Sophisticated City Chic Elegance at The Berkeley, London

Whether you’re newly engaged (huge congrats!) or feel that now is the right time to start your wedding planning journey, I can guarantee you’ll find tonnes of dreamy wedding inspo on these pages. But let’s start with this corker – a gorgeous bridal mini with puff sleeves, statement hair accessories (they’re both still BIG news, folks), a luxury London hotel, and a quick pitstop via Chanel… the dream!

Here’s hoping for many more beautiful celebrations coming our way in ’22…

Illy says…

The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge is one of the finest hotels located in London. The venue brings modern luxury to its guests with impeccable service, which is why it attracts such prestigious clientele. We took inspiration for our editorial from the venue – we wanted to create something for The Berkeley that reflected them as a luxury wedding venue and showcased what the modern couple could achieve.

We wanted to cross the luxury, high-end side of weddings with a modern urban twist. Creating a city-chic inspired style with incredible wedding designer Kate Edmundson Bridal Couture, the most talked about newcomer in the wedding industry. We needed to create an editorial that reflected not only The Berkeley Hotel but also the Illy Elizabeth Weddings brand, alongside all of the talented suppliers involved.

The first look was a short daytime wedding dress designed by Kate Edmundson Bridal Couture, which was paired with her famous hair bow, which just finished off the look. Hair and makeup were by Katie Malin, MUA; she created a modern-inspired elegant look that suited our bride perfectly.

Our groom was dressed in a tailored suit from Hugo Boss, which we kept simple and casual to reflect the venue and step away from the “traditional” groomswear we still see in many wedding editorials. We want to show couples how they can be fashionable whilst looking smart at the same time.

Rachel Sokhal Bridal Accessories collaborated with Emmy London to create a bespoke bridal hairpiece to complement the shoes for our evening bridal look. This was paired with another dress designed by Kate Edmundson Bridal Couture. Crystal cross-drop earrings from ASOS were teamed with a stunning two-stone modern engagement ring. The two-stone engagement ring featured a pear-cut and radiant-cut diamond in an 18k gold setting.

Illy Elizabeth Weddings created the design and concept. We needed to create something new and unique that we could present to our couples. Ink and Paper Design created bespoke menus and place name cards for the tablescape in a monochrome palette to fit in beautifully with the table setting. White House Crockery provided the embossed glass chargers, white porcelain plates and frosted glassware. We hired luxury white linen from Just4Linen to bring everything together. We used the silver cutlery that The Berkeley Hotel used, twinning this with hand-dyed silk ribbon by Rewrite the Stars and finished the look with silver Dior chairs from Event Furniture Hire.

We opted for a grand five-tier cake designed by White Petal Cakes, set in front of a bespoke frosted acrylic piece by Bewilderly, which included customised vows written by The Storyteller Celebrant. We then dressed this with candles for a romantic feel.

We wanted a sophisticated London wedding vibe, so we took the opportunity to use well-known retailer Chanel as a backdrop for some of the couple’s images. Our florist was The Event Stylist, and the only brief we gave them was modern and elegant. We told them we wanted to incorporate Anthuriums and a neutral palette – they delivered! The bridal bouquet was compact but large enough to create an impact. We didn’t want to over-power the fabulous bridal city look and felt this worked perfectly.

Neutral tones are easy to work with, but you can use dark foliage to bring out the whites within a concept such as this. If you want to incorporate a city-chic bridal look, we suggest a shorter bridal gown like the one featured in the shoot. For the evening, switch things up and choose an alternative gown that sparkles in the light; you will feel luxurious and decadent – as you should on your wedding day!