate in Asheville. A whopping 2,500 people attended the reception.
“The bride was lovely in a gown of white satin, very straight, with long sleeves,” wrote the Asheville Citizen. “Her bridal veil of tulle and lace, which she wore over her face when entering the church, was four yards long. It was caught with orange blossoms from Florida...Her bridal bouquet was of orchids and lilies of the valley, made in Asheville by the Middlemount Gardens. Each of her satin slippers was ornamented with a single orange blossom.”
Gloria Vanderbilt's First Wedding Dress
Gloria Vanderbilt (a.k.a. Anderson Cooper's mother) married her first husband Pat DiCicco in 1941, when she was just 17 (and yep, she wore an iconic set of Vanderbilt pearls, because as the saying goes, "All Vanderbilt Women Have Pearls"). They divorced just four years later. (She next married Leopold Stokowski, then Sidney Lumet—more on that in the next slide—and finally, Wyatt Cooper, Anderson's father.)
Couple of fun facts: The train on Gloria's dress was 30-feet long, and that little cake topper is wearing a replica of her outfit.
Gloria Vanderbilt's Third Wedding Dress
Gloria Vanderbilt's third husband was director Sidney Lumet. They married in 1956 and divorced in 1963, so the relationship was admittedly pretty short-lived. Even so, Gloria looked absolutely stunning on her wedding day, wearing a beige gown rather than the traditional white, which was made out of French linen that dates from 1830. Note: This time, she ditched the pearls.
Miss Catherine Wood Campbell's Wedding Dress
In what was called Atlanta's wedding of the year, Catherine Wood Campbell married Randolph Apperson Hearst in 1938. Catherine was the only daughter of Morton Campbell, a wealthy telephone company executive while Randolph was the son of William Randolph Hearst, a media mogul (full disclosure: Marie Claire is a subsidiary of The Hearst Corporation). The wedding had nine bridesmaids and 15 groomsmen. The bride wore a white satin gown and tulle veil. The couple went on to have five daughters: Catherine, Virginia, Patty, Anne, and Vicki.
Patty Hearst's Wedding Dress
Patty, the daughter of Catherine and Randolph, married Bernard Shaw in 1979. The two tied the knot in an Episcopal ceremony at a naval base in San Francisco Bay. Patty wore an off-the-shoulder white gown and wedding veil. According to Patty, her parents gave the couple "a Sears vacuum cleaner as a wedding present" because "they thought [the marriage] wouldn’t last." But, the two remained married until 2013—when Bernard passed away from cancer—and had two daughters: Gillian and Lydia.
Sarah Norton's Wedding Dress
William Waldorf Astor married socialite Sarah Norton in 1945. Despite getting divorced in 1953, the pair had a whirlwind romance and apparently got engaged just a few days after they met. Not much is publicly known about Sarah's dress, but we can all agree that her starburst tiara is fit for royalty (or, alternatively, a basic who's super into weddings *waves hi*).
(Side note: This wedding took place in London, but the Astors are a cross-continental fixture, as anyone who's walked into New York's Waldorf Astoria knows.)
Elizabeth Taylor's Wedding Dress
American hotelier Conrad Hilton's son Nicky Hilton married Elizabeth Taylor when she was just 18 in a ceremony in Beverly Hills.
MGM organized the fabulous event, and Elizabeth's dress was designed by famed costume maker Helen Rose. Her team of 15 people took an entire three months to create the gown out of satin and seed pearls, and the train is a whopping 15 yards. FYI, the couple divorced just eight months later.
Abby "Babs" Rockefeller's Wedding Dress
Abby, daughter of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abigail Green Aldrich, married banker David Milton in 1925. The wedding was a *huge* news-making affair, with 1,200 guests at the reception in NYC. And you'll love this: The bride broke with tradition and insisted that the word "obey" be removed from her marriage vows. Pretty cool.
Margaret McGrath's Wedding Dress
Almost ten years later in Bedford, NY, in 1940, his brother David Rockefeller (later the former chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) married Margaret McGrath and she wore a very similar gown—with slightly puffier sleeves. This, following a proposal made with a 5.6 carat rectangular step-cut diamond ring.
Random aside that has literally nothing to do with the Rockefellers: Bedford is where Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds currently live.
Anne McDonnell's Wedding Dress
This 1940 wedding was a HUGE deal—in fact, a hilariously old-time-y video about it can be found on YouTube.
Henry Ford II and Anne McDonnell were married in Long Island, and the church was swarming with hundreds of uninvited guests hoping for a glimpse of the bride and groom. Anne's dress is ever-so lovely, with sheer cap sleeves and a giant skirt.
Alice Astor's Wedding Dress
As we've mentioned, the Astors were a prominent intercontinental family in the 20th century. Alice Astor was a well-known American socialite in the early 1900s and was left a great deal of money from her father, John Jacob Astor IV, after he died on the Titanic. Her wedding to Russian Prince Serge Obolensky in 1924 took place in London, and she wore a trendy long-sleeve drop waist dress and lace veil for the occasion.
Barbara Sear's Wedding Dress
Barbara (or 'Bobo' as she was known) Sears wore a wedding dress that proves sometimes even America's wealthiest families prefer a low-key celebration. She paired her white tea-length dress with an impressive bouquet of white orchids for her backyard Palm Beach ceremony to Winthrop Rockefeller in 1948.
Durie Malcolm's Fourth Wedding Dress
Durie Malcolm looked ethereal in her satin- and lace-trimmed wedding dress as she exited the church with her second husband, Firmin Desloge IV, in 1939. Malcom had previously been married to Frank John Bersbach, but the couple divorced a little over a year into their union. The Palm Beach socialite was also known for having a relationship with John F. Kennedy before his marriage to Jackie.
Ethel Skakel's Wedding Dress
Robert F. Kennedy's blushing bride was a socialite from the Skakel family in Greenwich, Connecticut—you may have heard of her nephew, Michael Skakel. She married into the Kennedy family in 1950 and wore a satin wedding dress, designed by New York dressmaker Ann Lowe, with lace detailing on the neckline and down the front.
Barbara "Babe" Cushing's Wedding Dress
American socialite and tastemaker Babe Cushing married Stanley G. Mortimer in 1940. The bride wore a strikingly elegant long-sleeve gown with ruche detailing. She topped the Mabel McIlvain Downs design with a large diamond pendant, a delicate tiara, and a simple veil. Sadly, Mortimer died six years into their marriage. Cushing remarried and became Babe Cushing Mortimer Paley in 1947.
Barbara Hutton's First Wedding Dress
Barbara Hutton was one of the nation's wealthiest heiresses after inheriting part of her grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth's fortune. (She reportedly inherited $70 million at the age of five after her mother committed suicide.) In 1933, she married social climber Alexis Mdivani of Georgia at the Russian Orthodox church in Paris, France. The bride wore a creamy satin dress designed by Jean Patou and a lace veil.
Eunice Kennedy's Wedding Dress
The younger sister of John F. Kennedy married Sargent Shriver on May 23, 1953. The bride, who got married a few months before JFK and Jackie, wore a dress strikingly similar to what her future sister-in-law wore. Don't you think the A-line boatneck and lace detailing on the skirt looks familiar?
Constance Woolworth McCann's Wedding Dress
When Frank Winfield Woolworth's granddaughter, heiress Constance Woolworth McCann, got married at St. Patrick's Cathedral on October 11, 1926, she wore a traditional long satin wedding dress fit with a full train and lace detailing. The bride was 20 years old while her husband, Wyllys Rossiter Putts, was 25.
Brenda Frazier's Wedding Dress
Brenda Frazier's debutante ball was considered the fete of the decade, so it's no surprise her wedding was highly-anticipated as well. Born in Quebec, Canada, Frazier made her name in New York City during the Depression era. In 1941, she married football star Alvin "Shipwreck" Kelly in a ceremony in her mother's Ritz Carlton apartment. Her bridal look was covered extensively in the press, which featured a satin cap-sleeve gown with a round train designed by Herman Patrick Tappe.
Alice Roosevelt's Wedding Dress
When the time came for President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, Alice, to get married, she was courted by the political set, naturally. The first daughter married congressman Nicholas Longworth in 1906, wearing a classic Edwardian wedding dress with a high neck, ruffled neckline, and cinched waist.
Jean Anne Kennedy's Wedding Dress
Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy married off their youngest daughter, Jean Anne Kennedy, to Stephen Smith in 1956. For her big day, the youngest Kennedy sister chose a dress that looked very similar to Patricia Kennedy's 1954 gown. Jean looked stunning in her white satin wedding dress designed with a Queen Anne neckline and mid-length sleeves.
Muriel Sisman's Wedding Dress
Although they married in London, the wedding of American motor industrialist Horace Elgin Dodge and his bride, Muriel Sisman, was an all-American affair. The bride wore a gorgeous chiffon ruffled cap-sleeve gown with an illusion neckline and detailed beading for the 1928 nuptials.
Jane Wyman's Wedding Dress
At the time of their 1940 nuptials, Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman were merely Hollywood actors. The bride wore a silk wedding gown with a high neck and accessorized with a fur hat and muff. It wasn't until after their 1948 divorce that Reagan moved on to his political career and married Nancy Reagan.
Barbara Hutton's Fifth Wedding Dress
Wedding number five for American heiress Barbara Hutton proved less successful than her previous four unions, as she was married to Porfirio Rubirosa for only a year. However, in terms of wedding style, Hutton had her outfit down pat. She wore a black bateau neck dress and a matching wide-brimmed hat.
Lee Radziwill's Third Wedding Dress
Jackie Kennedy's younger sister and iconic "it" girl Lee Radziwill was beaming in a lilac suit for her third wedding in 1988. The American socialite married Herb Ross more than a decade after her divorce from Prince Stanislaw Radziwill in her older sister's Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City.
Jean Kerr's Wedding Dress
Senator Joseph McCarthy spared no expense for his 1953 wedding to Jean Kerr. The couple tied the knot in Washington D.C. with over 1,000 guests in attendance. Kerr's dress featured a sweetheart neckline and lace detailing on the bodice and sleeves, which she paired with a tulle and lace veil.
Jackie Kennedy's Second Wedding Dress
For her second marriage to Greek shipping magnet Aristotle Onassis, Jackie Kennedy was photographed leaving the church from their ceremony in Scorpios, Greece, wearing a cream lace Valentino minidress. Instead of a veil, the bride wore a white ribbon in her iconic bouffant.