Earlier Friday, Princess Eugenie walked down the aisle of St. George's Chapel in a beautiful, Peter Pilotto wedding dress. She said her "I do" to Jack Brooksbank in front of 800-plus guests, including the royal family and celebrity friends like Naomi Campbell and Demi Moore. She looked beautiful in her designer gown and Emerald Greville tiara (loaned to her by her grandmother Queen Elizabeth). She also wore a pair of earrings that were a wedding gift from Brooksbank.
As she left the church in a carriage, everyone, including myself, wondered what she would wear to the reception. MarieClaire.com's exclusive royal wedding expert and bridal designer Caroline Castigliano had predicted that the princess wouldn't change into a new look and though I doubted this for a hot second, it turns out, Castigliano was right! Princess Eugenie was spotted leaving Windsor Castle for the Royal Lodge, where she's having the reception, still in her wedding dress and tiara. She could very well change at the venue into a look we can't see, but it appears the princess has chosen to stay in her bridal dress for the nighttime festivities.
This isn't unusual since many brides wear their gowns to the reception, but this choice was definitely different from what Meghan Markle did. Back in May, she opted to switch out of her Givenchy gown and into a halter-neck Stella McCartney dress. In Princess Eugenie's case, it was refreshing to see a royal not fuss over her second look.
"I think Eugenie was in love with her dress and wanted to spend as much time as possible wearing it," Castigliano added. "Tomorrow, there will be a second reception at her parents house, so I'm sure that is where we will see a second dress!"
The royal got into an Aston Martin DB10 (apparently, it was designed and engineered in the UK and made for the James Bond film Spectre), but barely because her gown was so voluminous, and drove to the lodge in Windsor, where she will party away.
The space has been the York family's home since 2004 and according to Express, was originally built in 1662, but "was mostly demolished and then rebuilt in the 1830s." It makes sense Eugenie wanted to have her reception at a place close to her heart—her father Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, still lives there and her mother Sarah Ferguson occasionally stays at the lodge when she's in town.
