40 years on, Princess Di’s bridesmaid has her very own big day
SHE insisted she would only ever be the bridesmaid, having famously been one of Lady Diana Spencer’s in 1981.
Now, 40 years after the royal wedding and after 25 years of denying she would ever marry the love of her life, India Hicks has finally become the bride.
Yesterday the model and philanthropist, 54, married interior designer David Flint Wood, her long-term partner and the father of her children.
Announcing their decision to marry last year, she told the Daily Mail: ‘After months and months of lockdown, many people were ready to kill each other – we were ready to get married.’
Yesterday the granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten wore an embroidered dress by Emilia Wickstead with a matching
HIGH SOCIETY WEDDING
veil and held a bouquet of white flowers, with some blue blooms added in for good luck.
The couple were joined by 150 guests at St Bartholomew’s church in Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire, and followed the ceremony with a reception at The Nelson pub. Mr Flint Wood, 60, gave a moving speech, in which he told his bride that he had loved her from the moment he saw her, and loved her still.
Guests included American actress Brooke Shields, TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp and former model turned author Sophie Dahl and her musician husband Jamie Cullum. The wedding had been due to take place last December, but coronavirus rules forced them to delay.
Mrs Flint Wood had four bridesmaids: Her daughter Domino, 13, Ines de Givenchy, the daughter of banker Olivier de Givenchy and his socialite wife Zoe, and the twin daughters of shoe designer Christian Louboutin.
Mr Flint Wood was accompanied by their four sons, Felix, 23, Amory, 21, Conrad, 17, and foster son Wesley, 23. His best man was George Mountbatten, the Marquess of Milford Haven. The ceremony included music by the Oxford-based vOx Chamber Choir and a soaring solo of Ave Maria. The mother of the bride, Lady Pamela Hicks – a bridesmaid at the Queen and Prince Philip’s wedding – was ‘just thrilled’ to see her daughter so happy. The couple moved to the Bahamas in 1996, where they built and restored four houses and a hotel.
In 2019 the then Miss Hicks said: ‘People often ask us why we have never got married but we have just never felt the need. Being strangers in a strange land has bonded us more than any ceremony could.’ And in 2018 she said: ‘The children all carry his name, which is important to me. Our family unit is so strong but I have no ambition to be married at all.’ Last year she said her decision to marry was ‘a celebration of unflinching love’.
Aged 13, she was picked to be one of the five bridesmaids at the royal wedding. Charles is her godfather and second cousin.