This Bride Wore a Gold Edwardian Dress for Her Westminster Abbey Wedding—Then Dyed Her Hair Red for the After-Party
Bleach London co-founder and creative director Alex Brownsell met her future husband, songwriter and music producer Fred Appleby Macpherson, over a decade ago, at a friend’s 21st birthday party. “We didn’t have to arrange many dates because it was an era where most of our friends would be in the same three bars every night,” she remembers. “One of the first times we got together we went to McDonald’s and Fred didn’t offer to pay for my Happy Meal, which he reminded me of in his speech.” The couple got engaged in Bulgaria on New Year’s Eve in 2019. “We were on a ski lift and he opened the box upside down about 25 metres above the snow-covered ground,” Alex laughs. “Thankfully it didn’t fall…”
After the pandemic derailed their wedding plans in 2020, it took them another five years to actually walk down the aisle, with the couple having two children in the interim. They settled on September 6, 2025 as their wedding date, and asked Abi Ford for her help with creative, set and floral design (with the couple’s gardener, Jake Tulley, also pitching in on the latter), and Good Times Collective to run the creative production side of things. The ceremony was scheduled to take place at the Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey, but finding a suitable reception venue proved trickier. “Once we discovered the Columbia Hotel, everything else started falling into place,” says Alex. “It’s an amazing building with a slightly The Shining-esque feel that’s been in the same family for generations. Unlike so many hotels in London, it hasn’t been done up to within an inch of its life, and its historical decor is what makes it so unique. Sophie Fresco and her team there were the best hosts we could’ve asked for and really made the wedding perfect.”
Finding a dress that complemented the history of the Abbey and its colour palette was front of mind when Alex was looking for her wedding dress. “I was taken aback when I saw this gold Edwardian lace gown at Jane Bourvis with green detailing on the front,” she shares. “It was the first wedding dress I tried on, and I loved it straight away.” With the first look decided on, she knew she could have a bit more fun experimenting with her party looks. “My second dress was an ’80s ivory silk gown I found via a Canadian seller on Etsy and re-worked a bit, and my third was a custom latex Poster Girl dress, made by my friends Francesca Cappa and Natasha Somerville,” she says. Each dress had different shoes: Manolo Blahnik for her first look, 2010 Marc Jacobs for her second, and vintage transparent Margiela heels from Aro Archive for her third.
Her jewelry was a mix of gifts and borrowed items from friends. “My brilliant friend Dominic Jones gave me a gorgeous wedding ring from his brand 886 by The Royal Mint,” she says. “He also loaned me a stunning diamond necklace, earrings and bracelet from his new bridal collection – teardrop shapes symbolising the tears of joy that weddings elicit. My friend and maid of honour, Georgia May Jagger, loaned me a ruby necklace and crucifix earrings for the ceremony as my ‘something borrowed’.”
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.”