22 Celebrity Brides Who Defied Tradition With Unconventional Wedding Dresses

Who’s to say a wedding dress has to be monochromatic? Back in 1989, Emma Thompson chose a printed knee-length look with matching multicolored heels for her special day.

Plus,  the famous British actress opted for an eye-catching headpiece that perfectly captured 80s fashion. 

She and Branagh would go on to appear in different movies, such as Dead Again, Henry V, and Much Ado About Nothing.

If you’re going to get married in Vegas, you might as well do it in style with an off-the-shoulder Dior dress.

The low-key ceremony in Sin City was officiated by an Elvis impersonator.

After the pair said their vows, they concluded the soirée with a feast of In-N-Out burgers.

“3 years with this guy, 2nd best decision I ever made. 1st was that dress”, the British singer wrote on Instagram to commemorate her third wedding anniversary.

Gwen and Gavin Rossdale wed in 2002 at a 17th-century Catholic church in London. While the venue was traditional, the dress was everything but: the singer walked down the aisle wearing a custom pink ombre gown by John Galliano for Dior. 

Stefani and the lead singer of Bush divorced in 2016 following rumors of an alleged affair between Gavin and Mindy Mann, their nanny.

This beloved Hollywood couple never disappoints when it comes to fashion. Their wedding was no exception.

The weekend of their wedding, the bride wore a white Stella McCartney two-piece pantsuit with a navy trim and a sun hat. 

"Stella is a great talent. Her work is a reflection of herself: daring, instinctive, purposeful, ethical and fun," the lawyer said in 2020 about her favorite designer and close friend. When the newlyweds sailed down the Grand Canal in Venice, Amal was photographed wearing an elegant white gown with floral embroidery.

Quinn went for a peculiar theme: winter wonderland meets gothic.

The Selling Sunset star shocked everyone with a black Galia Lahav dress and a 22-foot veil.

Her wedding decorations also differed from the average white centerpiece. “We had custom-made chocolate gargoyles as table settings. Every water glass had black roses inside the ice cubes,” the celeb real estate agent described.

“We also had ice couches and ice sculptures. It was so f***ing theatrical."

The fabulous star married her ex-husband Richard Burton in 1964. The bride wore a marigold babydoll dress crafted by Irene Sharaff, the costume designer for Cleopatra, the film that made the couple cross paths.

Taylor completed the look with hyacinths and lilies of the valley weaved into an eye-catching updo.

She also wore a diamond and emerald Bulgari brooch. "The only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari," Burton once said of Taylor.

The Queen’s Gambit star married musician Malcolm McRae in a custom embroidered Dior gown.

Her choice of dress color, a dusty rose, caught everyone’s attention on social media.

Among the details on the delicate gown were a hummingbird, a thistle, and the symbol for Aries, Anya’s zodiac sign.

The Sex and the City star’s choice of wedding dress was closely linked with her wish for privacy. The actress purchased a black dress because she didn’t want anyone to find out about her nuptials.

"I was too embarrassed to get married in white, and both Matthew and I were reluctant to have people pay so much attention to us," SJP told Marie Claire in 2006.

Once the news was out, her Morgane Le Fay bridal gown made headlines around the world.

Moore’s dress had intentionally been designed to be worn on the Academy Awards red carpet. However, the actress liked it so much that she saved it for her wedding day.

The pink custom Prada dress was completed with green dangly earrings.

The star and director Bart Freundlich got married in 2003. The ceremony took place at their West Side Manhattan home in a small wedding ceremony with 36 guests.

The Canadian actress was bold enough to go with one of the last colors you’d typically associate with a wedding: yellow.

Her short-sleeve sheer dress was accessorized with a red flower pin and matching red lipstick.

The couple shared pictures of the Los Angeles ceremony on social media. “We’re married!!!!!!” Pill announced on Instagram, sharing a photo with her new husband, who wore a traditional white shirt and black tie.

The Little House on the Prairie alum explained that she had tried a white dress, “but for [her] third wedding it seemed ironic."

Just like Goldilocks, she tried on many different dresses until she found the one. “I tried baby pink and powder blue, but they seemed immature. Black was too foreboding for such a happy, auspicious occasion.”

She finally set her eyes on the perfect ensemble after her mom suggested she visit the store of her favorite designer, Morgane Le Fay.

“There it was, the first dress we saw: a gorgeous, strapless, layered chiffon gown in the most beautiful deep red either of us had ever seen,” she wrote in her 2022 memoir.

The legendary couple tied the knot in Gibraltar in 1969. Yoko’s look was simple yet elegant. For her special day, the Japanese artist wore a white summery minidress and paired it with a floppy sun hat, oversized sunglasses, knee-high socks, and white sneakers.

Following the ceremony, Yoko and John took advantage of their high-profile image to spread their pacifist ideas.

Lake described her wedding as “perfect.” She explained that, following days of heavy rain, the weather surprisingly cleared up by Sunday, the day of the ceremony, which felt “biblical.”

Something else that added to the spiritual feeling was probably the fact that the former talk show host traded her heels for a pair of Uggs to slow-dance with her husband.

The bride opted for a golden orange dress, while the groom wore a black dress shirt and khaki pants.

The Good Place actress got married in an outfit you’d typically wear for an after-office with your colleagues or a birthday dinner. Of course, Bell’s ensemble was representative of her casual style.

“What we desired was the intimacy of just each other,” the actress said about her private wedding location, a Beverly Hills courthouse. 

“We didn’t want to look at or talk to anyone else other than each other.”

“Our friends joked a lot about the fact that we invited no one, and later that afternoon, they got us a cake that said ‘The World's Worst Wedding.’’”

Unlike the previous cases on this list, Emily decided to go for a Zara look for her special day with her ex-husband, producer Sebastian Bear-McClard.

The model styled her orange pantsuit with a black hat with a veil.

She surprised everyone by getting married in a NYC courthouse in 2018.

The actress was introduced to Dan Benton by a mutual friend in 2015.

“They met for cocktails at the West Village bar Orient Express and had dinner afterwards,” a friend said. “But their first real date was a TED Talk, after which they talked for four hours.”

For their New York wedding, the bride wore a printed Dolce & Gabbana gown. 

To make things even more unconventional, she walked down the aisle to the Star Wars theme song, a family-favorite film.

Beauty mogul and tattoo artist Kat Von D married Rafael Reyes in a gothic ceremony in 2018.

Floor-to-ceiling red decorations, a horn headpiece, a red tail piano, and a (you guessed it, red) castle-shaped cake all prove that the bride and groom’s intentions weren't for their nuptials to be discreet.

The bride wore a red, long-sleeve, ruffled gown by Adolfo Sanchez and accessorized with a matching red veil and red horns.

“I now pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Beech! Ahhh!” the 90210 alum captioned a photo of herself kissing her husband, the British model and musician Josh Beech in London.

Grimes rocked a striking V-neck halter dress from Vera Wang’s Fall 2012 collection. She completed her look by wearing a delicate chignon knot and carrying a bouquet of bright red flowers.

The stars have two children: a daughter, born in 2018, and a son, born in 2021.

Instead of driving away in a convertible car with a romantic sign on the back like the olden days, Teyana and her then-husband rocked a pair of modern leather jackets with “I Do” printed on the back.

The power couple paired their edgy looks with jeans.

"Grab ya biker baby let's do it rite HERE rite NOW," Taylor wrote on Instagram. "It's nothing like marrying ya best friend.”

For her wedding at New York City’s City Hall in 2020, Chloe went for a black, long-sleeved dress and paired it with a white veil.

The actress met the Croatian art gallery director in 2018. Four years later, the coupe said “I do” once again, this time with the bride in a traditional white gown.