As images emerge from Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker’s Portofino wedding this weekend, it feels rather timely to be celebrating the concept of the mini bridal gown.
Interior Architect Luiza and Tech Executive Michael tied the knot on 4th September last year in London and like Kourtney, Luiza opted for a non-trad wedding dress of thigh length proportions from Retrofête – and looked absolutely incredible in it.
We’re delighted that three of our highly recommended wedding suppliers were involved in this beautiful wedding; Taylor-Hughes captured these beautiful images, London florists Sage Flowers provided the gorgeous florals and The Real Flower Petal Confetti Co made those dreamy confetti shots possible. Enjoy!
The Look
My dress was from Retrofête. As a fan of online shopping over stores, I purchased my civil wedding mini dress from Net-a-Porter. It worked perfectly for me as I did a lot of research beforehand into the brand’s style, fitting, etc. so I would definitely recommend anyone who considers purchasing online to do the same.
I really wanted the ‘effortless’ look to come through what we would both wear on the day. I loved the overall simplicity and comfort of everything I wore, including jewellery.
I chose to do my make-up myself and just got a simple blow dry the morning of the wedding. My scent was ‘Byredo Mojave Ghost‘ – it’s so light, graceful but quite a striking smell – also an anniversary gift from my husband.
I wore a platinum Cartier Love necklace, gifted by my mother in law for the wedding . I could not have picked anything more beautiful and timeless myself!
I didn’t wear a veil and had my hair down, in a simple blow dry. I wore a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s Hangisli Cream Satin Slingback pumps. I purchased these from their Burlington Gardens store long before I knew what dress I wanted to wear for the day!
We had two readings, the first one was an excerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. We each chose one, so I chose this and asked my younger sister to read it during the civil ceremony.
The second reading was an extract from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and was chosen by Michael and read by his brother. We could not have explained better what our love for each other means for us than with these readings.
The Rings
We designed our rings with Céline at Diamond House Jewellery. It is the same place Michael designed and bought my engagement ring from.
Engagement
We met abroad, in Marbella, while both of us were on holiday there with friends. We both fully believe the stars aligned for us that day as he had just come back from a trip in the exact town I am from in Romania and Michael was living in NYC at the time and was considering moving to London for work. He moved two months later and that is when we started dating. We then got engaged in 2020, between lockdowns.
We spent a month in the South of France with Michael’s family and we had then planned to go to Tuscany for a week to finish off our long holiday abroad. Michael then proposed in Chianti after a day of wine tasting tours, at sunset on a hill overlooking the beautiful Siena. We then decided days later we would want to have our wedding the following year in September.
Photography
We loved Taylor-Hughes Photography’s Instagram and website for their photography style – pure candid and Vogue-ish style photos. Both Jade and Jack are amazing characters and we connected instantly. Our parents loved them as much as we did.
We would absolutely recommend them to any couples who want their happiest moments to be captured beautifully.
We used Sage Flowers for my wedding bouquet, and The Real Flower Petal Confetti Co for our confetti.
We went for Sage Flowers as their bouquet arrangements are very modern, structural and bright – exactly how I envisioned my bouquet.
The Vibe
Our main wedding inspiration was ‘la dolce vita’ – the movie, the style and the meaning of the phrase, so of course, the moment we decided to have our wedding the following year, I opened InDesign and prepared a 16 page moodboard presentation of our wedding.
Effortless chic, timelessness and the idea of simple luxury were our drivers for everything – look and feel, outfits, stationery, photography, locations and even the size of our wedding.
Favourite Moments
A favourite moment was arriving at the Town Hall and our families were waiting for us outside, full of happiness and emotions. We felt the purest joy!
We absolutely loved how the day turned out and would not change anything.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Have fun! Enjoy and soak in every moment, even when stressful, because when everything comes together on the day it is beautiful and SO worth it!
Love My Dress has such a great directory of suppliers and bridal/bridesmaids designers features as well as awesome and inspiring weddings. I read many of your articles for dress inspiration as well as overall look and feel when planning our wedding and I have now passed the torch and encourage my best friend who is getting married this year to do the same.
We set an estimated budget of £5,000 as a chunk from our bigger wedding budget and we spent around £7,000.
taylorhughesphotography.com
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
