Cressida Bonas organised her wedding in just two weeks.
Cressida Bonas
The 31-year-old actress married Harry Wentworth-Stanley in an intimate ceremony in July after the coronavirus pandemic put paid to their original plans, and despite a series of mishaps - including getting lost on her way to the church, rain, stepping in a puddle as she got out of the car, and a stye on her eye - and restrictions including no singing allowed at the service, Cressida still had her dream day.
She wrote in an article for The Spectator: "I had a lockdown wedding. A 30-person, socially-distanced, sanitised church service was organised in under two weeks. Restrictions meant no hymns, no wind instruments and no speaking too loudly. A disappointment for a musical family.
"Not what we’d envisaged, but a more intimate and special day than we could ever have imagined. Imperfect yet perfect — a day we will never forget..
"I saw Harry’s face, and everything fell into place. The Covid regulations, the uncertainty, the plans that got turned upside down, all were gone when I took Harry’s hand."
But the "only sad part of an otherwise happy day" was that all of her family couldn't be present because the couple - who have 22 siblings between them - were restricted to a guest list of just 30.
She said "I am certain we value our family and friends, even more, when they are absent..
"Before we knew we were having a 'Covid wedding', we'd talk about the party, the guest list, the cake, people's expectations, what it should or shouldn't look like. Having a small portion of Harry's and my family in the church made it simply special."
Just four days before the big day, the 'White House Farm' actress - who previously dated Prince Harry - was struggling to find a wedding dress but remembered a "dusty frock" at the back of her wardrobe which she'd worn in James Arthur's 'Naked' music video which felt appropriate because it was a white lace gown.
She wrote: "I remembered an old Whistles dress I once wore for a James Arthur music video.
"I went home and found the dusty frock at the back of my cupboard. After some ironing, it looked good as new."
The couple got engaged in August 2019 after two years of dating.
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