When it’s time for a royal wedding, the Crown spares no expense. Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s lavish nuptials cost $48 million, or the equivalent of $140 million today. Princess Catherine and Meghan Markle similarly rang up eight-figure bills for their respective weddings to Prince William and Prince Harry in 2011 and 2018. Even Queen Elizabeth II’s relatively pared-back 1947 ceremony featured luxurious touches—her hand-beaded satin gown being chief among them.
The wedding dress is often the priciest single item on the bill for a princess’s big day. You can’t say such important “I do’s” in any old frock, after all. Generations of royal brides have tapped star designers and legendary couturiers to craft their ivory and champagne-colored gowns. The pressure is on for the finished looks to be perfect, but they make it worth the seamstress’s while: saying yes to the dress means opening their wallets to the tune of hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars.
Wondering which bride spent the most on her gown? Here’s how the royal wedding dress of Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, and Kate Middleton measure up.
Kate Middleton reportedly spent $434,000 on her wedding dress.
The McQueen creation was a work of art, from its hand-cut lace and Victorian corset-style bodice to its voluminous white satin gazar skirt. At the back, a column of 58 gazar- and organza-covered buttons formed an elegant closure, according to a statement shared by the royal family ahead of the wedding. A nine-foot train completed the silhouette.
While the price of the dress was never officially confirmed, it cost an estimated $434,000—equivalent to $627,637 in 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator. That’s more than Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth spent on their gowns, making Middleton’s the most expensive of the three. Yet adjusting for inflation puts her in second place—more on that later.
