The 20 Best Costume Designs from Outlander Season 1 and 2

3. The Wedding Dress

The most anticipated episode of season one was the wedding. The writer of Outlander, Diana Gabaldon talks briefly about the Claires wedding dress in the books and to be honest, the “heavy cream-colored satin that smelled rather strongly of its previous owner” was not a pleasant image. Gabaldon goes into much more detail of how handsome Jamie is in his Highlander regalia. While I can appreciate Gabaldon desire to show how sincere Jamie was about the marriage, I wish she would have given Claire a better dress. Let’s be honest; no one is looking at the groom. It is all about the bride. This is where Terry Dresbach saved the wedding episode. Dresbach stated in an interview the wedding dress was created in Scotland using embroidery that hasn’t been done in over a 100 years. She also has spoken to Starz about what it took to make this innovative dress.

"“Claire’s wedding dress includes 450 hand embroidered silver plate acorns and leaves and one silver dog bone, as well as hand slivered mica shards that create an organic shimmer effect.”"

When Caitriona Balfe first was the wedding dress, she claims she cried due to its beauty but was crying for a different reason after she put it on. The dress weighed a proverbial ton which made things like walking or standing on her mark very problematic and a safety hazard. A special bench had to be constructed for the actress so she could sit between takes without ruining the dress and to make her comfortable. They also had to retrofit a golf cart for Balfe to stand in so she would not fall while coming to and from the set. It took Dresbach and her team 3,000 hours and four months to complete the dress for a dress that will only be on screen for 10 minutes. That is some dedication.

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