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Monaco

Albert and Charlene, 10 years: the wedding dress

When Princess Charlene walked down the aisle on 2 July 2011 to marry Prince Albert in a religious ceremony, she did so in a Giorgio Armani Privé creation. The gown was a gorgeous creation with a simplicity that fit with Charlene’s style.

Charlene wore a bespoke off-white silk gown that featured embroidery down the front of the dress, at the bottom of the skirt and on the train. The dress was embroidered with 40,000 Swarovski crystals, 20,000 pearl teardrops and 30,000 golden stones in a floral pattern.

The off the shoulder fitted gown featured silk duchesse and silk organza and two trains. One train was shorter and flowed out from the bottom of the gown; the second four-tiered train was heavy, longer and connected to the neckline. In all, the dress took around 2,500 hours to create by three seamstresses. So important was the gown that two dresses were actually made just in case something was to happen to one of them.

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Charlene admitted that her gown was heavy and that was why she changed outfits for the reception so that she would be better able to move: “The wedding dress is pretty heavy so I wanted to change into something light, soft and easy to move in for the evening.”

When it came to the off-white silk tulle veil, it was 20 metres and held in place by a large 19th-century floral head jewel that belonged to Prince Albert’s grandmother, Princess Charlotte.

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When asked by Vogue about wearing a tiara ahead of the wedding, Charlene said: “I’m not wearing a tiara. Instead, Princess Caroline has lent me some beautiful diamond hair clips which belonged to her grandmother. I did have a tiara made by Van Cleef & Arpels, but I decided to put it on display at the Oceanographic Museum, and I will wear it for my first official engagement.”

An elegant gown made for the Princess of Monaco has now gone down into the history books.

There is more about the marriage of Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco in our new book, Royal Weddings: A Collection. It contains over 140 features on some of the most famous royal weddings in history and is available as a paperback and an ebook on Amazon.

About author

Brittani is from Tennessee, USA. She is a political scientist and historian after graduating with a degree in the topics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in December 2014. She also holds a master's degree from Northeastern University. She enjoys reading and researching all things regarding the royals of the world. She's been researching, reading, and writing on royalty for over a decade. She became Europe Editor in October 2016, and then Deputy Editor in January 2019, and has been featured on several podcasts, radio shows, news broadcasts and websites including Global News Canada, ABC News Australia, WION India and BBC World News.