Revisiting Victoria Beckham’s 6-Figure Wedding Dress: All About the Custom Vera Wang Gown

Key Points

• Spice Girls alum Victoria Beckham wed English footballer David Beckham on July 4, 1999.

• Her custom Vera Wang wedding gown cost an estimated $100,000 and featured a waist-cinching Mister Pearl bodice.

• The Beckhams also wore now-iconic matching purple outfits for their wedding reception.

It’s not often that a celebrity’s wedding dress is overshadowed by their ceremony, but such is the case for David and Victoria Beckham.

The pair tied the knot on July 4, 1999, in a wedding for the ages. A mere 29 guests witnessed the fairytale marriage at Luttrellstown Castle, a historic 15th-century fortress just outside Dublin, according to People. There were doves, gold thrones, and very ‘90s fashion choices. Baby Brooklyn, who was just four months old at the time, served as a ring bearer.

As one of the most beloved celebrity couples of the decade, Posh and Becks knew their nuptials would be watched by the world, but they strived to maintain a degree of secrecy around the event. They had an exclusive £1m photo deal with OK! Magazine, per BBC News, and only a few official images circulated after they said their vows.

When the former Spice Girls singer and her footballer husband began sharing throwback photos to Instagram, the public got a better look at their big day—including the now-viral purple outfits they donned for the reception.

“Victoria’s [reception outfit designed by Antonio Berardi] was pretty nice,” David said in a 2017 appearance on BBC’s Desert Island Discs. “Mine, I’m like what was I thinking? I look like the guys out of Dumb & Dumber when they went to that party and wore those ridiculous outfits. I even had a top hat in purple. Unbelievable. What was I thinking?”

While the violet-hued fashions might get more buzz nowadays, Victoria’s Vera Wang wedding dress merits equal attention. The classic gown from the famed American designer made Mrs. Beckham look every part celebrity royalty.

Below, find out all about Victoria Beckham’s wedding dress and other bridal looks, as the couple gears up to celebrate their 26th anniversary.

Vera Wang spent years making the dress.

While her relationship with the Manchester United pro might have been a whirlwind, Victoria’s wedding dress took time to come together. After starting fittings with Vera Wang in New York and London, the process had to be paused when the singer became pregnant with her son Brooklyn Beckham. Wang told People the delay was between one and a half and two years.

Once Victoria and David welcomed their firstborn, wedding planning resumed. Wang even recalled baby Brooklyn “crawling around on the bed in London” during one of the fittings, suggesting Posh wasted no time jumping back into things. The Beckham baby served as the couple’s ring bearer at the wedding.

It ‘flew back and forth’ across the pond for fittings.

Because of the top-secret nature of the dress and a unique element of its construction, it racked up its share of frequent-flyer miles. “I call it the transatlantic dress,” Wang told People in 2023.

The reason for all that globe-trotting? The wedding dress’s sculptural under-bodice was made by Mister Pearl, a legendary couture corsetiere who’s made super-cinched creations for Kim Kardashian, Monica Bellucci, Kylie Minogue, and Dita Von Teese. He only works out of London, so Wang had no choice but to express the bodice “back and forth four times on the Concorde,” she explained.

“[Mister Pearl] makes corsets that have to be pulled [in] with these metal things, which is how corsets were done in the old days,” she continued. “It takes about 45 minutes to lace up, and it can take your waist down to literally 18 inches [like] Scarlett O’Hara.”

It’s a champagne ball gown with a 20-foot train.

Victoria’s silk ball-gown wedding dress puts a warm twist on the traditional white, as the artist opted for a champagne hue. As for its silhouette, the Vera Wang original is a study in contrasts. Its tight, sculptured bodice flares into a voluminous pleated skirt before tapering off into a stunning 20-foot train.

The “Wannabe” singer accessorized with Vera Wang shoes and a diamond-and-gold tiara on loan from jeweler Slim Barrett. In 2013, Barrett put the latter headpiece up for auction, but it failed to fetch the requested price, per WWD.

David Beckham went matchy-matchy with Victoria for the ceremony (and the reception, with those iconic purple outfits). At the altar, he wore an ivory suit with a champagne-hued ascot and white dress shoes.

The dress is worth an estimated $100,000.

While there’s no confirmed price tag on the one-of-a-kind ball gown, various sources have placed it in the six-figure range. Brides reported VB’s Vera Wang wedding dress to have an estimated value of $100,000.

Although it’s no small amount, that figure pales in comparison to other celebrity bridal wear—such as Serena Williams’ $3.5 million Alexander McQueen gown from designer Sarah Burton.

Victoria chose a purple Antonio Berardi dress for the reception.

After making an elegant statement in her wedding gown, Posh Spice switched into a violet Antonio Berardi dress featuring red lining, a thigh-baring slit, and a dramatic faux-floral shoulder piece. The sultry look twinned with her new husband’s, an asymmetrical purple suit. David finished off his monochrome look with suede Manolos and that “unbelievable” top hat.

The couple aren’t afraid to poke fun at those outfits’ online infamy. On their 25th anniversary, they re-wore the controversial purple wedding looks for a fun photoshoot—even bringing the gold thrones out of storage. Son Cruz Beckham tried on his dad’s suit, too, sharing a picture of himself modeling the outfit to his Instagram Stories.

Victoria wore her wedding dress again in 2018.

She may not have owned the glittering tiara, but Victoria held onto her Vera Wang wedding dress. In 2018, she pulled the gown from her closet so it could make a brief cameo in a humorous video spoofing her British Vogue cover shoot.

Ultimately, she wore a simple white button-down for the cover of the magazine’s October 2018 issue, posing alongside her family.

Read the original article on InStyle