A Floral Valentini Spose Gown for a Beautiful Botanical Glasshouse Wedding at Kew Gardens

Bride Hattie's dress is one of our favourites ever - and completes this elegant and effortlessly glamorous summer wedding

We have included third party products to help you navigate and enjoy life’s biggest moments. Purchases made through links on this page may earn us a commission.

Helen Pye

18 March, 2020

You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect August day for Hattie and Brendan to throw their gorgeous wedding at Kew Gardens in South-West London.

They complemented the natural beauty of Kew’s glasshouses and Orangery with stunning white and green floral installations and the beautiful sound of a gospel choir. Each of their 150 guests was given a handwritten note from the couple on their place setting, and their ceremony sung of their love story and personalities through readings, songs and poems by close friends and family.

Hattie and Brendan met at drama school: Hattie starting the second year of her degree and Brendan on a one-year postgrad course. By the end of their first week of term, they had tipsily kissed on a Saturday night at friend’s birthday party at The Grand Café in Oxford and Brendan announced to one of his classmates that he was already in love with Hattie. A little less than six years later, they tied the knot.

Brendan’s “lovely and intimate” proposal was at home with a family heirloom ring over a home-cooked meal, although the weeks leading up to it didn’t go to a plan. “I met with Hattie’s Dad to get his blessing and he was delighted with the news. However this then led to a farcical series of events in which I though Hattie had been CC’d into an email about the surprise proposal (she, in fact, had not). I ultimately spent the best part of three weeks acting very weirdly around her trying to suss out why she hadn’t mentioned it,” he said.

Thankfully all went to plan on their wedding day: a gloriously fun and music-filled day with one of the most beautiful dresses we’ve seen!

Photographer: Mark Bothwell

Hattie and Brendan - Kew Gardens Real Wedding

The Wedding Dress

Hattie wore the plunging, floral silk print ‘Erica’ dress by Valentini Spose, bought from The Wedding Gallery in Marylebone. Having been advised it ‘scared’ other brides, Hattie knew it was perfect for her ‘extroverted’ sartorial style.

“It was quite unusual. The adviser at the Wedding Gallery said, when she was suggesting it, ‘I have one that scares the brides-to-be a bit,’ and I said, ‘Yes, please!’ I am very into fashion and I think my friends would describe my personal style as ‘extroverted’ so I actually felt a bit of pressure to pick a dress that stood out from the rest. I had tried on about 10-12 dresses in total across two appointments, and I had found two other dresses (a very simple, classic, full-skirted Peter Langner and a romantic, youthful floral Galia Lahav) between which I thought I would choose. But this one turned up which seemed to be a perfect mix of the two.

“Cliched as it sounds, I knew when I saw it on the hanger that it would probably be ‘The One’. I altered some aspects of it to keep it true to my style. For example, I didn’t wear the hooped petticoat it came with. It was still a full skirt but less ‘hardcore princess’ and there was a flower corsage at the bottom of the plunging neckline which I had removed.

“I accessorised with a simple ribbon-edged veil, a hair vine from Dolecka, Castañer wedges (very comfortable) and some very fabulously blingy Art Deco diamond earrings from my Aunt.

“I tried to keep it as chill as possible when getting ready as I knew I’d be nervous. It worked and we had a really relaxed time, with a fair amount of Champagne! Brendan and I wrote letters to each other that morning which our friends couriered to our rooms – that was a very special moment.”

Bridal Beauty

Hattie had two hair and makeup trials – one with someone she didn’t go for, and another with stylist Cassandra Rizzuto and makeup artist Mariam Jensen.

“Cass and Mariam were so fab and chilled! I went for a similar style to my normal look, although I did grow my hair to allow an updo. I kept my short fringe though. Makeup-wise, it was more than I would usually wear of course, but went for a shimmery, metallic smokiness on the eye and a more neutral lip.

“The only part of the day I would change was when I got poked in the eye by a rogue fascinator which very briefly looked like a trip to A&E, but was magically fixed by my wonderful makeup lady! It’s not even bloodshot in the photos extraordinarily! Good old adrenaline.”

The Wedding Party

“I didn’t have any bridesmaids but two close friends were with me getting ready. Tanya, an old school friend, and Claire, a friend of Brendan’s who became a close friend (and works in the wedding industry so was a fount of all knowledge). They wore their own outfits and looked utterly sensational.

“Brendan wore a custom-made tuxedo from Casely-Hayford London in dark blue velvet, which we went together to choose. He had really cool shoes too – monk strap brogues from George Cleverley. His brother and Dad wore tuxedos from Marks and Spencer.

“I took a white taxi with my Dad to the venue, which we hired from Lux Wedding Car Hire. There was a minibus to get the immediate family and friends from the hotel to the venue and two coaches departing at 10.30pm in the evening from Kew Gardens and back to Victoria for those guests travelling back into central London, hired from iChauffeur.”

The Wedding Ceremony

Hattie and Brendan had a civil service at the Nash Conservatory in Kew Gardens, followed by welcome drinks in the Princess of Wales Conservatory and a reception in the stunning Orangery. Hattie walked down the aisle with both her parents to a gospel choir singing Close To You by The Carpenters, before a wonderfully personal service.

“We wanted to keep it short and sweet. We are wedding guest veterans at this stage and know the guests don’t want to sit in a hot room for hours! We did the legal basics from the civil ceremony structure and added some person touches too.

“We had The Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir (who Hattie has worked with before, and knows well) for live music before and during the ceremony; Brendan’s brother Connor singing Everyone Loves Somebody; Alan Flanagan, one of our best friends, who wrote a poem about our relationship and read it during the ceremony; and Tanya (Hattie’s best friend) reading Sonnet 116.

“The Order of Service was a newspaper we had created. It included ‘The Story So Far’ with a timeline of our relationship; ‘Meet the Parents’ with photos of our parents’ weddings; a comic strip of the proposal story; and a double page spread of quizzes and games we made (personalised pencil included) to ward off boredom before the bride arrived! And we wrote our own vows.

“The whole day was amazing, but our favourite moment was the 15 minutes, just the two of us, before we ‘went backstage’ to be announced for dinner. Just being together, soaking it all in.”

The Wedding Venue

Kew Gardens in South-West London provided a stunning backdrop to Hattie and Brendan’s wedding day. From the bright and airy Nash Conservatory and the unique Princess of Wales Conservatory – which allows you to travel the world through its different climate zones – to a reception in the Georgian splendour of the Orangery, it’s a venue unlike any other.

“I had created a Pinterest board (as any law-abiding newly-engaged gal does) and started looking for indoor/outdoor venues with a ‘botanical’ feel. There were a few recurring pictures of the same beautiful-looking venue which turned out to be images from Kew Gardens.

“After a bit of further research, I found out they did offer the Gardens (and the buildings within) for wedding events, and had a couple of spare Saturday dates going the following August (2019).

“We loved the idea of a place that was already beautiful to minimise time, energy and costs around adornments. I grew up in a house with a big garden and a parish church across the road which I’d always half-thought would be the place I got married, but my parents moved away from that family home in 2013. As getting married in a garden went, Kew seemed a pretty good second choice!

“We only looked at one other venue (which wasn’t a patch on Kew). From the warm welcome we received as one of the very helpful Kew Events team took us on our first look-round, to all the subsequent dealings with them, they were helpful, warm, friendly and efficient, so I knew it would be easy liaising with them in the run-up to the big day.

“Even though neither of us are from London originally, we now consider it home, which is why we decided on a venue in the city.”

The Reception Décor and Entertainment

Hattie and Brendan chose an elegant white, green and gold/silver colour scheme, with tumbling foliage and white roses. They added a handwritten note to each place setting, and chose a Dad joke-based table plan to really make the day their own. Music was essential for the happy couple, and they chose a gospel choir and a live band to accompany the flow of the day, from ceremony to evening dancing.

“The place setting was a wooden laser cut-out of each guest’s names and we wrote each guest a note (a small card with one side from each of us). It was time-consuming but I’m so pleased we did this. It was like spending time with each guest before the day itself.

“We had a convoluted idea to name each table a Dad joke and the punch line would be how you found your table. (We also provided a number system and illustrations drawn by Brendan to facilitate!). We also had a sweet buffet and a guest book with Instax photos for people to sign.

“We had lots of live music. A gospel choir for the ceremony, and a swing band – acoustic for the drinks reception and then loud and proud for dancing after dinner! We thought it would be great for all the generations and be sure to get people moving. We were not wrong!

“Our first dance was to Moon River. Brendan also sang a song he’d written for me just after we first said I love you, which he performed a capella during his speech. There was not a dry eye.”

The Cake, Flowers and Stationery

The elegant and sophisticated theme continued through to the stationery and flowers, with eye-catching, blossom-covered trees adorning the ceremony glasshouse and then each of their tables.

“My bouquet was huge! I asked the florist to surprise me and although it ended up bigger than I expected, it had lovely flowing elements to it. It was full of foliage and white roses.

“Larry Walshe, who did our wedding flowers, also used loads in the venue décor. We had trees in our ceremony space that were then used as table centrepieces.

“Our stationery followed the same theme. It was elegant and minimal. We used dark green ink on ivory for our save the dates and gold foil on ivory for the invitations themselves. They were from Quill London, based locally in North London.

“For the wedding breakfast, we chose tomato ceviche (vegan for everyone!), fillet of beef and pistachio semi-freddo. Then instead of a traditional wedding cake, we served a cheese tower from Pistachio and Pickle, a cheesemonger, again in North London where we live.”

The Couple’s Advice

After such a wonderful day (which “miraculously” came in under budget!), they relaxed with a minimoon for a week at Il Salviatino on the outskirts of Florence. “We chose it together off Mr and Mrs Smith. Nothing more scientific than ‘this looks nice’,” says Hattie. “It was lovely and we would highly recommend it, although there were quite a lot of children there so if you’re looking for an adults-only place, this might not suit. It was very bouji though.”

The couple had time to reflect on their wedding planning process – the good and the bad. Hattie advises:

Get organised ASAP (i.e. book the venue and suppliers quickly) then everything is fun after that, rather than a scramble
Think of the guest list/numbers before thinking about venues
Get the suit/dress sooner rather than later to avoid a rush
Pick a few priorities for budget
Find ways of personalising the day
Have fun! Don’t do anything you don’t want to!
Try to find a few designated moment in the day to spend time with each other. We had a couple of moments planned for the two of us to go off together and they were some of our absolute favourite moments
Don’t agonise over different vendors: they all offer the same thing, more or less! Usually venues offer an approved supplier list which means they’ll all be good. We picked off Kew’s
Don’t feel obliged to have millions of bridesmaids
Don’t have crowds of people coming for your dress shopping and fittings. Everyone will have a different onion. On that, don’t try on a dress or suit that’s out of your price range! Heartbreaking stuff
Personally, it was a great decision not to have children on the day