The touching detail you might have missed on Meghan Markle's wedding dress

Such a fitting tribute

Rex
(Image credit: Shutterstock/Rex)

Such a fitting tribute

ICYMI, Meghan Markle wowed in a Givenchy wedding dress as she walked down the aisle, which in itself surprised everyone. Why? Because they expected her to choose a British fashion house for her gown, with hot favourites being Ralph & Russo and Erdem.

However, although Givenchy is of course a Parisian couture house, its head designer Clare Waight Keller is British, so that was one way of Meghan to pay tribute to her new country.

And there was en extra touching detail that you may not have noticed, which was part of Meghan's wedding veil.

You see, she wanted to have all 53 countries of the Commonwealth with her on her journey to the alter and her new life, so she asked Keller to sew flowers from each country on her veil.

This was her way to show her gratitude at being able to support the Commonwealth.

Photo: Rex

And she also added two extra flowers, the California Poppy, as she was born in California, and the Wintersweet, which grows in the grounds of Kensington Palace in front of Nottingham Cottage.

This is believed to be a little nod to the Queen, who has welcomed Meghan into the Royal family.

And in case you were in any doubt as to how much work went into it, the veil took workers hundreds of hours to sew, and they had to wash their hands every thirty minutes to keep the tulle and threads pristine.

Now that's commitment for you.

Penny Goldstone

Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.

Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).

Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.

However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.

Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.