The Bride Wore A ’90s Garter With A Vivienne Westwood Dress For Her Folk-Inspired Wedding

They settled on Kin House as their venue – nodding to Alice’s rural upbringing and Kraggy’s family ties to Wiltshire – and their shared love of the ’70s folk revival served as a jumping off point for some fun details, like personalised playing cards featuring their initials, and their favourite Fleetwood Mac lyric (the song would be used as their wedding entrance and exit music). “It became, in effect, a full branding project,” Alice explains. “Phrases carried through everything, from the crest to the song lyrics, later evolving into things like ‘one party closer to eternity’ – our party tagline.” The couple even invested in a die-cutter and embroidery machine to produce some elements themselves, including embroidered bags, handkerchiefs and other tokens for their guests.

When it came to the dress, working in fashion didn’t make it any less daunting, says Alice. “It wasn’t until I met Rosie Boydell-Wiles at Vivienne Westwood in London that it clicked,” she adds. “I’d seen the Tabitha dress in black on Lady Gaga at the Grammys and thought it was absurdly cool – the silk moire fabric was unlike anything else I’d seen. Hilariously, I’d only tried it on in black when I chose it. I didn’t actually see it in white until six weeks before the wedding, which shows my faith in Rosie!”

Alice added the Vivienne Westwood Joe Petticoat underneath the dress at the ceremony for extra volume, then later removed it for the dinner, before bustling the dress to turn it into a mini for the party (which the couple dubbed “scurrying hour”). “At the eleventh hour my best mate and bridesmaid Polly Walters helped me take it even shorter with some last-minute safety pinning,” says the bride. “I wore my mum’s garter from her wedding in 1994, and it was fun to have it on full display.” She kept her jewellery minimal and wore Jimmy Choo’s Amita heels, switching from a high to a low heel as the day wore on. The designer Kate Halfpenny stepped in to lend Alice a veil when she decided she wanted one at the last minute.

Beauty-wise, the bride opted to wear her hair down (“ I always wear my hair down – I’ve even been known to run with it down, much to Kraggy’s horror!”), and looked to A-list favourite Nina Park for make-up inspiration. “I knew it couldn’t be too bronzy or heavy as it doesn’t really suit me,” she says. “On the wedding day itself, it was about a monochrome look – pink eye, pink cheek, and just very dewy and fresh.”

The groom, meanwhile, sourced a double-breasted navy pinstripe suit with a subtle retro feel. “The detail was in the embroidery,” he shares. “‘Disco Forever’ under the collar, and our new surname, ‘Gividen Krag’, stitched in tonal threads, often hidden.” His shoes were Crockett & Jones loafers, and instead of a tie, he wore an engraved scarf buckle from Viee Studios with a soft blue ribbon. “We both had family rings, Alice had her father’s, while I wore my late grandfather’s wedding ring, which truly meant a lot,” he says.

With the weather looking pretty bleak 10 days out from the wedding, Alice did what a lot of brides are doing nowadays: she paid an Etsy witch for good weather. “Not only did we have good weather, it was a rare period of high pressure, which meant that clouds couldn’t even form!” she says. “For three days we had nothing but bright sunshine, the moon and the stars. Even my cynical father acknowledges that it was spooky how quickly the weather turned around.”

On the first night of a weekend of celebrations, guests were welcomed to Wiltshire by the Chippenham Town Morris Men, who sang and danced for them. “For some guests, especially our friends from the US, it was probably slightly baffling, but everyone grabbed a stave or held hands and spun in circles and joined in,” says Kraggy. “It did exactly what we wanted it to do and set the tone for the entire celebration.” Alice knew she wanted something folksy to wear for the welcome party, so she chose the Isabella tunic and skirt in French lace by Kamperett, which she found at the Fall Bride in Dalston. “I loved the romance of the high neck, the long sleeves and the sheer detailing,” she says. “I wore it with a Georg Jensen pendant from my christening and a Juliet cap veil I sourced from Etsy.”

The ceremony itself took place in the Garden Room at Kin House, with the couple’s friend Natalia marrying them. “There was a sort of dizziness to it all,” remembers Alice. “I was meant to glide down the aisle with an arm tastefully draped on my dad, but the reality was I was clutching onto him for dear life, gripping his hand. Opening those doors to everyone we know and love – it was the most dizzying, exciting, terrifying thing.”

After the ceremony, guests enjoyed Hugo Spritzes, Champagne and canapés on the south lawn, with a strolling band soundtracking proceedings. There they would run into one of the first of many surprises of the evening, Careena the “Wedding Witch”, who was on hand to do tarot readings. Everyone sat down to a dinner of gin-cured salmon and caviar or whipped ricotta and salt-baked beetroot, followed by cannon of lamb or cacio e pepe tortelloni. “One of my favourite touches over dinner was our shared puddings,” says Alice. “We weren’t fussed about a traditional cake, so we had cake stands with mille-feuille brought out to everyone, and we all cut them together.”

At the party, there was a temporary tattoo station, a photobooth, and trays of blue-tipped Vogue cigarettes and martinis. “Our amazing DJ, Diego, did an all night shift of back-to back mash-ups,” says Kraggy. “We had rave flyers scattered around in the bathrooms and the bar, referencing his set, and music ranged from Charli xcx to mashups of Sean Paul and Faithless to Kylie Minogue. Late-night food came out in personalised pizza boxes illustrated with Disco (our dog), and the two of us reimagined as cake toppers on a pizza.” Guests remained on the dancefloor until 1am, with a recovery pub session booked in at the Wellesley Arms the next day.

“Getting married is just the coolest,” reflects Alice now. “We wanted to create a visual and literal feast. The tattoos, the Morris men, the shared cake cutting – it was about inviting everyone into our world – and to participate too. We really believe the devil is in the details, and we wanted everyone to feel how grateful we were.”