The Vogue Editor and Her Husband of Ten Years in the Making Celebrated With a Something Blue Wedding in the Cotswolds

Jay proposed in Paris in late October 2023, a city that had been theirs since they were students, catching cheap flights from London for weekend escapes. He told Olivia he wanted to stop by the Eiffel Tower on the way to dinner, as it was their tradition on every visit to watch the light show. He guided her down the steps into the Jardins du Trocadero, where it was quiet, and as the lights began, asked her to film the moment. When she turned around, he was on one knee. A guitarist beside them played John Legend’s “All of Me.” It was intimate and unhurried. Just the two of them in their favourite place in the world.

The wedding took place at The Rectory in Crudwell, a boutique property tucked into the Cotswolds countryside. Olivia and Jay chose it for its intimacy, its flexibility, and the sense that it could become theirs entirely for the duration of the celebration. The outdoor pool at the top of the English garden hosted a welcome cocktail party. The glasshouse held the reception. Guests were looked after with breakfast in bed, robes, and fresh lemonade. “We wanted the wedding of our dreams,” Olivia says, “as well as to spoil those closest to us.”

There was no wedding planner. Olivia styled and planned the entire event herself, working closely with floral designer Fi Passey of Corky & Prince to realise the large-scale installations that became the visual anchors of the day. The guiding vision was a luxury English garden wedding, led by a “something blue” colour palette drawn from a deeply personal place. The blue was chosen for the women Olivia loves most, her two bridesmaids and her mother. It ran through the florals, the bridal party styling, and the now-iconic hydrangea waterfall cocktail bar that cascaded over the reception space. Guests arrived in black-tie attire.

Olivia’s gown was by House of St. Patrick, a structured satin design with a three-tiered skirt, a silhouette she describes as more modern and fashion-forward. For a woman who has built her career inside fashion, the dress needed to feel like self-expression, not a costume. She paired it with Amina Muaddi’s Lace Holli heels, chosen because the lace on the shoes matched the lace in her cathedral-length mantilla veil. Her mother gifted her a pair of Cartier Love Hoops as her “something new,” worn alongside oval diamond earrings that echoed her engagement ring. Tucked inside her pocket was her grandmother’s brooch, her something borrowed, kept close all day.

The personalisation ran deeper than accessories. Olivia had her and Jay’s initials stitched into the seam of her dress and their wedding date embroidered into the rim of her veil. Her bridal bouquet was a modern reimagining of the one her mother carried thirty years ago. Large Calla Lilies, a sculptural nod to the flowers her mum held walking down the same kind of aisle a generation earlier.

The ceremony was layered with family. Olivia’s father walked her down the aisle. Her mother gave a reading. Jay’s parents gave a reading. Two young cousins, who had formed a close, brotherly bond with Jay, gave a blessing. The couple wrote their own vows. Jessica May Balfour played the violin as the bridesmaids entered to Miley Cyrus’s “Adore You,” a song Olivia chose for its meaning across every relationship she holds dear. She walked down the aisle to Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” Elvis is the artist she and Jay call theirs, a constant in their home and their story.

When they were pronounced husband and wife, a surprise five-piece brass band struck up “Crazy in Love” and walked the newlyweds out of the ceremony and straight into cocktail hour. The moment that stays with both of them is what happened next: their guests gathered around, tambourines in hand, personalised escort cards designed by Studio Joy Art, singing along to ABBA’s “Gimme Gimme” as the brass band played. “Jay and I looked at each other and just thought, this is incredible,” Olivia says. “We were on cloud nine.”

The reception unfolded with performances by Out Out Live, a sax, drums and vocal trio who had learned the couple’s favourite songs. Guests stood on chairs between courses. The speeches, from Jay, Olivia’s father, the best men and the bridesmaids, left the room in tears. Cocktails were named after personal touchstones: their new surname, their dog Maple. After the cake cutting, reimagined as a private moment between just the two of them when the summer heat softened the tiers, Olivia changed into a mini version of her wedding dress by Rosie Etienne and took to the dance floor.

Their first dance was to Elvis’s “Wonder of You.” After ten years together, two childhoods spent unknowingly circling each other, and a proposal under the Eiffel Tower’s lights, the song felt less like a choice and more like a statement of fact. The invisible string had held.