While I love a celebrity wedding as much as the next person I have to admit that many of them are pretty ho hum affairs. They follow a pretty set formula, for example:

Celebrity A and B got married in stunningly expensive location C surrounded by x hundreds of their closest friends and family, the dress was by designer D and the lovely couple honeymooned at E. They are beautiful affairs with big dresses, smart tuxes, expensive cakes and huge venues but their rarely anything unique. Basically they are exactly what we would expect the sickeningly wealthy to do. But every so often a wedding comes along that bucks the trend, and one reasonably recent wedding that did this was that of Kate Moss and  Jamie Hince. Kate Moss may well be fashion royalty but her wedding was refreshingly free of fashion pretence and felt like it would have been a genuinely fun event to be a part of.

Kate’s gown was what every bride who ever wanted a vintage gown could dream of; ethereal and ornate but still edgy enough for the modern day (it was sheer after all), designed by none other than John Galliano. Her veil looked like it had been stolen from the 1920’s without looking dated or old. The bridal party were not forgotten with lovely children’s outfits in cream and white (military page boy coats!). Married in  a beautiful stone church and a reception in a country field setting (but with marques) the word ‘perfect’ comes to mind with this wedding more than once.

While unconventional the use of white and cream for all the outfits for the girls with floral crowns to top them off,  really amplified the summery vibe for this July 1st 2011 wedding. But there were other surprises as well, from Teepee’s for the kids to Kate’s stunning glitzy red coat/cape which just dripped glamour and rockstar sex appeal (note: the couple had a pre wedding shoot in which they wore different clothes but it still counts as far as I am concerned, if i could afford more than one set of wedding clothes I would have been up for it as well!).

Their wedding photos were also unique which is to be expected from Mario Testino, fashion photog extraordinary. Whoever came up with bringing in red into the pre wedding shoot pics was a genius, it really brought out the green of the scenery and is something more brides should be open to – white is beautiful but adding some bright spots of colour can only serve to enhance its brilliance.

I also adored the group photos of the bridal party (which do look like a Vogue setup when I think about it)  and have been guilty of trying similar setups when time, location and props allowed. Their casual and fun and its clear that no one was too obsessed with making all the kids look 100% perfect (although they do come close!). I loved the mostly natural processing that also allowed for rich dramatic colours which again suits Kate fashion background. Truly an inspiration for our profession.

I am sure many brides have taken inspiration from this wedding!

Till next time!

All images by Mario Testino for Vogue