12 Celebrities Who Wore Valentino Wedding Dresses
In the realm of famous wedding dress designers, Valentino is favored by celebrities and royals alike. The luxe Italian fashion house was founded by Valentino Garavani in 1960, along with the help of his father and his associate, Giancarlo Giammetti. Valentino made his international debut just two years later, and quickly gained notoriety among fashion experts and celebrities—to this day, the fashion house is regarded as one of the most coveted luxury brands. Valentino himself served as the brand's creative director from its inception until 2007; today, that title belongs to fellow Italian Pierpaolo Piccioli.
While Valentino dresses are synonymous with glitzy red carpets, we can't help but think back on our favorite wedding dress designs from the brand too. Here, we round up 12 of the most iconic Valentino celebrity wedding dresses, from the 1990s to the present day.
Nicola Peltz's Wedding Dress
As one of the most recent celebrity Valentino brides, model Nicola Peltz's wedding dress was designed to be like "a work of art," per her stylist. She married Brooklyn Beckham (yes, David and Victoria's son) on April 9, 2022 in Miami wearing custom Valentino Haute Couture designed by Pierpaolo Piccioli. The bride opted for a clean and modern look with a square neckline, thick straps, a chic column skirt with an attached train, and no embroidery. She accessorized her ensemble with elbow-high lace gloves, a lavish veil with lace accents, and, perhaps most notably, chunky Versace platform heels.
In November 2021, the bride-to-be opened up to CR Fashion Book about her collaborative design experience with the Valentino team. "We've been to Rome twice, watching everyone in the atelier, they're just so talented," she told the publication. "The first time I went to Rome, I brought my mom and my brother Brad, who's actually my man of honor, and then Leslie Fremar who's one of my best friends in the whole world. It is really a beautiful thing to be a part of, and it's very exciting."
Nicky Hilton's Wedding Dress
Like her mother and sister, Nicky Hilton's Valentino celebrity wedding dress showcased the family's love for timeless bridal style. When the heiress married financier James Rothschild in 2015, she turned to Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli to bring her look to life. The final result was reminiscent of famous brides like Grace Kelly and Kate Middleton, appropriately so—her nuptials took place at Kensington Palace in London. She wore a long-sleeve lace gown with three shades of ivory and silver guipure, with an overlay of hand-embroidered crystals. The elegant design also featured a 10-foot-long train, which she paired with an antique lace veil. The gown was incredibly similar to her mom Kathy's wedding dress from 1979; Years later, Paris would don a similar look for her November 2021 wedding to Carter Reum.
Anne Hathaway's Wedding Dress
Although actress Anne Hathaway is notoriously tight-lipped about her personal life, we do know Valentino designed her wedding dress for her 2012 nuptials to Adam Shulman. Grainy paparazzi photos show the bride in an airy ball gown with an off-the-shoulder neckline and a gauzy tulle skirt. (According to People, the dress even had a pop of pink on the train.) She accessorized her look with an oversized headpiece attached to a cascading veil with a lace ribbon, a flower, and crystal beads.
Jennifer Lopez's Wedding Dress
Jennifer Lopez has worn her fair share of gorgeous wedding dresses both on-screen and in real life—after all, the entertainer has been engaged six times and married three. While she's currently engaged to Ben Affleck (for the second time), we can't forget the time she walked down the aisle wearing Valentino for her 2001 wedding to Cris Judd. She met the backup dancer on the set of her music video "Love Don't Cost a Thing," and the two were engaged just a few months after they began dating. Given that she was close friends with Valentino himself, it was no surprise that he personally designed her gown. She wore a Chantilly lace A-line dress, complete with a plunging neckline and a long veil.
Gwyneth Paltrow's Wedding Dress
Actress and wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow has long been a friend of the Valentino House—not only does she frequently attend fashion shows and wear the brand on red carpets, she also helped create a capsule collection in 2015. This, of course, led to the creation of one of the most memorable celebrity Valentino wedding dresses. For her September 2018 marriage to Brad Falchuk, she donned "a dress that defies adjectives," according to her blog, Goop: a lace A-line Valentino gown, complete with cap-sleeves, sheer detailing, a keyhole-cutout back, and a simple veil.
Princess Madeleine's Wedding Dress
Valentino is also a beloved designer among royal brides around the world, including Princess Madeleine of Sweden. The Duchess, who is currently seventh in line to the throne, wed British-American financier Christopher O'Neill on June 8, 2013, in Stockholm. The bride, of course, tapped Valentino to design her wedding dress. She stunned in a custom lace gown with cap sleeves and a boat neckline (a favorite of fellow royal bride Meghan Markle). The ornate design featured appliquéd ivory-hued Chantilly lace on the bodice and the skirt, which was layered over pleated silk organza. The train was about 13 feet long, while her silk veil, which had a small orange blossom embroidery, was even longer at over 16 feet. Her corresponding Valentino shoes had unique woven point d'esprit dots. The bride accented her ensemble with the Modern Fringe Tiara, one of her favorites. Sprigs of orange blossom cascaded out from the bottom of the crown.
Princess Marie-Chantal's Wedding Dress
You might assume that Prince Charles and Princess Diana's colossal wedding was the largest royal gathering since Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip's big day—but that title actually belongs to Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, and Marie-Chantal Miller, as their July 1, 1995 wedding brought together more crowned royals than Charles and Diana's. There were 1,400 guests in attendance watching the Greek royals tie the knot in London, England. The bride called upon Valentino for her wedding dress, which allegedly cost upwards of $225,000. (The designer's Roman ateliers also made 62 additional outfits for guests.)
Twenty-five designers worked on the bride's gown for four months, and the final result was nothing short of a masterpiece. She walked down the aisle in a pearl-encrusted ivory silk dress with a tulip-shaped skirt that had a lace train nearly 15 feet long. She topped off her look with a tiara loaned to her by her mother-in-law, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. In newly-released wedding footage shared on Twitter, Queen Elizabeth II can be seen fixing Princess Marie-Chantal's train while posing for official royal wedding portraits.
Queen Máxima's Wedding Dress
On February 2, 2002, Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, and Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti (now the current King and Queen of the Netherlands) tied the knot in Amsterdam. Like her royal peers above, the bride also wore an ivory silk wedding dress from Valentino, though she opted for a simpler design. The future queen swapped vows in a three-quarter-length sleeve silk gown with a cowl neckline, which led into an empire-waist skirt with lace paneling on the sides that cascaded into a 16-foot long train. Her silk tulle Valentino veil was covered in hand-embroidered floral accents, matching her lush bouquet. As for the crown, she wore an updated version of the Dutch Pearl Button Tiara, with the royal jeweler swapping its pearl buttons for five diamond stars.
Elizabeth Taylor's Wedding Dress
Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor's eighth (and final) wedding was to construction worker Larry Fortensky. The star-studded nuptials took place in May 1992 on the grounds of Michael Jackon's Neverland ranch in Santa Barbara, California. The bride wore a custom lemon-colored long sleeve lace Valentino wedding dress, complete with a tiered skirt and a plunging neckline. Exclusive photos of the ultra-private wedding weren't released until 2014, when they were sold to People for $1 million. The proceeds were later used to start the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation.
Courteney Cox's Wedding Dress
Courteney Cox is yet another Hollywood star who became a celebrity Valentino bride. When the actress married David Arquette in 1999 at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, she selected a fitted ivory gown with a plunging neckline and long sleeves, which she paired with a dotted tulle veil. While official wedding photos were never released, a few paparazzi shots showcase Cox's chic wedding dress.
Sophie Hunter's Wedding Dress
Sophie Hunter is an acclaimed English actress, singer, and playwright, and has directed a variety of theater performances both in New York City and across the U.K. In February 2015, she married actor Benedict Cumberbatch on the Isle of Wright, located within the English Channel. The wedding was incredibly private, and the newlyweds didn't announce their marriage on social media or online; Instead, they chose to run a small ad in a local newspaper to share the happy news. Thanks to a post on Valentino's Instagram, we know she turned to the illustrious designer for her one-of-a-kind silvery wedding dress, which had long sheer sleeves, a high neckline and ethereal patterns covering the entire gown.
Beatrice Borromeo's Wedding Dress
Italian aristocrat Beatrice Borromeo's colorful Valentino celebrity wedding dress is one we still swoon over today. She wed Pierre Casiraghi, grandson of Gace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, in a civil ceremony at the Palace of Monaco on July 25, 2015. (The nuptials were followed by a larger ceremony in Italy a few days later.) The bride wore two Valentino Haute Couture dresses throughout the day, designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli: first, a pale pink and gold lace silk chiffon dress with airy sleeves, followed by a sleeveless blue-and-white ball gown with a high neckline. To accessorize her looks, she was gifted a pair of topaz earrings by her mother-in-law Princess Caroline.