Revisiting Meghan Markle's 6-Figure Wedding Dress That Took 3,900 Hours to Make

It took 50 people to create the Duchess of Sussex’s custom gown and veil.

The Gist

• Meghan Markle married Prince Harry on May 19, 2018 at St. George's Chapel in Windsor wearing a bespoke Givenchy wedding gown designed by then-artistic director Clare Waight Keller.
• Additionally, the Duchess of Sussex also wore a second dress—this one designed by Stella McCartney—to her evening wedding reception at Frogmore House.
• There was no detail left to chance with anything worn by Meghan on her wedding day, and sentimental touches were everywhere.

When Meghan Markle married Prince Harry on May 19, 2018 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, all eyes were on her—not just from the 600 people inside the venue, but the 1.9 billion watching worldwide.

“I had no idea how momentous it was going to be,” Meghan's wedding dress designer, Clare Waight Keller, told TIME magazine while attending the TIME100 gala in 2019, when she was named one of the honorees.

Referring to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s April 29, 2011 nuptials, “The last time there was a royal wedding there was no Instagram, really, or any of those huge social networks,” she added. “So it really took me aback, actually.”

The design process between Waight Keller and Meghan was a collaborative one; Waight Keller later told Paris Match that the Duchess of Sussex “is a strong woman who knows exactly what she wants.” After meeting in January 2018—just four months before the wedding—“We very quickly agreed on the perfect dress,” Waight Keller said. “I wanted a modern and fresh silhouette while respecting her style.”

“It is an immense honor to have worked closely with Meghan and to have lived by her side all these special moments,” the designer added. “Prince Harry came to me and said, ‘Oh my God. Thank you. She is absolutely magnificent.’ I am very proud. It’s a fairytale. A dream come true.”

For her something old, Meghan wore the Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau Tiara atop her head; she also is reported to have had a piece of fabric from her late mother-in-law Princess Diana’s own 1981 wedding dress sewn into her own gown. In another sentimental touch, florist Philippa Craddock worked sprigs of myrtle into Meghan’s bouquet from a plant grown from the myrtle used in Queen Elizabeth’s 1947 wedding bouquet. 

Meghan had plenty of something new: her wedding dress and veil, designed by Waight Keller; her second wedding dress for her evening reception, designed by Stella McCartney; and accessories like new Cartier earrings and a new Cartier bracelet.

Meghan’s something borrowed, in addition to the aforementioned tiara, was a dazzling aquamarine cocktail ring from Princess Diana’s collection, worn as a statement piece to her wedding reception—no doubt another opportunity to keep Diana close to it all. The late Princess of Wales died on August 31, 1997, when Harry was just 12 years old. To that end, for another something blue, Meghan incorporated forget-me-nots—Diana’s favorite flower—into her wedding bouquet, and had a swatch of blue fabric from the dress she wore on her first date with Harry sewn into her wedding dress. Meghan also had the soles of her Aquazzura shoes worn to her wedding reception painted baby blue.

Of the dress itself, Waight Keller told TIME that the creation “was just really modern. I think it was right for now, and it was right for her.” From the cost to the design process, here's everything to know about the Meghan's iconic wedding dress.

It took 3,900 hours of work by 50 people.

Meghan’s bespoke dress was a minimalist, pure white gown with a boat neck and three-quarter length sleeves. Designed by Waight Keller for Givenchy, it was made of double-bonded silk cady cushioned by an underskirt in triple silk organza. The dress’s bateau neckline was the focus of the gown, and Waight Keller later confirmed that the neckline was adapted by a design by Hubert de Givenchy for Audrey Hepburn, but with an update at the front that Waight Keller did “to make it look more modern.”

As for the dress itself, “I wanted it to seem as if she was floating,” Waight Keller later said of the creation. The Knot reported that the gown cost about $265,000, which the bride paid for herself.

When Meghan’s wedding dress went on display in 2018 at Windsor Castle, Meghan said (via the BBC) that she wanted a modest, classic, and timeless dress, and that she knew at the onset that she wanted the neckline and sleeve length she chose. The gown and its accompanying veil were created after 3,900 hours of work by 50 people.

“I had a very clear vision of what I wanted for the day, and what I wanted the dress to look like,” Meghan said ahead of the Windsor Castle exhibition. “So what was amazing in working with Clare is that sometimes you’ll find designers try to push you in a different direction. But she just completely respected what I wanted to see for the day, and she wanted to bring that to life for me.”

To accompany the dress, Meghan’s shoes were made of a silk duchess satin and were based on a Givenchy refined pointed couture design.

“We knew how large the scale of the event would be, so in making choices that were really personal and meaningful, it could make the whole experience feel intimate,” Meghan later said, per People.

Clare Waight Keller kept the dress so secret that she didn’t tell her husband about it.

For her gown, Meghan chose Givenchy’s artistic director Clare Waight Keller—an unexpected choice at the time, as odds were on London-based brands like Erdem and Ralph & Russo over the French fashion house Givenchy. “I wanted a female designer—that was very important—I wanted a British designer because I wanted to embrace my new home in that way,” Meghan said. The year prior, Waight Keller was named the first woman to hold the role of artistic director at Givenchy. “I wanted [a dress] that felt reflective of the world, in a way.”

Meghan met Waight Keller in early 2018 and “chose to work with her for her timeless and elegant aesthetic, impeccable tailoring, and relaxed demeanor,” a statement from Kensington Palace said.

The two women worked closely together on the design of the dress, and Waight Keller said of the experience, “It is truly an honor to have been given the opportunity to closely collaborate with Meghan Markle on such a remarkable occasion. We wanted to create a timeless piece that would emphasize the iconic codes of Givenchy throughout its history, as well as convey modernity through sleek lines and sharp cuts. In contrast, the delicate floral beauty of the veil was a vision Meghan and I shared, a special gesture embracing the Commonwealth flora, ascending the circumference of the silk tulle.”

Waight Keller kept her commission to design the royal wedding gown so close to the vest that she didn’t even tell her husband, she later told The Telegraph. “I knew some people might be angry that I didn’t confide in them, but I just thought it would be a wonderful thing for [Meghan] and the day to truly surprise everyone, and the only way I could be sure of it staying secret was not to tell a soul,” she said.

“I think every bride is unique,” Waight Keller said, per The Telegraph. “They always come with their own ideas. She was really focused, as I was, on it being absolutely perfect for the occasion. That was the modernity, and the fact that [we] really wanted something that was so elegant and classical and timeless in a way.”

Speaking later at the British Fashion Awards in London, Waight Keller said, “I got to know Meghan on such a personal level. To have someone like that trust you in an incredible moment in their life is something that is just the most unbelievable honor. I can’t thank you enough, because it was the most beautiful moment.”

In 2023, Waight Keller described her bond with Meghan at the 2023 Bazaar At Work Summit in London as “just the two of us for so long, and it became this very personal girlfriend relationship.” The two met “about seven or eight” times, Waight Keller later said of the design process.

Dressmakers had to wash their hands every 30 minutes while making Meghan's 16-foot-veil.

One of the most sentimental parts of Meghan’s wedding attire? Her 16-foot-long white silk veil, which included floral detail representing all 53 countries of the Commonwealth—a suggestion from Meghan herself. Waight Keller spent significant time researching the flora of each of the 53 countries “and much care was taken to ensure that every flower was unique,” the BBC reported. Meghan also chose two other flowers—wintersweet, which was found at Kensington Palace (where Meghan and Harry lived at the time) and the California poppy, representing Meghan’s home state, to be embroidered on the veil. 

Dressmakers spent hundreds of hours—including washing their hands every 30 minutes—to make the veil, which was hand-embroidered in silk threads and organza. Waight Keller later said that King Charles—then Prince Charles in 2018—was touched by Meghan’s decision to honor the Commonwealth in this way, saying that the King “was just in awe of the dress and the [veil] embroidery. He was really very interested, actually, in all the different motifs and floral representations.”

Harry, too, was wowed by the choice, Meghan later said: “I knew that it would be a fun surprise as well for my now husband, who didn’t know, and he was really over the moon to find out that I would make this choice for our day together,” she said.

Meghan's wedding-day tiara was the last royal tiara she ever wore.

Meghan’s veil was held in place by Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau Tiara, on loan to her from Queen Elizabeth. At the center of the bandeau is a detachable brooch of 10 brilliant diamonds, given to Queen Mary as a wedding present in 1893. The brooch was later made into the tiara in 1932, and the headpiece also includes diamonds and platinum in 11 sections.

In addition to the tiara—which ultimately ended up being the only royal tiara Meghan ever wore—Meghan also wore earrings and a bracelet made by Cartier to her wedding ceremony. Later in the evening, for her wedding reception, she added a statement piece of jewelry in the form of an aquamarine cocktail ring that once belonged to her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana.

Visiting Queen Elizabeth to choose her wedding day tiara was “an incredibly surreal day,” Meghan later said. She was joined by Harry for the visit, who said it was “every girl’s dream” to try on a tiara, and that the one chosen was “the one that looked the best—without question.”

“I shouldn’t have really even been there, but such an incredible loan by my grandmother,” Harry added. “It was very sweet.”

The dress featured a hidden, sentimental "something blue."

Tucked into Meghan’s wedding dress was her something blue—a swatch of fabric sewn in by Waight Keller from a dress Meghan wore to her first date with Harry back in 2016.

“We basically sewed it into the hem of the wedding dress, so she was the only one who knew that it was there,” Waight Keller told Vanity Fair. “It was a little blue gingham check.”

“It was the perfect personal memento that was secretly hidden inside the dress,” she added.

Meghan's second wedding dress was a Stella McCartney halter gown.

As Meghan and Harry stepped out to attend their wedding reception at Frogmore House, the newly minted Duchess of Sussex unveiled a second custom wedding dress by Stella McCartney, a halter neck gown made of silk crepe. She paired the dress with satin shoes by a longtime favorite, Aquazzura, the soles of which were baby blue.

The creation “was very much her dress, and I felt very proud that she came to me for that part of the wedding,” McCartney told the BBC. “She got to reflect her in it.”

Like with Waight Keller, McCartney said that she worked on the reception dress with Meghan: “When you come to a wedding, you don’t just go, ‘Here, this is what you’re wearing,’” McCartney said. “That person has to feel like a million dollars—they need to feel like they own it.”