Bought at the Department Store: The Story of Priscilla Presley’s Unhappy Wedding Dress

Elvis Presley was married only once, and it was his longest relationship, although there were never any passionate feelings there. In 1959, the 24-year-old singer met the daughter of a US Air Force officer, Priscilla Bewley, who was only 14 at the time. The young people loved each other (or maybe their parents wanted to) and continued to communicate – from a distance, since Priscilla lived in Germany and Elvis lived in the United States.

In March 1963, Bewley’s parents let their 17-year-old daughter go to America, to Presley’s Graceland estate, on one condition: Priscilla could live with Presley if she attended a private Catholic school. On that they agreed.

So another four years passed, until the slow romance (despite the fact that Presley practically did not change his bachelor lifestyle) got fed up with the girl’s parents and they insisted on the wedding. Under their pressure, at the end of 1966, Elvis proposed to Priscilla.

The wedding took place on May 1, 1967 in a room at the Aladdin Hotel in front of 14 guests. The ceremony lasted only 8 minutes, but went down in history – largely thanks to the newlyweds.

The 21-year-old bride shone in a long-sleeved white dress encrusted with pearls, her head was adorned with a tiara and a three-tiered veil. The restrained image reflected the main trends of the 60s – real simplicity with a touch of classic glamor of those years.

Initially, the media wrote that Bewley designed the wedding dress herself, but that’s not true. It was only after some time that the truth was revealed. It turned out that for some reason Priscilla didn’t have time to look for this dress, and she, wearing a blonde wig and posing as Mrs. Hodge, ran into a few stores shortly before the celebration. The search ended at the Westwood department store. “It was simple and, in my opinion, beautiful. There was no time to look any further. I only had one fitting even,” Priscilla recalls.

Family life was going well, but only at first. Almost immediately after the wedding, Priscilla became pregnant: on February 1, 1968, she gave birth to a daughter, Lisa-Marie. Since then, the couple began to drift apart and Elvis soon returned to his usual bachelor lifestyle.

Priscilla’s patience lasted a year and a half: in 1971, she announced that she was leaving her husband for her karate teacher (how commonplace). Elvis tried to save the family, but nothing helped, and in July 1972 the couple broke up. The divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973, with Elvis and Priscilla walking out of the courtroom holding hands.

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Photo: Legion Media