Bel Powley Wore an Embellished Miu Miu Dress at Her Wedding to Douglas Booth in London
Actors Bel Powley and Douglas Booth first met, perhaps unsurprisingly, on a film set. The two were working on Mary Shelley in 2016. Douglas was playing Percy Shelley to Elle Fanning’s Mary Shelley, and Bel was playing her sister Claire Claremont. “We started out as inseparable friends,” Bel says. “And soon we realized that every moment together was better than one without.”
Douglas proposed in July of 2021 on Primrose Hill in London, which is also where he first told Bel he loved her back in 2016. “I was so surprised,” she says. “He set up a picnic with all my favorite foods from Panzer’s Deli—bagels, smoked salmon, chopped herring, egg mayonnaise, and caviar. We drank Champagne and Bloody Marys, then he took my family and best friend to dinner at the Ivy. I couldn’t stop crying!” The same night, the England soccer team was playing in the Euro semifinals, so they decided to book a room at the Soho members’ club Kettner’s, where they set up a screen to watch the match with friends. “We screamed at the match then had a dance party with our friends until the early hours!” Bel remembers. “He nailed my engagement ring—after I’d sent him hundreds of hints to the style I wanted. It was designed by Rachel Balfour, who also designed our wedding rings. They are engraved with the date of our marriage, and each holds the other’s birthstone.”
Even though Bel and Douglas decided to have their wedding in their hometown of London, they still wanted it to feel like a journey, with different events and locations to make this special time feel as long and memorable as possible.
On the Thursday before the wedding, they had an intimate rehearsal dinner at Café Cecilia in Hackney with their immediate families, bridesmaids, and groomsmen. “We drank palomas, negronis, and Champagne and ate steak and chips and all got giddy and excited for the big day,” Bel remembers.
After taking Friday to recover, they got married on Saturday, October 28, at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, London, a Michelin Green Star restaurant known for its fresh, seasonal fare. “Petersham is a beautiful venue, and we fell in love with the chic but incredibly relaxed vibe there,” Bel says. “As it’s a nursery, it is filled with beautiful natural greenery, plants, and flowers. We loved the idea of the wedding feeling glamorous and chic but grounded by the fact that everyone’s heels were in the mud!”
The bride’s dream of all dreams was always to wear a Miu Miu wedding dress. “I have worked closely with Miu Miu for nearly 10 years and have become very close to the brand,” Bel says. “I always feel totally myself in their beautiful designs. When they agreed to make my wedding dress and party dress, I cried because it felt so special!”
Bel’s stylist and close friend Cher Coulter guided her through the whole process. “We always knew we wanted it to feel vintage but fresh and simple but unique,” Bel says. “We made a mood board whilst on the Eurostar to Paris for Fashion Week and, a couple of weeks later, got 15 stunning designs back from the team at Miu Miu.”
She chose a simple shape: thin straps and square neck, tight bodice, and bell-shaped skirt stopping at the ankles, completely embellished in crystals and organza flowers. “I’d just never seen a wedding dress like it, and it felt utterly me,” she says. “My mum, Cher, and I flew over to Milan for my fitting and had one of the most joyous trips of our lives that I will never forget.” For jewelry, Cher chose long pearl earrings by Sophie Bille Brahe, and she wore a garter that her mother had her wedding earrings and a blue ribbon sewn into.
Hair and makeup were done by Celia Burton and Marcus Francis, who are both close friends of the bride. “I always knew I’d want my hair scraped back and out of my face, and Marcus did a ‘party in the back’ with some really cool hair twists that had the same flowers from my dress in them,” Bel says. For makeup, Charlotte Tilbury provided all the products for Bel and her bridesmaids. “Celia and I went for a clean and modern look, with a slightly pink, iridescent wash on the eyes,” Bel adds.
Bel’s favorite color combination is pink and red, which ended up influencing some of the details of her big day. “My bridesmaids were all tasked with finding different pink dresses that they each felt comfortable in but complemented each other,” the bride explains. “It was a really fun and sweet process, and we ended up with some incredible looks, from Ulla Johnson to Rejina Pyo to Bode. One of my oldest friends, Billie Cronin, owns Good Squish—the incredible cult scrunchies—and the team designed special red hair clips for my bridesmaids that were so stunning!”
