Written By: Ben Cosgrove
Before Harry and Meghan, before William and Kate, before Charles and Di, before Liz and Dick (I and II), before any of the “storybook” weddings of the past several decades, there was the fairytale wedding of the last century: the April 1956 nuptials of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The tale of the American movie star and Philadelphia native marrying the prince of a small, sensationally wealthy city-state was simply too perfect to ignore and for months leading up to the event, from the time of the couple’s engagement until the two ceremonies (civil and religious) that formalized their union, the Hollywood princess and the real-life prince were hardly ever out of the news.
Here, LIFE.com presents photos many of which never ran in LIFE magazine from the moment the couple announced their engagement in January 1956 until they were married three and a half months later in Monaco. In an issue published a few weeks after the wedding, LIFE framed the singular phenomenon for the magazine’s millions of readers:
Largely ignored throughout its long history, the pint-sized principality of Monaco last week enjoyed a beautiful modern recognition. Grace Kelly, daughter of a millionaire former hod carrier [in short, a construction laborer] from Philadelphia and the virtual princess of moviedom’s make-believe world, was getting married there. She was becoming a princess officially by her marriage to Monaco’s Prince Rainier, who holds 139 other titles and is absolute ruler of a 370-acre realm with 20,000 subjects.
Throughout the palpitant anxieties which are the lot of every bride, Miss Kelly was everything the enthusiastic Monegasques could have wished. She had to go through two weddings, separately required by the Napoleonic Code of Monaco and the laws of the Roman Catholic Church. . . . [After the first she assumed the title] Her Serene Highness, Princess Gracia Patricia of Monaco. [During the second] she became a wife indeed when she helped the nervous Prince Rainier settle the ring on her finger.
And so an old-style fairy tale came to its appropriately romantic conclusion, but only after a number of modern day variations and additions had come to pass.
The princess-to-be had barley set foot in Monaco when the principality and much of the rest of Europe were there bearing gifts. The wedding presents ranged from the fabulous to the foolish. Among the more practical was a Rolls-Royce, among the less useful a gold and bone hatchet.
All the loose wealth gathered there acted magnetically on Europe’s thieves. $50,000 worth of jewels swiped from the wife of a pal of Grace’s father . . . $8,000 in gems lifted from the hotel room of one of the bridesmaids.
After their wedding, Monaco’s newlyweds wasted no time starting a family: Nine months and four days later, Grace gave birth to Princess Caroline, their first of three children. The couple was married for 26 years, until the princess’ death in 1982 from injuries sustained in a car accident. The prince, who never remarried and who died in 2005, is buried beside his wife in the Grimaldi family vault, inside the Monaco cathedral where they wed.
Liz Ronk edited this gallery for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizabethRonk.
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier wed, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Monaco, April 19, 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier show her engagement ring to her mother and father at the Kelly home in Philadelphia, 1956.
Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Monaco’s Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly at time of the announcement of their engagement, January 1956.
Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier arrive at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the day after announcing their engagement, January 1956.
Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the day after announcing their engagement, January 1956.
Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier dance not long after announcing their engagement, 1956.
Ralph Morse The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Smiling in a brisk March wind and surrounded by photographers and fans, Grace Kelly poses just off of Fifth Avenue in New York, 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly takes a momentary breather while packing her things before the wedding, 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly inside a New York jewelry store, where she perused possible gifts for her groom.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly packing for her trip to Monaco, March 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly, March 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and her poodle, Oliver, 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly with her mother, Margaret Majer Kelly, before leaving New York for Monaco in March 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly (left) and one of her two sisters (either Peggy or Lizanne), New York City, 1956.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Seamstresses work on Grace Kelly’s wedding dress and veil, conceived by MGM’s wardrobe designer, Helen Rose, Hollywood, Calif., 1956.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A woman puts the finishing touches on the pearl-studded prayer book for Grace Kelly’s wedding, Hollywood, Calif., 1956.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly leaves a Hollywood studio lot for last time before her marriage, 1956.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly, SS Constitution, 1956
Yale Joel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly, SS Constitution, 1956
Yale Joel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly in Monaco, April 1956.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly in Monaco before her wedding, April 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier in Monaco, the day before their wedding, April 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly ascend the steps of Monaco Palace. Kelly’s dress required 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of silk net, 125-year-old rose-point lace bought from a museum, and thousands of tiny pearls.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier kneel during Mass at their religious wedding, April 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly prays before her wedding to Prince Rainier III, April 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier join hands as the Bishop of Monaco, Mgr. Gilles Barthe, administers the nuptial benediction at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, April 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Wedding ceremony of Prince Rainier III of Monaco to Grace Kelly, April 1956.
Thomas D. McAvoy The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III, newlyweds, April 1956.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Princess Grace and Prince Rainier III, newlyweds, are whisked away in a Rolls Royce convertible, April 1956.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Prince Rainier III and Her Serene Highness, Princess Gracia Patricia of Monaco, April 19, 1956.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Fireworks light up the sky above Monaco in celebration of the wedding of Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly, April 1956.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco, April 1956.
Frank Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
