Designer Styles Through the Years

Whether in a barely there strapless wedding dress or a Disney princess-worthy gown, brides always serve up plenty of fashion to critique before and long after the very last Champagne tipsy guest calls it a night.

Following Bettina Anderson’s beachfront nuptials in the Bahamas to Donald Trump Jr. last month, WWD is recapping the wedding-day styles that other members of the Trump family — including a few now ex-wives — chose to exchange their vows. So far, immediate members of the first family have had eight weddings, but that tally climbs to 11 if President Trump’s late first ex-wife Ivana’s three weddings are included.

Fashion has been front-and-center at all of their festivities, thanks to designer choices from Vera Wang, Elie Saab, Thierry Mugler, Carolina Herrera and Zuhair Murad, among others. After officially tying the knot in Palm Beach, Anderson and Donald Trump Jr. flew to the Bahamas to throw their reception. In the days that followed she teased glimpses of her island wedding weekend on Instagram, including looks at her slipdress.

The president and Ivana Trump’s three children, Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka, served up all sorts of photo-ops for their respective unions. In 2004, Don Jr. proposed to Vanessa Haydon with what was reportedly a $100,000 4-carat emerald-cut ring in the Bailey, Banks & Biddle store in the Short Hills Mall, N.J. Paparazzi and TV cameras were there to capture the on-bended-knee ask in front of a jewelry case.

Vanessa Trump wore a sleeveless back-plunging gown from the New York-based designer Reem Acra at the 370-person bash at Mar-a-Lago in 2005. The couple, who have five children, officially divorced in 2018. In an interview with WWD last month, Acra described Anderson as having “a very joyful personality. There is always something that is kind of fun with her.”

Donald Trump Jr.’s second wedding last month made him the first son to marry while his father was in office, since President John Quincy Adams’ son John Quincy II did so in 1828. Regardless of which political party has a seated president, the public’s zeal for first family or celebrity weddings of any kind has become a far-from-passive spectator sport with fans and critics clashing over who wore what and more.

The interest in celebrity weddings dates back centuries with Queen Victoria setting the standard for weddings in Western culture, according to the University of Kentucky’s director of its School of Media and Journalism Erika Engstrom. Aside from being an escape from everyday life and the mundane, weddings, “as society tells us, are the denouement of romantic relationships, so there’s drama involved,” she said. “It’s the ultimate ‘ending’ to a romantic relationship and the happily-ever-after ending of almost all fairy tales.”

Or maybe just a starter-kit to one, as Vanessa Trump, who is now romantically tied to the pro golfer Tiger Woods, or Donald Trump Jr.’s former fiancé Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, can attest to. For her 2005 wedding to Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, who once had her own clothing line, chose a majestic gown from Vera Wang that was inspired by the one that Grace Kelly chose for her 1956 to Prince Rainier III in Monaco. With a short-sleeve intricate sheer overlay, the elaborate frock was made with three tiers of hand-appliquéd lace that were different shades of ivory. Like Herrera, Ralph Lauren and other established American designers, Wang is known to be bipartisan when suiting up brides. Former first daughter Chelsea donned a Vera Wang wedding gown.

Aside from often being the most expensive garment that a woman will ever wear on “what is supposed to be the most important day of a woman’s life, the quest for the ‘perfect’ dress becomes the ‘packaging’ for a woman, “who has attained the object she is supposed to want more than anything in the world: a man,” Engstrom said. (It’s worth noting that her own wedding cost $300.)

Contrastingly, when Lara Trump wed her husband Eric in 2014, she went all-out with a custom strapless full-skirted Vera Wang gown. With 450 guests looking on, the former TV producer said she knew that she needed a dress that would be seen “from even the farthest guest’s viewpoint.”

The North Carolina State University later changed into a sleek body-conscious Inbal Dror dress to cut the six-tier wedding cake in ombré pink. The elaborate confection hinted at her French Culinary Institute training and style sense. Still recovering from two broken wrists from an equestrian accident, the new bride removed her soft casts to exchange her vows, and donned bedazzled gloves to accessorize her second look of the night.

“The Wedding Reporter” podcast creator’s Alyssa DiCicco emphasized how many couples model their weddings after celebrity weddings. For example, Dua Lipa’s choice of a floppy hat for her courthouse nuptials spawned a “new ‘It’ trend for everyday brides,” she said. Of course, fans and foes weigh in with equal measure, too.

When Tiffany Trump took the plunge with Michael Boulos at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, she selected an Elie Saab embellished gown with a ballet leotard-style neckline, a tapered waist and extravagant sweeping train. Her mother Marla Maples, President Trump’s second ex-wife, also donned a Saab design. Maples counted on the New York designer Carolina Herrera for her own 1993 wedding reception at The Plaza. She paired her almost off-the-shoulder gown long-sleeve mermaid gown with what was said to be a $2 million tiara. 

Her successor, so to speak, Melania Trump also amped up the fashion factor for her 1995 nuptials at Mar-a-Lago. (That seems to be the go-to place for Trump family weddings, and a surefire way to avoid added costs.) The former model’s Dior haute couture dress by John Galliano was not a bargain, though, given its estimated $187,000 price tag. The late Vogue editor at large André Leon Talley traveled with her to Paris for fittings for the voluminous gown, which required 1,000 hours of work to assemble. Its extravagance helped Melania Trump land the February 2005 cover of Vogue — a feat that she has yet to repeat as first lady as several of her predecessors have.

In an interview with WWD, event designer and wedding planner Preston Bailey recalled how she “was so involved with every detail,” whether that be 9-foot candelabras on the dinner tables that were adorned with white roses, gardenias and hydrangeas. The celebrity-studded affair — a $350,000 to $400,000 investment per Bailey — included guests like Heidi Klum. Kelly Ripa, Gayle King, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Russell Simmons and his now former wife Kimora Lee among others. Bailey also orchestrated Ivanka Trump’s wedding and her brother Eric’s, too. He told WWD last year Eric was “very cautious about costs and spending. That was not the experience I had with Mrs. Trump or Ivanka.”

The initial Trump wedding that indirectly led to all of these unions was held in 1977, when Donald Trump officially teamed up with Ivana Trump in a ceremony that was officiated by “The Power of Positive Thinking” author Norman Vincent Peale. Before coupling up with the-then New York City real estate developer, the Czech and American businesswoman was married to an Austrian ski instructor Alfred Winklmayr from 1971 to 1973.

After divorcing Trump, she tied the knot a third time with Riccardo Mazzucchelli in 1995 in what turned out to be a two-year bond. Her choice of a tight-fitting lace-trimmed baby blue satin suit was eclipsed by a nude-colored headpiece that was crowned with floral motifs and framed with an asymmetric veil that covered half of her face. Both of the creations were made by her friend Thierry Mugler.

For what would be her fourth and final wedding day in 2008 to Rossano Rubicondi, she decided on three dresses including one from Zuhair Murad for the lavish shindig at — you guessed it — Mar-a-Lago. Fittingly, Ivanka Trump had played herself in a cameo in the 1996 comedy film “First Wives’ Club.”

The Trump wedding march could continue at some point, since the president’s and first lady’s son Barron is still a New York University undergrad and bachelor. Regardless, if he or any of the 11 Trump grandchildren ever choose to legally partner up, the fashion quota appears to be carrying on through nieces Kai Trump and Arabella Rose Kushner.