Outlander star Caitriona Balfe’s season one wedding dress was so big it needed its own car

Outlander star Caitriona Balfe needed a car to transport her season one wedding dress as it was so big.

The Irish actress has played Claire Fraser alongside Sam Heughan who plays her on-screen husband Jamie Fraser in the hit Starz show since 2013. The historical fantasy series has been a hit with fans since day one due to the incredible acting talent from the stars, as well as the hard-working costume department tasked with dressing the characters.

One of the best works of costuming on Outlander was Claire’s extravagant wedding dress from the first season, as she had an impromptu wedding with Jamie. The costume designer Terry Dresbach detailed at the time the number of hours that went into creating the perfect wedding dress for the character, including creating the embroidery with metal.

Speaking to Variety, Dresbach said: “Caitriona is so extraordinary and so beautiful that I just wanted something to be kind of clean and simple and drop-dead ornate, so we were serving a lot of masters on this dress.”

Caitriona, 42, stunned fans in the white and grey ensemble that squeezed in perfectly the waist and expanded from the waist down and although it was a gorgeous dress, she could barely move in it. “It was a beautiful wedding dress, but I couldn’t sit. I could barely walk. To get to set they built me a popemobile,” she said.

Dresbach added to the publication: “I wanted a dress that would be incredible in candlelight. And in the 18th century, metallic fabrics were made with actual metal woven into the fabrics. When you put them in a room filled with candles, they just glow.

“They’re quite remarkable. There are museum exhibits that actually show the dresses in candlelight so you can see the effect.”