The dress took notes from the 1950s, despite it being designed for the 1940s.
Rachel McAdams looked like pure royalty as in her wedding dress costume in 2004's The Notebook, and while Allie Hamilton and the dress it didn't end up making it down the aisle, the gown took direct inspiration from Grace Kelly, former Princess of Monaco, a nod to her character's fiancé Lon Hammond Jr.'s old money.
Costume designer Karyn Wagner reflected on The Notebook in honor of the film’s 20th anniversary with People, and revealed that she took notes from Kelly’s wedding gown and applied it to Allie’s, though the film takes place in the 1940s and Kelly’s wedding happened the following decade in 1956.
“Even if you don’t really know who she is, you’ve seen the photographs of her wedding,” Wagner explained. “They’re some of the most iconic photographs of weddings ever, and she has this gorgeous, gorgeous dress. I wanted to reference that with Allie’s dress.”
Allie's white dress—designed by MGM Studios's costume designer, Helen Rose—featured multiple adornments, including lace, sheer panels, a subtle sweetheart neckline and buttons. The dress was further accessorized by a large veil with a floral headpiece—a detail Wagner said was completely intentional.
“I wanted to reference, again, the family’s wealth by the amount of lace on the dress, and also by how huge the veil was,” Wagner said. “Going back to the sumptuary laws during World War II, you couldn’t have a veil that big unless you were either wearing your great-grandmother’s from Victorian times or you were just wealthy enough to fly it in from France and say, ‘I don’t care what this costs, my daughter’s getting married, and she’s going to have an eight-foot veil.’ So that’s a lot of what went into that wedding dress.”
The last piece of crafting the costume was making it an uncomfortable fit for McAdams on purpose, as Wagner wanted the actress’s discomfort to come through with Allie due to her reservations with marrying Lon. Speaking with Bustle , Wagner added, “I wanted the dress to make her realize that she wasn’t happy about this. She wasn’t happy. She didn’t actually want to be here.”
While Allie's marriage to Lon ultimately didn't come to fruition—she chose to be with Noah (Ryan Gosling) instead after a dramatic and steamy reconciliation—Kelly had a simpler happily ever after. Kelly and Prince Rainier III tied the knot on April 18, 1956, and remained married until her death in 1982. The pair had three children: Princess Stephanie, Princess Caroline, and Prince Albert.