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 on your wedding planning journey, I can guarantee you’ll find tonnes of dreamy wedding inspo right here 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, 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 an impeccable level of 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 showcase 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. It was important for us to create an editorial that reflected not only The Berkeley Hotel, but reflected the Illy Elizabeth Weddings brand, alongside all of the talented suppliers involved.

The first look was a short day time 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 was 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 not only reflect the venue but to step away from the “traditional” groomswear we still see in a lot of wedding editorials. We want to show couples how you 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 diamond and radiant cut diamond, set in an 18k gold setting.

The design and concept was created by Illy Elizabeth Weddings. It was important for us to be able to create something new and unique which we could present to our couples. Ink and Paper Design created bespoke menus and place name cards for the tablescape which were 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 in luxury white linen from Just4Linen to bring everything together. We made use of 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 which was set in front of a bespoke frosted acrylic piece by Bewilderly, which included bespoke vows written by The Storyteller Celebrant. We then dressed this with candles for a really 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 couples 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 certainly delivered! The bridal bouquet was compact but large enough to create an impact. We didn’t want to over-power the cool bridal city look and felt this worked perfectly.

Neutral tones are really easy to work with, but you can use dark foliage to really bring out the whites within a concept such as this. If you want to incorporate a city-chic bridal look, then we would suggest opting for 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!