Celebrity weddings aren’t only lavish and fantastical affairs, but they’ve also become iconic moments in culture.
From extravagant looks — custom designer wedding dresses and megawatt jewelry — to the merging of different worlds ranging from athletes and reality stars to actors and musicians, these moments inspire culture beyond their time.
The biggest example may be the cultural impact of the weddings of the world’s number-one royal family, starting in 1947 when the-then Princess Elizabeth married the-then Prince Philip of Greece and tracking through the seeming fairy-tale wedding of their son Prince Charles to Diana Spencer and up to the subsequent weddings of their children Prince William and Kate Middleton and the 2018 marriage of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. These moments had record-breaking audiences in real time, continued by the cult-like following of Netflix’s “The Crown” series.
The same can be said for former brides Pamela Anderson, who married Kid Rock in a white bikini, or Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley, who tied the knot in Las Vegas — now a go-to wedding elopement destination.
Similarly, over the last decade, celebrity weddings have been breaking the internet, as seen via Kim Kardashian and Kanye West; Hailey and Justin Bieber; Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, and Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, to name a few.
These cultural milestones have not only become mood boards for brides to be, but also opportunities for fashion brands to get into the wedding game. Case in point: Sarah Burton solidified her power at the helm of Alexander McQueen after dressing Kate Middleton for her nuptials in one of the best-kept fashion secrets in recent history, while Meghan Markle did the same for Clare Waight Keller at Givenchy.
