Caitríona Balfe’s ‘Outlander’ Wedding Dress was So Big It Needed Its Own Car
Outlander is popular for several reasons. For starters, it has excellent storytelling, detailing the life of a woman caught between two time periods. Additionally, the costuming is at par with the respective time periods and the acting is stellar. One of the show’s highlights is in the first season when Caitríona Balfe’s character Claire got married in a massive wedding dress. As it turns out, the gorgeous dress was so big that it needed its own car.
‘Outlander’ jumps between two historical periods
Outlander begins in 1945 when a former WWII nurse visits Inverness, Scotland with her husband who is looking into his family history. The woman, Claire Randall, touches one of the standing stones at Craigh na Dun and is accidentally transported back in time to 1743 where she meets Jamie Fraser.
The two get married out of necessity but as time goes by, they fall for each other, further complicating matters between an already-married Claire and her two husbands from two time periods.
Caitríona Balfe’s dress needed its own car during production
The costuming in Outlander is exceptional and manages to stay true to the time period the show is set in. One of the best costume moments from the show happened in Season 1 when Claire and Jamie have an impromptu wedding.
Claire looked stunning in a white and gray ensemble that cinched the waist and expanded from the waist down and although it was a gorgeous dress, it was a pain for Balfe. While reminiscing about the show’s earlier days, Balfe revealed to Starz that the dress was so huge she had limited movements when wearing 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,” Balfe said showing a picture of her on the car on her way to set. The dress was made with actual metal, woven into the fabric much like how it was done in the 18th century, according to Variety.
Season 8 will be the last season of ‘Outlander’
Season 7 will debut in mid-2023 and will pick up with Claire in prison set to hang after being wrongfully accused of witchcraft and the murder of Malva Christie. The new season has 16 episodes. Following the events of the sixth and seventh books in Gabaldon’s series A Breath of Snow and Ashes and an Echo in The Bone, Season 7 will be the beginning of the end as Starz has announced an eighth and final season.
It is worth noting that Gabaldon hasn’t finished her final book and is currently writing Book 10. Fans were expecting the show to go for 10 full seasons but the announcement means the show may need to cram three books into one, which may go one of two ways.
Gabaldon may offer the showrunners an exclusive peak into the ending or they may decide to rush the ending, making for a disastrous finale á la Game of Thrones. Gabaldon assured fans that Jamie and Claire’s story will not succumb to the same fate, so we may have to wait and see what she has in store.
