Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, married Olivia Henson today at Chester Cathedral, in what many are calling the society wedding of the decade and the “most royal non-royal nuptials.” Roads were shut down in Chester in order to accommodate the pomp and circumstance, and in an effort to help stave off any blowback, the bride and groom are funding the annual Summer Flowers project, which involves 100,000 flowers being planted across the city, as well as paying for people to get free ice cream on the day of the wedding, provided by three local businesses.
“I’m unbelievably excited,” Grosvenor told reporters on a recent visit to a charity that he supports ahead of the wedding. “I also just want to make it very clear how unbelievably helpful people have been, how supportive they’ve been so far, which I’m grateful for. Because I do realize that [the wedding] is going to be a big thing for the city. It’s going to be certainly a huge thing for us, so we’re really grateful for all of the help.”
On the morning of Friday, June 7, around 11:30 a.m., the groom made his way from the Grosvenor family home on the Eaton Estate to Chester Cathedral in a dark green Land Rover Defender, with his three best men following closely behind.
Just before midday, the bride arrived in a vintage Bentley, wearing a dress by the London-based designer Emma Victoria Payne. The billowing dress incorporated floral motifs from a veil once worn by her great-grandmother that dates back to 1880. Underneath her veil, she wore the Faberge Myrtle Leaf Tiara, which was originally made for the Grosvenors in 1906 to be worn by the family’s brides on their wedding days. For her something blue, she chose Silvia Lago Valentina 8 riveria pumps, handmade in Spain with in velvet fabric and accented with bows on the toes.
The couple said their vows in front of 400 guests, including Prince William, who served as an usher, and Princess Eugenie of York. Celebrations at the Eaton Estate are expected to continue this afternoon and evening.
The couple’s love story began when they met through mutual friends back in 2021. After dating for two years, the Grosvenor and Henson announced their engagement in April of 2023 with a photo taken outside of the same 11,000-acre estate where the Duke grew up and is expected to live with his wife.
The Duke, who inherited his title when his father passed away in 2016, is godfather to both Prince George and Prince Archie, and has an estimated net worth of £12 billion ($15.3 billion), making him the wealthiest person under 40 years old in the United Kingdom. The Grosvenor family has been entrenched within the British aristocracy for centuries, and is able to date their lineage back to the year 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. The Duke is also the head of Grosvenor Group—another title that he inherited from his father—and the company has grown to become a multi-billion dollar real estate empire that owns over 1,500 properties in 60 different countries.
The bride attended Marlborough College, the same boarding school that counts both Kate Middleton and Princess Eugenie as alums. She went on to get a dual degree in Hispanic Studies and Italian at Trinity College, and she now works at Belazu, an artisanal food company in England.
