Wedding chic

My adored best friend Miss P was married to the love of her life, Mr M, last Saturday in London. We thought long & hard about what she should wear (being seven months pregnant made it a more, well, specialised decision). Maternity wedding dresses have a curious ability to look like a bizarre combo of shroud and djellabah. And who wants a bump covered in sequins? Miss P has a tiny back and good legs, so we looked at non-maternity, empire style dresses from Whistles and various other boutiques.

In the end tho, she wore, & looked utterly ravishing in, a pale blue, knee-length silk dress she ordered, & I brought over from New York - from, drum roll..... Gap Maternity. She accessorized with very high L K Bennett gold heels, a large bead vintage pearl necklace from my collection and, underneath it all, Agent Provocateur silk maternity undies. Her bouquet was pinky blue scabious, hydrangeas, & roses. I arranged for the groom to have a fabulous navy bespoke suit made on Savile Row by the reinvigorated Norton & Sons.
The infants, step-daughter & niece, both aged four, wore pale blue, rose sprigged cotton dresses & bright pink cardies from Boden, with ballet slippers. Adorable. And me? My mother told me roundly my choices were too short, so I wore a very simple puff sleeve, navy blue silk, knee-length tunic from faithful old Topshop with beige quilted satin open toe Chanel heels, bright pink lipstick and large pearl drop earrings.

The marriage was a glorious ceremony in the Victorian council chamber at Islington Town Hall (they walked, on air, back down the aisle to Love Is In The Air and the infant bridemaids & I danced in our pews), a journey on a chartered red double decker bus, photographs by the Thames, and lunch (rivers of Billecart Champagne, wondrous wines, amazing canapés, organic chicken pie, wilted greens & new potatoes, cheese, scrumptious brownie wedding cake with crystallised violets & rose petals) at The Blueprint Café on the South Bank all added up to the most perfect wedding day.

I was the non-bridesmaid. I particularly recommend this role: I got to spend two days beforehand having beauty treatments with Miss P, avoided a hen night, dressed & made-up the bride for the wedding,(bliss to get to use my prop kit on a friend rather than a model!) had confetti duties, got to sit opposite the charming father of the bride at lunch and, best of all, no need to wear a bridesmaid's dress.

Pictures © Tim Hayward