This Bride Wore a Gold Edwardian Dress for Her Westminster Abbey Wedding—Then Dyed Her Hair Red for the After-Party

She started her pre-wedding beauty routine a year ago, seeing facialist Teresa Tarmey regularly for microneedling and three rounds of high-intensity focused ultrasound, as well as having polynucleotides injected by Karen Doherty at her new clinic in Shoreditch. For her make-up look, Alex turned to her close friend Isamaya Ffrench, who even covered up her full tattoo sleeve for the church before removing it later on for her final look. “My make-up looked simple but she layered me with Skinlacq—by her brand Isamaya—under my base to give my skin an iridescent dewy texture and add to ethereal quality,” says Alex. “I wanted my beauty to mirror the chapel.” Lauren Michelle Pires did her nails, including tiny pearls in an “F” shape for Fred on her ring finger.

Alex’s business partner at Bleach, Alisha Dobson, was the only person she trusted with her hair, as she had an ambitious plan for three hair looks, including a colour change. “She works in TV and with a lot of pop stars, so she handled it perfectly while also keeping things fun and calming my nerves,” says Alex. “My first look was a braided texture with a subtle finger wave in the face frame. Secondly, I wanted a Tudor hairstyle—Anne of Cleves-esque—so I opted for tight braided loops around my ears, which really helped show off the dress’s neckline and my diamonds. For the final hair look, I wanted something high impact to complement the custom latex Poster Girl dress. I love having red hair and I’ve had it for some of the best times in my life, so I decided to do a colour change… We used Bleach London ‘I Saw Red’ of course, and managed to colour and dry my hair (and add a red lip) in 20 minutes! I think I might be the first bride who’s ever done a colour change mid-wedding!”

Fred chose a bespoke suit by his late grandfather’s tailor, Tom Brown of Eton, which he wore with a Budd shirt, Celine shoes and a Macpherson tartan tie from Lochcarron of Scotland, which his ushers wore too. He also changed his look for the party, switching to a 1995 Comme des Garçons suit from Aro Archive. The bridesmaids were given free rein to choose their own dresses, with the proviso that they needed to be in a shade of red to match the wedding flowers and reception decor. “Harriet Verney and Georgia Jagger were my maids of honour,” she shares. “Harriet wore vintage Westwood with bright pink shoes, and Georgia wore Rodarte.” The other bridesmaids wore a mix of vintage Gucci, 16Arlington, and high-street brands.

Alex found the dresses for her daughters, three-year-old Bobby and one-year-old Gloria, at a beautiful formalwear store in Rome called Piccadilly. “I saw them through the window when I was walking back to my hotel from a recent Valentino shoot and I knew they were perfect,” she says. “We had to get Bobby’s remade as the size was a bit small and it wasn’t finished until three days before the ceremony. Knowing if the dress would be ready was one of the most stressful parts of the build-up.”

The ceremony was hosted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, who managed to balance the weight of the meaning of the service with a lighthearted spirit and tone. “The whole thing felt like a dream, only interrupted by the occasional shouts of our children,” says Alex. “Fred’s brother read an extract of TS Eliot’s ‘Little Gidding’ and my sister read Song of Solomon 8:6-8. We walked out to Widor’s toccata from his ‘Symphony No 5 in F minor,’ played on the abbey’s main organ which made for a suitably cathartic finale.”

The momentousness of the occasion had struck Alex two days prior during the rehearsal. “After six years of discussion, it was the moment we realised it was finally happening and also the moment I started to get very nervous, worrying about what might go wrong on the day,” she says. “But when we returned on Saturday, we felt completely different, with all our friends and family there, the amazing music dancing through the chapel and the unexpected sunlight shining through the stained glass and fan-vaulted ceiling. Making vows in front of your nearest and dearest is intense enough, let alone surrounded by the tombs of 15 kings and queens.”

While two red London buses drove guests to the Columbia Hotel and the reception, the couple stopped for a packet of crisps and Champagne at a pub en route. “In true London style, people didn’t even look up at a newlywed bride and groom walking in, so it was a nice moment of calm before the storm,” she explains. The reception itself featured dinner and family speeches between various forms of entertainment, including Fred’s brother playing “Send in the Clowns” on concertina, sound sculptor Henry Dagg playing the musical saw, and a six-layered “impossible cake” by artist Sienna Murdoch. “It combined her trademark substance Geline with a number of mini edible jellies cast in strange shapes and handed round on silver platters,” explains Alex.

One of the highlights of the evening was a one-night-only performance from newly formed wedding band, the Prenups. “This started with me, against my better judgement, playing the flute on the intro of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ sung by Beth Ditto, which became our unplanned first dance. She was followed by performances from Jessica Winter, Justin Young, Jack Kaye, Alan Power, Anna Acquroff, Gabriel Bruce, Holiday Sidewinder, Alex Cameron, Kirin J Callinan, Tim Burgess, Kev Kharas and Dev Hynes, singing everything from Black Sabbath to Natalie Imbruglia and the Pet Shop Boys. It was incredible.”

The night ended with DJ sets from Hanna Hanra, Jed Cullen ,and Olly and Matty from White Heat, “a club night we both frequented in our teens and twenties, DJing together for the first time in over 15 years.” Meanwhile, downstairs in the women’s toilets there was a secret dice game hosted by scriptwriter and croupier Joe Bish, soundtracked by an accordion player sourced by Abi at Bond Street station. “Earlier in the night we’d put a one pound coin on every table setting but not told people what it was for—this was their chance to lose it or leave the table with a whole lot more,” says Alex.

Looking back now, Alex is both happy for the hard work that she and Fred put into planning the wedding, but simultaneously glad that it’s the last time they need to do it. “It was honestly the best day and night of our lives but I’m now exhausted and could never do it again,” laughs Alex. “We put so much work and planning into every detail that even another week of prep would’ve probably pushed it over the edge. But it was all worth it in the end, and we feel incredibly thankful for all our friends and family for making it as special as it was.”