Wedding? What wedding? We asked Canadian designers to weigh in on the pomp, plumage and finery of the guests and on Kate Middleton’s – oops, now the Duchess of Cambridge – formal wedding dress , designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.

Photos: Kate Middleton’s royal wedding dress

Fashion designer Lucian Matis, no stranger to grand occasion gown designs, has thoughts on The Dress:

“It was a very elegant, very smart dress. I loved it. And I really expected for her to wear something a little bit more modern but still very simple,” he says. “She was very smart in her choice and very political. Political was the first world that came to my mind when I first saw her. She didn’ white prom dresses 2011 t splurge, she showed she is actually marrying William for love.”

“The tailoring was absolutely impeccable,” he adds. “The bustline especially was couture, it was beautiful. That to me was the only real McQueen element that I saw — the silhouette was very royal, the neckline was beautiful. Everything was unpretentious and light. It will be very copied — we’re going to see a lot of that neckline in bridal because it’s a new yet traditional neckline. It elongates the neck. It was very well done. I love the whole silhouette.”

If Matis has one critique, it’s the dress’s train. “I found the train being rounded threw me off — a pointier, more elegant train would have been nicer, in my opinion. The roundness was too 1980s, maybe it was a tribute to Princess Diana?”

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Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

Sister of the bride and Maid of Honour Pippa Middleton holds hands with Grace Van Cutsem and Eliza Lopes

Toronto-based designer Réva Mivasagar (his wedding designs are stocked at Bergdorf Goodman’s bridal salon and fun fact, attended Central Saint Martins and shared a London flat with the late Alexander McQueen, whose successor Sarah Burton designed Kate Middleton’s bridal gown ) says he really preferred maid of honour — and the bride’s sister — Pippa Middleton’ mother of the groom dresses for summer ;s dress, also by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen. “So much more!” he enthuses. “It’s beautifully bias-cut, well-tailored and interesting, pushing fashion a little bit without being too edgy,” he comments, before tackling The Dress.

“The first thing I saw was Grace Kelly. It came across so strongly as that. The first thing I saw was the lace neckline and couldn’t help it. It’s a very elegant, subtle dress and it’s really her dress — it’s not so much an Alexander McQueen dress or a Sarah Burton dress ,” he continues. “It’s really much more about how she wanted. Someone like McQueen would have done something very period costume, very tailored, very intricate construction and would have had their signature more obvious. The only thing that hinted McQueen to me was the bustle wedding dresses sales wedding dresses sales, but that was kindof it,” Mivasagar says.

“It’s not that anyone really designed it. Anyone could have made it and as far as McQueen goes it’s really not him — I even read somewhere that the reason she picked McQueen is that she loved what Plum Sykes wore [to her own wedding]. With that one you could tell it was Lee. This really to me hasn’t got the signature of the designer, at all. It’s really just about her, about how she wanted to look.”

The traditional, demure look isn’t very authentic McQueen, he insists. “It could’ve been DeLisi, Oldfield, it could’ve been anyone – it could’ve been Pronovias! If Lee was actually alive now and showed him a photo of that dress and told him it was from his house,” he adds, “he would not believe it.” He was a “terrible royalist” Mivasagar says, “and I just don’t think he would have designed that dress. It would have been a collaboration but he would really, really have pushed his own point of view.”

“If I saw it flipping through a Martha Stewart or Grace Ormonde bridal magazine, I’d go right past it, if it weren’t for the fact that Kate Middleton is wearing it. It’s not like we haven’t seen it all before. It’s old-new. Everyone’s being very political in their commentary but I’d like to expect a little more than just nice from a princess.  vintage lace prom dresses ;It’s very Fifties Dior and very elegant,” he concludes, “and I think it’s a little boring. But it’s really her style and sometimes good taste is just boring. As much as I disliked Diana’s dress I liked the fact that it made a stronger statement than this. There was so much more to remember about that dress, which in a sense is a good thing.”

As to the design details? “I was expecting a longer fitted bodice because she’s got an amazing figure, a longer dramatic train and I wasn’t expecting the veil to be so short – I really thought she’ designer wedding dresses for sale designer wedding dresses for saled do some sort of really dramatic back. That tells me how strong her personality must be,” he says; “she really did dress just how she wants to look. I don’t think she really bends that much to what people tell her to do. I found the bra cups, they were a big C-cup shape and quite pointy and that sort of surprised me because she’s really not that busty and it looked disproportionate.”

Was Middleton on-trend? “A lot of brides are asking for lace now,” Mivasagar says. “Chantilly lace, Alençon lace — but I’m not that big on lace. It’s a beautiful thing but I don’t think you need to design much around it, because the lace just speaks for itself. Which is why I like to design into the fabric.” Mivasagar liked that the dress had very little crinoline, though. “I like that type of big dress. In my own collection it’ size 16 cocktail dresses s not a full poufy crinoline type dress, it’s more of a naturally draped big dress.”

And what will the inevitable copies look like?  “This is very easy to copy,” says Mivasagar. “The lace was gorgeous but they’ll do it with really cheap Chinese lace and polyester duchesse. It will look awful, but they will do it.”

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Reuters / Pool

David Beckham and his wife Victoria arrive at Westminster Abbey

Nicholas Mellamphy, creative director of The Room , says his favourite guest outfit was Victoria Beckham’s: a fluid draped midnight navy dress of her own design worn with black platforms and a pillbox fascinator. “It was fashion, showed who she was but also appropriate for a woman who is pregnant. And I love that she had Louboutin make crazy shoes for her!”

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Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

Princess Eugenie of York (L) and Princess Beatrice of York arrive to attend the Royal Wedding

Which guest fascinators were fascinating? Noted Canadian milliner Karyn Gingras, of Lilliput Hats, weighs in:

The good was great. “It was amazing!” Gingras enthuses (she got up at 3 a.m. to start watching. Her absolute favourite guest headwear was the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg’s wife Miriam Gonzalez. “It was a turban with this giant pinky-red floral on it. It was fantastic. She looked absolutely great. And I loved [Princesses] Eugenie and Beatrice as well.”

But the bad was boring. “There’s kind of, sort of a typical British hat that I saw a lot of,” Gingras says. “They looked very stiff and have an exaggerated flared crown the rim that goes up on one side and down on the other. They were just okay — mass-produced, they didn’t look couture at all. I thought I would see a lot more artisanal-looking pieces. Other than the really remarkable fascinators, the more classic hats were kind of dull.”

Including HM The Queen, Gingras admits. “It was great that she wore yellow because it is such a difficult colour to pull off head to toe. But I didn’t think her hat was that great — short gold cocktail dresses short gold cocktail dresses everything just looked rigid and not very comfortable. With the exception of Camilla,” she adds, “who I thought looked amazing. I liked that you could see through the front of her hat, that it looked like a big fruit bowl turned upside down.”

Gingras also liked Victoria Beckham’s navy Philip Treacy pillbox hat-cum-fascinator, but thinks she was missing one key accessory. “I couldn’t get past the fact that she couldn’t crack a smile!” Gingras laughs. “She looks as good as I’ve seen her in a long time, maybe because she’ online bridal store online bridal stores pregnant and she’s filled out a little. But I just thought smile, it’s a wedding, it’s a party!”

The fascinator trend isn’t going anywhere , Gingras adds. “It’s a trend and maybe people will identify it as being connected with the wedding but in terms of it being a wearable piece, I think it’s something that people can actually make at home in a fairly low-key way. It’s not like people can sit down and make their own hat but they can think about what elements can go into their fascinators and get their head around that.”

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Chris Jackson / Getty Images

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall speak following the marriage of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011