Dennis and I met in the gym in 2018. He commented on my parking. Anyone who knows me knows that I love cars, so complimenting my parking was a good first step towards winning my heart! He proposed on July 5th last year, not long after restaurants reopened. He booked what I thought was a lunch to celebrate his birthday, but then surprised me by proposing.
Originally we planned to get married on May 2nd this year, but it quickly became obvious that wasn’t happening. We then moved it to the end of June, because at that point we thought all restrictions were ending on the 21st, but as we now know that wasn’t the case. It was stressful because the limits on numbers kept changing, so we had to keep sending out emails to our guests explaining, and to say that we were still holding out hope. In the end there were just 30 people there, including ourselves.
In terms of my dress, I did have an idea of what I wanted, but I just couldn’t find anything at first. We were doing it at the registry office in Chelsea, so I didn’t want anything too extra. I fell for a Prabal Gurung dress first, but it wasn’t going to be ready on time. Then I found an amazing Vivienne Westwood gown. She’s a great British designer and I love her stuff, so it was perfect. It was a bit sexy, and I loved the fact that it was short at the front and long at the back.
I had bought three pairs of Miu Miu shoes and another pair of Amina Muaddi heels, but on the day I realized they just didn’t work with the dress. Fortunately, I had also bought a sparkly pair from a really cheap place online. My agent was horrified! But I just knew they looked the best with the dress—and I’ll have lots more opportunities to wear my Miu Miu shoes in the future.
The day itself was incredibly emotional. I was marrying the man of my dreams, and my daughter [Ella Balinska], who is filming Resident Evil for Netflix, came back to the UK especially to give me away. She wore an Alexander McQueen suit to walk me down the aisle. We hadn’t seen each other for a year and a half. I know a lot of people have that story in COVID… but it really did feel like a long time! It was also emotional because the pandemic meant some people who I really wanted to be there, couldn’t be.
Ella also surprised me with an amazing gift on the day: the original Prabal Gurung dress I had wanted. So once we all got down to Beaverbrook for our reception lunch, I changed into it. The whole thing was really relaxed, we didn’t ask people to wear morning suits or anything like that. The sun was shining and it was just beautiful to be out in the countryside, enjoying gorgeous Japanese food all together.
Because of the restrictions, there was no dancing, but because the weather was so beautiful we were able to just be outside, drinking and chatting, and I think there was a game of football at one point. I didn’t actually make it to the evening festivities, I fell asleep… I think I ate too much!
My husband is from Liverpool, and I walked down the aisle to “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” I think the moment the song started playing and he turned around and looked at me is the one I’ll always remember. It was a perfect day.