Princess Diana Walked Down the Aisle in a Stained Wedding Dress—Here's What Happened

Princess Diana’s wedding dress designers, former couple Elizabeth and David Emmanuel, not only created one of the most influential bridal gown to date, but they also went above and beyond to prepare for any case scenario when Diana said “I do” to King Charles on July 29, 1981. The designers manufactured a secret backup ensemble for the bride in case the original taffeta puff sleeve ball gown, embellished with 10,000 pearls and featuring a 25-foot train, was leaked to the press. The duo even made an overskirt to keep spills at bay, and they arrived with an umbrella to shield the getup from any potential rain, according to Hello!

However, despite all of their efforts, Diana still ended up having a wardrobe malfunction before she walked down the aisle. The soon-to-be-royal allegedly tied the knot in a stained wedding dress. In Rosalind Coward’s books, Diana: The Portrait, Princess Di’s makeup artist, Barbara Daly, recounted that the bride was trying to spritz Quelques Fleurs perfume on her wrists while getting ready at Clarence House on the morning of her wedding day, but she spilled the fragrance on her gown. Daly explained that Diana hid the stain while making her descent down the aisle by placing her hand over the tainted spot as if she were holding up the front of her dress. The thousands of people in the audience and the hundreds of millions of people tuning in to watch the royal wedding on TV didn’t seem to notice the stain. 

With its hand-embroidered details and thousands of embellishments, Diana’s iconic wedding dress took Elizabeth, David, and the rest of their team months to design and execute. To keep the design a secret, they worked while security guards protected the getup, and after wrapping up each day, they locked the frock in a safe, according to New York Post. The outlet reports that newspapers offered thousands of dollars for a sneak peak, but the designers turned down every offer in order to protect Diana’s privacy. 

Elizabeth and David even created a secret backup dress that Diana would wear if the sketches ever became public. “At the time, we wanted to make absolutely sure that the dress was a surprise,” David told People. “We didn’t try it on Diana. We never even discussed it. We wanted to make sure that we had something there. It was for our own peace of mind really.” The designers recently revealed never-before-seen photos of the spare wedding dress. The second frock still had the V-neck with ruffled trim, three-quarter length sleeves, and a billowing skirt, like the original design, but otherwise, it was a completely separate look. 

According to Elizabeth and David, Diana didn’t have any specific instructions on how she wanted her dress to look, so they decided to go all out. “We went completely over the top,” Emanuel said. “I mean, we were young, just out of college. [We said,] ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go crazy. St. Paul’s [has] this huge, big aisle. Let’s put all the frills on the lace, everything, and make it the ultimate fairy princess dress.’ And we did that. And I don’t think you’re going to see another one like that.”

After months of designing the dress, the designers saw their full vision come to life during the final fitting. “We had a final fitting at Buckingham Palace, where—for the first time—we were able to unravel the train because our showroom was very small, so we had to wait until we went to the palace and used one of the corridors to unravel the train, which is 25 feet long.”