Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier’s Wedding, 1956
An Academy Award winner, a reigning prince, two ceremonies in two days and a gown made by a Hollywood studio. Monaco in April 1956 was the first wedding of the television age.
In the spring of 1956 Grace Kelly, who had won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Country Girl only the year before, gave up Hollywood to marry Rainier III, the reigning Prince of Monaco. Her studio, MGM, made her wedding dress, filmed the ceremony and sent the pictures around the world. The result was the first royal wedding designed, in effect, for the camera, and the gown has been a reference point for long-sleeved lace bridal dresses ever since.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Date | Civil ceremony April 18, 1956; religious ceremony April 19, 1956 |
| Place (ceremony) | Throne Room, Prince’s Palace (civil); Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco (religious) |
| Reception | Reception for some 3,000 Monégasques in the Palace courtyard after the civil ceremony; a wedding luncheon after the cathedral service |
| The dress (designer) | Helen Rose, made in the MGM wardrobe department |
| Guests | About 700 at the cathedral |
| Officiant | Bishop Gilles Barthe (religious ceremony) |
The couple
They met in May 1955, when Kelly was at the Cannes Film Festival and a photo session was arranged at the Prince’s Palace in Monaco. A correspondence followed, and after a courtship of less than a year they were engaged. Her last film before the wedding was High Society (1956); she did not return to acting. She sailed for Monaco on the liner SS Constitution with her family and wedding party.
The couple had three children: Princess Caroline (born 1957), Prince Albert (1958), now Albert II, and Princess Stéphanie (1965). Princess Grace died on September 14, 1982, aged 52, the day after a car accident on the roads above Monaco.
The ceremony
The civil marriage came first, on April 18, in the Throne Room of the palace. For it the bride wore a second Helen Rose design: pale pink taffeta covered in cream Alençon lace, with a high, rounded collar, a fitted bodice and a flared skirt, worn with a Juliet cap and kid gloves.
The religious ceremony followed the next day at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, where about 700 guests included Cary Grant, Ava Gardner, David Niven, Gloria Swanson and Aristotle Onassis. Bishop Gilles Barthe officiated. The bride’s father, John B. Kelly, walked her up the aisle, and the cathedral was filled with lilies, white lilacs and snapdragons. The service was broadcast live, and more than 30 million people are estimated to have watched it on television; MGM also filmed it in color for cinemas.
After the service the couple drove to the chapel of Sainte-Dévote, dedicated to Monaco’s patron saint, where Princess Grace left her bouquet as an offering. Fifty-five years later her daughter-in-law, Princess Charlene, did the same.
The dress
MGM’s executives gave the dress as a wedding present, and the studio’s costume designer, Helen Rose, designed it. It was made in the MGM wardrobe department from 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of silk net, peau de soie and tulle, with 125-year-old Brussels rose point lace and thousands of seed pearls. The fitted lace bodice had long sleeves, and the full skirt ended in a train of more than three meters.
Kelly wore a small Juliet cap embroidered with seed pearls and orange blossoms, holding a veil of some 90 yards of tulle. She carried a small bouquet of lilies of the valley and a lace-covered prayer book rather than a large arrangement.
The dress was later given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which exhibited it for the wedding’s 50th anniversary in 2006. It appears in our collection of the most influential celebrity wedding dresses.
The reception
After the civil ceremony, the palace courtyard was opened to about 3,000 Monégasque citizens for a reception. After the cathedral service, a wedding luncheon followed. The six-tier cake was decorated with sugar replicas of the palace and scenes from Monaco’s history, and the prince cut it with his ceremonial sword. The couple then left for a seven-week Mediterranean honeymoon cruise aboard the yacht Deo Juvante II.
Why it mattered
It was the moment Hollywood glamour and European royalty met, and it proved that a wedding could be a global media event. More lastingly, it defined a type of bridal dress: a fitted lace bodice with long sleeves and a modest neckline, a narrow waist and a full silk skirt. That line reappeared in 2011 in the gown Sarah Burton designed for Catherine Middleton, which was widely compared to Kelly’s. For other royal brides who followed her, see The Great Royal Weddings.
Borrow the idea
Choose the lace first. Kelly’s dress was built around antique lace. If you inherit or find a piece of old lace, a good dressmaker can build a bodice, sleeves or a veil edge around it. Our guide to the wedding dress explains the fabrics and cuts.
Carry less. A few stems of lily of the valley, or a family prayer book with a single flower, can be more striking than a large bouquet, and it keeps your hands and the line of the dress visible.
Hold two ceremonies if you need to. Many couples who must marry civilly before a religious service follow Monaco’s lead: a small legal ceremony in a short dress or suit, then the full wedding the next day.
Leave the flowers somewhere meaningful. Laying your bouquet at a chapel or a family grave after the ceremony is a graceful tradition from Monaco worth adopting.
Written and edited by the Today’s Weddings editors. How we research and check what we publish is set out in our editorial standards. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
