Best Bash
My own! We married at Westminster Register Office with my husband’s two daughters present, together with my father and grand-father. We took photos in Trafalgar Square, hired a pod on the London Eye and had dinner at The Ritz. A week later, we had a church blessing and 200 guests were served sausage and mash in a marquee in our garden and danced until the early hours to a fourteen-piece big band. And I got to wear my wedding dress twice!
Best Venue
One of the things I love about what I do and the budgets we get to work with is that pretty much anything, anywhere is possible. We planned a wedding at a French château that wasn’t available for hire, but the bride-to-be just loved the fairy-tale look of it. So I knocked at the door, told them our ideas and we negotiated a deal there and then.
Best Advice
Plan only for the type of wedding you can afford. Accept what you’ve got to spend and always shop with this in mind. Create your perfect wedding, not a Premier League footballer’s.
Best Dress
British is best. Without a shadow of a doubt, the best bridal couturiers in the world are in London. If your budget will not stretch to their service, consider a good made-to-measure gown rather than a big-ticket label. Go for quality of construction and fabrics and look at names like Sassi Holford or Suzanne Neville, as well as made-to-measure from independent bridal boutiques. And for the groom, of course, we have Savile Row.
Best Bites
Last year we did a fabulous wedding (pictured below left) in Italy with Florentine caterers Galateo – think Vanity Fair’s post-Oscar party and Sting’s summer do in Tuscany. They brought a whole new meaning to the concept of canapés (we served foie gras lollipops), but we still brought in a London cake from my fabulous friend Peggy Porschen.
Best Band
Big bands do it for me.There is nothing like the sound of a big band to really get people up and on to the dance floor, uniting. the generations.
Picture by Edouardo Agresti