You could call it the anti-Taylor Swift wedding. Supermodel Eva Herzigova married her partner of 25 years this weekend in an intimate ceremony in Turin, northern Italy, where they live.
The bride wore Lanvin; the groom, Italian businessman Gregorio Marsiaj, arrived in his 1989 Aston Martin V8 with their three teenage sons, George, Phillipe and Edward.
It was the antithesis of the kind of celebrity wedding that tends to dominate the news cycle. This year it was Swift and Travis Kelce’s ever-so-subtle Madison Square Garden affair, witnessed by just 1,000 of their close, personal, celebrity friends. Last year it was Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, who took over Venice. There’s nothing wrong with these lavish spectacles, if that’s your thing, but they perhaps do lack a certain recognition of what’s actually important when two people decide to spend their lives together.
That’s why the pictures from Czech-born Herzigova’s wedding this weekend were so charming. The couple have been together for 25 years, and she’s been calling him her husband for many of those, anyway. It was a celebration of what they already have together, as well as of their lives to come.
From a style perspective it’s interesting too. A bride of 53, as Herzigova is, has a more well-established sense of personal style than that of a “typical” bride in her 20s or early 30s. That’s likely why there’s no cookie-cutter bridal gown being shown off here.
Instead, she chose something that was unquestionably “her”. A billowy past-season charmeuse Lanvin gown with a curved midi ruffled hem and a cape-like layer that cascaded from her shoulders. It featured a tie detail at the neck, and was completed by a pair of bow-adorned heeled sandals.
“[Herzigova’s] gown reads like a woman who has genuinely thought about what she wants, not what’s expected. She looked truly stunning,” says bridal designer Kate Halfpenny, a former celebrity stylist who founded Halfpenny London in 2005.
“What I see in my boutique is that the midlife bride isn’t dressing for anyone’s approval. She’s had years to work out what suits her and what she loves, so she goes straight for it,” she says.
“You see that in [Herzigova’s] dress: the plunge, the movement, the softness. It’s confident dressing, not cautious. What I love about brides marrying later in life is that they have stopped asking ‘is this what a wedding dress should look like’ and started asking ‘is this what I love, is this how I want to feel’.”
Herzigova’s hair was braided into an up-do, held in place by a white, ruffled adornment, and her make-up was minimal, because when you’re one of the world’s most beautiful women, you barely need it.
The supermodel is not alone in choosing to marry her longtime partner decades into their relationship. India Hicks, the King’s goddaughter, married David Flint Wood in 2021 after 26 years together. Her high-neck, long-sleeved lace dress was made by a good friend, Emilia Wickstead.
Lulu Guinness wed her partner of 20 years last December in an asymmetric organza midi dress by Erdem in an ethereal shade of marbled turquoise and ivory, and featuring a portrait by the artist Kaye Donachie.
Last year Kirstie Allsopp tied the knot with Ben Andersen, her partner of 21 years, in a beige gown embroidered with gold and bronze sequins by Oscar de la Renta. And in April, former British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman married David Jenkins, her partner of 28 years, in a floral dress and red cardigan.
The lesson we can take from all of these women is that when it comes to midlife marriage, there is no wrong answer. You can dress as a traditional bride if you like, but you can also dress in a way that exhibits the best version of you, whether that’s a fairy princess cape or a classic floral dress.
The key to success is if, when you look back on the pictures from that happy day, you see your joy first, and the dress second. It can still be a big, out-there statement if it suits your personality, as long as you’re wearing the outfit, and it’s not the dress wearing you.