
When Princess Diana—then Lady Diana Spencer—called the woman who would become her wedding dress designer, Elizabeth Emanuel, to ask her to do the honors for her July 29, 1981 wedding day to Prince Charles, the call came at an inconvenient time, Emanuel said.
Emanuel opened up to People about the fib she had to tell another client when Diana rang, asking if Emanuel and her then-husband, David, would design her now-iconic wedding gown. Speaking at People’s Styling Princess Diana panel, Emanuel said that she knew in that moment that her “life was going to change”—but first, she had to find an excuse to leave her client, who she was doing a fitting with when the call from Diana came.