From Julie Andrews to Audrey Hepburn: A Look Back at 5 Iconic Weddings from the 40s and 50s
From Julie Andrews to Audrey Hepburn: A Look Back at 5 Iconic Weddings from the 40s and 50s
Hannah SacksMon, October 12, 2026 at 12:45 PM UTC
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Audrey Hepburn (left), Julie Andrews (right)Credit: Ernst Haas/Getty; Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/GettyPEOPLE takes a look back at five iconic weddings from the 1940s and the 1950s -
Vintage weddings are always in style and continue to set the tone for bridal fashion
These old Hollywood weddings from the 1940s and 1950s remain iconic decades later
From Julie Andrews to Audrey Hepburn, PEOPLE takes a look back at five unforgettable weddings and the classic fashion of the era
Vintage weddings have never been more popular — and no one does glam better than Old Hollywood.
These five stars celebrated their nuptials in a timeless fashion and set the tone for brides for years to come. Although the weddings differed in size — some were lavish, elaborate affairs, others were more private — they all offered the same classic fashion of the era.
From Julie Andrews to Audrey Hepburn, take a look back at some of the most iconic weddings from the 1940s and 1950s.
01 of 05
Julie Andrews and Tony Walton
Julie Andrews and Tony WaltonCredit: Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty
In 1959, Julie Andrews married her first husband, award-winning set designer Tony Walton, when she was 23 years old. The two tied the knot on May 10 at St. Mary’s Church in Surrey, U.K., where they were both born, per The New York Times.
Walton, who died at age 87 in 2022, designed Andrews’ high-neck, long-sleeve organza silk gown and her engraved Cartier wedding band in the shape of a laurel wreath, according to Tatler. The ceremony was attended by nearly 300 guests, including Dame Maggie Smith.
The two got engaged during a quiet, fireside dinner at the Walton family home, where one of them whispered to the other, “We should get married soon.”
Although Andrews and Walton divorced a decade later, the two remained good friends.
02 of 05
Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer
Audrey Hepburn and Mel FerrerCredit: Ernst Haas/Ernst Haas/Getty
Audrey Hepburn married Mel Ferrer, a Broadway and film star, in 1954. The two had met just eight months before their wedding in Switzerland while costarring in Ondine on Broadway.
The Breakfast at Tiffany’s star wore a tea-length gown with a high collar and billowy sleeves, designed by Pierre Balmain, founder and namesake of the iconic French fashion house.
Hepburn also chose not to have a bouquet, carrying a missal down the aisle instead. This was a common accessory for religious brides at the time — Grace Kelly also carried one during her April 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III.
In a series of handwritten letters that were put up for auction in June 2016, the Roman Holiday star revealed that she went to great lengths to keep her nuptials to Mel a secret from the press.
She wrote to her acting coach and friend Sir Felix Aylmer that the couple planned to transport close friends and family to their secret wedding.
“How dearly we would love you to be with us on our wedding day,” she wrote. “We will have the car take you up to our mountain peak, Friday, for a gathering in our chalet of our nearest and dearest! ... Saturday will be the wedding ... We want to keep it a dark secret in order to have it without the ‘press.’ ”
03 of 05
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Josephine Baker and Jo Bouillon
Josephine Baker and Jo BouillonCredit: AFP via Getty
On her 41st birthday on June 3, 1947, Josephine Baker married her fourth husband, French orchestra conductor Jo Bouillon.
The two tied the knot at Baker’s home, a castle in southwestern France called Château des Milandes.
Baker and Bouillon were together until they divorced in 1961.
04 of 05
Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw
Angela Lansbury and Peter ShawCredit: Walter Bellamy/Express/Getty
Angela Lansbury wed Peter Shaw in 1949 after the two met in Hollywood. They were fixed up on a blind date and instantly connected.
“When he came into my life on a blind date,” Lansbury told The New York Timesin 2010, “we just locked emotionally together, and we never looked back.”
Although they lived in Los Angeles, the two Brits returned to the U.K. for their wedding.
“We were married on Aug. 12, 1949, in a small ceremony in St. Columbia’s Church in London,” she explained in 1993 to PEOPLE. “My mother, Moyna Macgill, is standing next to Peter, and his father, Walter Pullen, is next to me. Because my father had died in 1934 when I was 9, my brother Edgar gave me away.”
The two stayed together until Shaw’s death in 2003.
05 of 05
Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli
Film director Vincente Minnelli kisses singer and actress Judy Garland on the brow at their wedding in 1945.Credit: Getty
Judy Garland married filmmaker Vincente Minnelli, the second of her five husbands, in June 1945. The two met on the set of her 1940 movie Strike Up the Band. They later reconnected on the film Meet Me in St. Louisfour years after their first meeting.
The actress didn’t initially hit it off with Vincente, her director on the film, because he found it difficult to work with Garland, who was allegedly often tardy or absent due to her health.
Their relationship shifted in a more positive direction when they began to bond over their complicated childhoods, per Vanity Fair, and eventually developed into a romance. She faced backlash from MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer as Vincente was almost twice Garland’s age.
Nearly a year after their wedding, Garland and Minnelli welcomed their daughter, Liza Minnelli.
Garland and Minnelli divorced in 1951.
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