Claire Pettibone Had No Idea Priscilla Chan Would Wear Her Wedding Dress To Marry Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s wedding is still the hot topic here at Grazia HQ. We love that the low-key couple got hitched in their back garden and ate ‘budget friendly’ sushi. Didn’t the be-suited groom look dapper out of his signature hoodie? And oh, that wedding dress. With laser-cut florals, matte sequins and a chapel length train, Priscilla’s frock has garnered almost as much attention as a certain Kate Middleton’s, not least because of its $4,700 price tag (approximately £3,000), which is fairly modest for the wife of a dotcom billionaire, no? And rather than turning to celeb-fave Vera Wang or the frothy charms of Oscar de la Renta, the bride chose to wear little-known-designer Claire Pettibone for her Big Day. How refreshing!

'I love that she chose that dress, I think it’s perfect for her,’ Pettibone told Buzzfeed. ‘It has an understated quality that suited the intimacy of the event, but it still had detail and sparkle and beautiful elements about it. She’s educated and independent and chose something, I feel, that really suited her and her personality.’ Hear, hear.

The hysteria surrounding The Dress has only been heightened by the nuptials’ top-notch secrecy — guests arrived at the surprise ceremony on Saturday thinking they were celebrating Priscilla’s graduation from medical school. Pettibone reveals that the secrecy was SO extreme, even she didn’t have a clue that Priscilla would be wearing her creation to walk up the aisle.

‘I kind of found out about it the same way everyone else did,’ the designer says. ‘We had gone to Disneyland for my daughter’s fifth birthday, so we came home and my husband checked the news and he saw that Mark got married, and he looked at the story and said, “Honey, honey this is your dress.”’ How exciting!

So forget endless consultations and fiddly fittings, Mrs Zuck-to-be visited Little White Dress Bridal Shop (the only authorised retailer of the Claire Pettibone Couture Bridal Collection in Colorado) in October 2011 and – GASP – bought the dress herself. It's been revealed that she used her real first name, but a different last name, and the gown was shipped to a third party address.

In fact, Pettibone reveals, the dress has been on sale for at least two years and has already been worn for many a-wedding. What’s more, you can pick up the style for your own Big Day as it's available to buy from Claire Pettibone retailers worldwide — although we can’t imagine it’ll be around for long…