- Mariah Carey's original 1993 wedding dress was inspired by Princess Diana, Vera Wang said.
- The designer told Page Six the singer was "moved and influenced" by Diana's royal wedding.
- But 12 years after Carey's wedding, she nearly burned the dress in a music video.
Mariah Carey's original wedding inspiration was none other than Princess Diana, according to Vera Wang's interview with Page Six.
The renowned bridal gown designer, who was discussing the backstory behind three of her most memorable celebrity wedding dresses — including Ariana Grande and Gwen Stefani — told the publication's Elana Fishman that Carey was very much "influenced" by Prince Charles and Diana's 1981 royal wedding.
"She was very moved and influenced by that wedding," Wang said. "This was the era of Princess Diana."
Visual parallels between the dress include the length of the veil, which Carey later said was a whopping 27 feet long in her 2018 appearance on Andy Cohen's "Watch What Happens Live."
"It was very much like Diana at Westminster Abbey," Wang added. The singer's dress beat out Diana's 25-foot veil, which was the longest in royal history, Insider previously reported.
Other similarities between the bridal looks include the puffy sleeves, a slim bodice with pearl detailing, and a ballgown-style silhouette flaring out voluminously at the waist. Both brides also carried a large bouquet of white flowers with green leaves.
Wang said when it came to the overall design, Carey wanted the dress to exude the extravagance of a royal wedding. "She wanted that level of pomp and circumstance and romance and volume," she said. "She really wanted a princess look, and it was just one of those weddings that was truly a fairytale in the sense of scale."
But like Diana, Carey's fairytale wedding did not end in a fairytale marriage as she and her first husband Tommy Mottola were divorced in 1998, according to People.
12 years later, the singer wore the dress in a 2005 music video and nearly set it on fire, she said in her "Watch What Happens Live" 2018 appearance.
"When I did 'We Belong Together' I was going to burn the wedding dress," Carey said about the Vera Wang-designed gown. "That was my original wedding dress."
However, Carey said the music video director turned down the idea because of the sheer length of the dress. "I wanted to burn it at the end of the video," she added. "I thought it would've been dramatic, nobody understood."
Representatives for Mariah Carey did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.