What separates a civilian wedding from one worthy of the fashion bible's attention? Here are some questions to get you started: Were one or more of the Courtin-Clarins sisters in attendance? Was the bride's veil longer than her entire body? Did she arrive at the ceremony by boat? Did Snoop Dogg surprise guests with a performance? Was Anna Wintour the mother of the groom? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the wedding has earned the right to immortality in the annals of Vogue's aspirational wedding column, conveniently available online for all to browse.
To simplify the project, we relied only on information included in the wedding profiles. These all varied in coverage and often did not make mention of every notable guest or family member that could have impacted Vogue's decision to cover the event in the first place. We also skipped weddings that were covered by the magazine but did not include interviews or access to personal images — the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding, for example.
Enough preamble. On to the cold, hard, lace-trimmed facts.
THE BRIDES
Who are these women and how do they get chosen for such an auspicious profile? Sometimes the piece itself provides plenty of justification. Fashion entrepreneur and presidential granddaughter Lauren Bush's wedding to David Lauren, son of Ralph, is a match made in Vogue heaven, no question. But sometimes the bride is an "Icelandic former model" and the reason for coverage is a bit murkier. Of the weddings we examined, 13 brides were fashion, jewelry or furniture designers and six were models. Eighteen worked in some kind of creative field, from filmmaking to writing; four worked in PR or marketing; four worked in finance; three were in business development; two were stylists; one was a lawyer and four had no discernible occupation.
Eight people featured worked at Vogue or Vogue UK, either currently or previously, and two people were related to someone on staff — proving that working in the fashion industry or at Vogue is a big reason that couples get chosen. See former Vogue market assistant Mollie Ruprecht's three day wedding (#thebattwedding) in St. Barts, above.
THE DESIGNER GOWNS
The Vogue bride has extremely high tastes, of course. With the exception of a few brides who borrowed from mothers or designed dresses in partnership with independent labels, most wore haute couture or runway gowns by designers like Alice Temperely or Tom Ford. And usually, one designer gown is not enough: 19 brides changed into another dress for the reception and six brides wore more than three high-end dresses over the course of the wedding festivities.
The most popular designer was Valentino, followed by Giambattista Valli and Oscar de la Renta. Dolce & Gabbana and Olivier Theyskens ranked next. (You may recall Lauren Santo Domingo's Theyskens-designed gown that famously appeared in the Sept. 2008 issue of Vogue.) Fabiola Beracasa — whose wedding Riccardi Tisci called “the best wedding I’ve been to in my life”— wore a custom Givenchy dress that required 1,600 hours of workmanship in the house's haute couture atelier (see above).
THE DESIGNER-AS-GUEST
Since designer gowns are a moot point at this level, the distinguishing mark of a truly sophisticated wedding is securing the designer's attendance as a guest — and 21 brides were lucky enough to pull it off. Examples include Molly Fishkin, whose dress was created by close friends Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen (see above), and Elizabeth Cordry, who had an extremely special visit from Oscar de la Renta shortly before he passed away on the day of her marriage (#thismasticmoment) to Anna Wintour's son Charlie Shaffer (see below).
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