Rachel McAdams’ Wedding Dress in ‘The Notebook’ Was Inspired By One of the Most Beloved Royal Wedding Dresses of All Time

(Image credit: Alamy)

published 26 June 2024

The 1956 wedding dress of Grace Kelly as she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco is not just one of the most iconic royal wedding dresses of all time, but is one of the most iconic wedding dresses of all time, period. And, in addition to inspiring who knows how many real life brides in the 68 years since Grace wore it down the aisle that April 19, it also inspired Rachel McAdams’ character in 2004’s The Notebook and her wedding dress in that film, People reports.

McAdams played Allison “Allie” Hamilton in the film, opposite Ryan Gosling, who played Noah Calhoun. The movie—based on Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 novel of the same name—turned 20 years old yesterday, and follows Allie and Noah as they fall in love in 1940s South Carolina. The film’s costume designer, Karyn Wagner, said “I made about 90 percent of the costumes because I’m so specific with my storytelling”—and one of those looks was Allie’s wedding dress.

Allie was planning to marry Lon Hammond Jr. (played by James Marsden) during a break in her relationship with Noah, and for inspiration for Allie’s dress, Wagner turned to Grace’s dress (which hadn’t yet happened, as Grace married in 1956). “Even if you don’t really know who she is, you’ve seen the photographs of her wedding,” Wagner said. “They’re some of the most iconic photographs of weddings ever, and she has this gorgeous, gorgeous dress. I wanted to reference that with Allie’s dress.”

royal beauty - grace kelly — Grace Kelly was an Academy Award-winning actress before she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Grace Kelly — Grace married on April 19, 1956 in a gown designed by Helen Rose.

Allie’s white lace dress—complete with a veil and long sleeves—resembles Grace’s gown, designed by Helen Rose, who was MGM Studios’ costume designer. “I wanted to reference, again, the family’s wealth by the amount of lace on the dress, and also by how huge the veil was,” Wagner said. “Going back to the sumptuary laws during World War II, you couldn’t have a veil that big unless you were either wearing your great-grandmother’s from Victorian times or you were just wealthy enough to fly it in from France and say, ‘I don’t care what this costs, my daughter’s getting married, and she’s going to have an eight-foot veil.’ So that’s a lot of what went into that wedding dress.”

Wagner also added that the dress was purposely designed to be uncomfortable for McAdams to wear—a reflection of Allie’s reservations over her impending marriage to Lon, Bustle reports. “I wanted the dress to make her realize that she wasn’t happy about this,” Wagner said. “She wasn’t happy. She didn’t actually want to be here.”

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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