Duke’s brother ties knot...twice

WHY get married once when you can tie the knot twice in the same week?

At 5pm today, the Duke of Marlborough’s half-brother, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill, will wed Germanborn photographer Kimberly ‘Kimi’ Hammerstroem at the chapel of his family’s ancestral home, Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire.

But venture capitalist Lord Edward, 44, known as ‘Speggy’ to his Old Etonian chums, took the precaution of exchanging vows with Kimi, who wore an elegant off- white Galvan dress, right, in a civil ceremony, at Mayfair Library on Wednesday, above.

Their Blenheim do has caused a dilemma for some guests who are also invited to the Duke of Beaufort’s wedding ball at Badminton House, 60 miles away.

Socialite Taki Theodoracopulos says fellow guests Leopold and Debbie Von Bismarck ‘can’t make up their mind where to start’. He adds: ‘My advice was to do it alphabetically.’

So Beaufort comes before Spencer-Churchill.