Photo: Tara Sgroi1/32There was really no debate on the wedding venue, as it would be almost impossible to find a more beautiful place to get married than our own backyard. And obviously it made wedding planning—which was all done on such short notice—much easier.
Photo: Tara Sgroi2/32Raised as a “special snowflake” only child, I obviously wanted a wedding ensemble that was different and, most important, unexpected. And as a Texan, I felt that it also had to be unfussy. So I asked my dear friend Jennifer Zuccarini and her amazing team at the über-chic lingerie brand Fleur du Mal to create a lace jumpsuit, based on their black jumpsuit that I wore on my first date with Ashley, specifically for the occasion.
Photo: Tara Sgroi3/32During the wedding, Ashley’s best man, Donald Robertson, stayed in our pavilion, Grump Tower—a mini tower surrounded by a moat designed by Ashley’s late father, David Hicks, and constructed for him by his wife, Lady Pamela, as a 60th birthday gift. Donald was still air-drying his “best man trousers”—made from the same trademark David Hicks fabric that we used as tablecloths in the wedding tent—from his window just moments before the festivities started.
Photo: Tara Sgroi4/32The women at Erickson Beamon, who are like family to me, were so generous as to custom design a pair of dazzling diamond earrings and a matching bracelet for the wedding ceremony. They also made a last-minute wedding ring for me, which my bridesmaid Mandie Erickson had to fly in with the day before the wedding.
Photo: Tara Sgroi5/32While the ground floor of Grump Tower was used as a studio, the top floor—which overlooks a secret rose garden visible only from the tower—was used by my father-in-law as a personal retreat from the main house at The Grove. It is bursting with treasures, including his highly curated library, which Donald enjoyed perusing and remarking on the various inscriptions found within.
Photo: Tara Sgroi6/32Even though we live at the end of Savile Row in London, Ashley decided, in honor of my American heritage, to eschew the classic British tails and instead go for an American designer for his wedding ensemble. He worked with my dear friends at Calvin Klein to come up with this classic suit demonstrative of a more American sensibility.
The walls of our barn where the ceremony was held were decorated with hangings of hand-painted fabric made by Ashley and his daughter Ambrosia. A nod to the Hicks aesthetic heritage, geometric patterns were de rigueur.
Photo: Tara Sgroi7/32The views at The Grove, painstakingly designed by Ashley’s father, are all intentionally symmetrical and create incredible vistas throughout the property.
Photo: Tara Sgroi8/32We were incredibly lucky that so many of our friends from around the world made the long journey—by plane, train, and automobile—to Oxfordshire. Featured here are three such guests: Filippo Randon (left), a former colleague of mine at Chanel and “bridesman,” who traveled from Paris; Donald Robertson (center), Ashley’s best man, who came all the way from Los Angeles; and Christopher Bugg (right), my “bridesman of honor,” who flew in from New York.
Photo: Tara Sgroi9/32The festivities kicked off at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails around David Hicks’s black swimming pool at The Grove—steps away from the Indian tent where we later feasted on pizza and hot dogs.
Photo: Tara Sgroi10/32I am known among my friends for my excessive (and often inappropriate) use of bunny ears, which I collectsed from Maison Michel while working at Chanel. The Fleur du Mal team came up with the genius last-minute idea to create a bunny-ear veil for me, which Jennifer so generously hand-delivered to me just moments before the festivities began.
Photo: Tara Sgroi11/32Continuing with the Insta-wedding theme, I thought it only appropriate to ask one of our favorite friends that we had met through Instagram—Game of Thrones actress Gwendoline Christie—to be my flower girl. And she did not sartorially disappoint, arriving in a silk flower-print cape designed by her partner, Giles Deacon.
Photo: Tara Sgroi12/32My amazing stepdaughters, who wore matching Fleur du Mal cat ears for the wedding, were both hugely helpful in planning the wedding. Ambrosia (right) actually baked the wedding cake herself, which her sister, Angelica (left, also dressed in a Fleur du Mal gown), jokingly pushed my face into later in the night.
Photo: Hamish Bowles13/32My devilishly witty sister-in-law India surprised us at the wedding with the most original gift possible: a naked woman body-painted with David Hicks’s geometric designs. The model, Verity Millet, was ours for the evening only, of course, but she certainly added a splash of pattern to the event.
Photo: Tara Sgroi14/32The night before the wedding, best man Donald dressing to match the decor—pink shorts against David Hicks’s pink drawing room curtains.
Photo: Tara Sgroi15/32As the guests started to trickle in, it was clear that we’d gathered quite a diverse bunch, mixing Ashley’s English crowd and his daughters’ young friends with my tech-industry friends from New York and family from Texas.
Photo: Hamish Bowles16/32We planned it so that our guests would arrive in time to take in the vivid sunset that the English countryside is known for, which luckily more than made up for the unusually damp lawn, which many of our female guests’ heels sunk into.
Photo: Tara Sgroi17/32Ashley and I were determined that our guests enjoy themselves at the wedding, and he had the idea of asking his two daughters to invite 50 of their friends to join us. It was truly a stroke of genius, as they were the first to start climbings into the photobooths armed with props and inflatable crocodiles, and the first to christen the dance floor in the barn, eventually taking over DJ duties.
Photo: Hamish Bowles18/32We needed a big tent for the evening, and Ashley managed to find this old Indian patchwork number, which gave the evening a slightly exotic feel—and a very pink mood.
Photo: Hamish Bowles19/32The photobooths lined in David Hicks–print wallpaper were quite the attraction of the night. Cheap Replica Handbags designer Sabine Getty (in Emilio Pucci) and Hamish Bowles were awarded the prize for Best Photo Booth Creative Direction at the end of the night.
Photo: Hamish Bowles20/32Dovima Paris designer Jane Pendry poses next to one of the David Hicks La Fiorentina fabric-covered tables in the Indian tent.
Photo: Tara Sgroi21/32The ladies of the Hicks family are women who naturally radiate warmth and always manage to stand out in any crowd—even ones photobombed by crazed brides in animal ears. Here I am pictured with my sister-in-law India and her mother, Lady Pamela (who I refer to as “number one mum-in-law”), flanked by shoe designer Christian Louboutin, who made me a pair of python pumps to wear at the reception as a wedding gift.
Photo: Hamish Bowles22/32Discarded on Ashley’s childhood rocking horse at the end of the evening, the rubber mask and feather-trimmed cloak that he’d donned to present his best man (who was responsible for introducing us four months prior on Instagram) with a “bride payment” of a giant jewel cast in red resin.
Photo: Hamish Bowles23/32“Bridesman” Christophe Bolloré (pictured here with the stunning newlywed Sabine Getty) ruled the dance floor till the wee hours of the morning in a white tunic from Lebanese brand Liwan.
Photo: Tara Sgroi24/32My half-sister Brenna was accompanied to the wedding by her son Matthew (left), who quickly made friends with Miguel Ocampo (right)—son of the American-born Brooke Metcalfe—near the ice cream corner of the tent.
Photo: Tara Sgroi25/32As we were pressed for time and invitations were sent after most of our guests had left for summer holidays, we had to be flexible about dinner, and anyway we both agreed that we didn’t want a formal, seated dinner. My go-to cuisine whenever I have had to entertain at the last minute has always been pizza (who doesn’t love pizza? Not anybody that I would be friends with!), so we opted for a tent where each of our guests could order their own pizza to their specifications.
Photo: Hamish Bowles26/32Again failing to maintain wedding conventionalities, I stepped out on the dance floor for the traditional first dance with my best friend from university and ”bridesman,” Christophe Bolloré, to my favorite song—2Pac’s 1998 hit “Changes.”
Photo: Tara Sgroi27/32Angelica, who jokingly refers to me as “Stepmonster” and (like me) loves a good-humored prank, pushed my face into the wedding cake as we were about to cut into it. It was all done in good fun and, in my opinion, was completely befitting of an Insta-wedding.
Photo: Tara Sgroi28/32My fabulously inspiring sister-in-law India—who is a natural hostess and who seems (like Beyoncé) like she must have more than 24 hours a day to accomplish everything that she does (and with such grace)—generously hosted a “morning-after” brunch for us at her home, America Farm, just down the road from us in Oxfordshire.
Photo: Tara Sgroi29/32David Flint Wood—India’s partner of 20 years and father of their five children together—has quite a collectsion of vintage cars at America Farm. Hamish Bowles, godfather of Ashley’s daughter Ambrosia, decided to inspect and indeed seemed to find a vehicle that perfectly complemented his outstanding brunch wardrobe choice.
Photo: Tara Sgroi30/32It was certainly sunny cartwheel weather, and luckily my friend Lisa Moore, founder of the American brand Cover Swim, arrived bearing UPF-protection sunwear that she had custom-made for the wedding and handed out to our brunch guests.
Photo: Tara Sgroi31/32David and his daughter Domino (who is the spitting image of her mother, India) finally succeeded in taking back the wheel of his vintage E-type Jaguar at America Farm.
Photo: Tara Sgroi32/32Trying to take advantage of the unusually sunny weather, our friends spent most of brunch outside, lounging on India’s rattan seating and gossiping about the scandalous behavior from the night before.
