10 details to know about Princess Diana's wedding dress

Princess Diana had a history of working with the Emanuels. They designed a strapless taffeta evening dress she wore to her first black-tie charity event just a few weeks after her engagement to Prince Charles was announced.

So when it came time to find a designer to create her bridal gown, it was no surprise that Lady Di turned to the husband-and-wife duo, according to journalist and royal fashion expert Elizabeth Holmes' book, "HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style."

According to Holmes' book, Princess Diana asked the Emanuels: "Liz, would you and David do me the honor of making my wedding dress?"

In her book, Holmes wrote that Princess Diana sat cross-legged on the floor when she looked over the sketches that the Emanuel made for her. Even her bridesmaids showed up to look at the designs in roller skates once.

"They were whizzing around with their dresses on," Elizabeth Emanuel said, according to Holmes. "You hear so much about the Princess's caring side, but she was also great fun."

In "HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style," Holmes wrote that the Emanuels had a lot of fun coming up with the perfect wedding dress for Princess Diana.

Elizabeth Emanuel said that she and her husband found inspiration in previous royal wedding dresses, as well as costumes from classic films like "Gone With the Wind."

"We never had any special instructions about how to make the wedding dress," Elizabeth Emanuel told Holmes. "That added a bit to the fun of it all, made it [a] bit of an adventure."

Elizabeth Emanuel told Holmes that she wanted Princess Diana's gown to stand out among other royal bridal gowns.

"We all went through previous royal wedding pictures, and felt we had to outdo those," the designer told Holmes. "We'd discover which had the longest train, and say, 'OK, it's got to be longer.'"

As part of the design process, the Emanuels measured the width of the aisle at St. Paul's Cathedral — where Diana and Charles wed — to make sure the gown's train would have enough space to lay smoothly on the floor.

As Holmes wrote in "HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style," the designers had rehearsed Princess Diana's ride to St. Paul's Cathedral, but they expected the carriage to have one less person — thus making more space for Diana's voluminous gown.

In reality, Princess Diana's father, Earl Spencer, joined the bride on the way to the ceremony.

The designer added that even though Princess Diana's dress and train were folded "like you would fold a bed sheet," the fabric still creased all over.

Princess Diana seemed to take a note from the tradition of having "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue" at one's wedding, which comes from an Old English rhyme.

The Emanuels sewed a square of Carrickmacross lace onto Princess Diana's dress. The lace once belonged to Mary of Teck, the wife and Queen consort of King George V and the great-grandmother of Prince Charles. According to Town & Country, the fabric square was either a donation from the Royal School of Needlework or was found in a bag of scraps.

The dress also included 10,000 pearls, 300 feet of tulle in the petticoat, and another 450 feet of tulle in the veil. According to Harper's Bazaar, the dress would be worth $448,572.26 today.

Instead of borrowing a tiara from the Queen, Princess Diana wore one that belonged to her father, Earl Spencer, Holmes wrote in her book.

According to "HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style," the Emanuels sewed a tiny blue bow on the back of Princess Diana's bridal gown, which represented the "something blue" part of the wedding tradition.

The Emanuels also attached "something new" — a good-luck charm onto the gown's label. It was an 18-carat-gold, horseshoe-shaped trinket made of white diamonds.

Instead of opting for the traditional bridal white hue, Princess Diana's dress fabric was a "vintage ivory" that looked better with her complexion, Holmes wrote in her book.

Princess Diana's makeup artist, Barbara Daly, wrote in her book "Diana: The Portrait" that Diana had spilled perfume on the dress and it left a small stain. To hide it, Diana tucked in the front of her dress.

• Read more:
• Princess Diana once said her royal wedding to Prince Charles was the 'worst day of my life'
• Photos show how 'The Crown' re-created Princess Diana's outfits, from her wedding dress to glamorous gowns
• The 26 most iconic royal fashion moments from the past decade
• 22 times royals recycled their favorite outfits