At the end of next week, Irish model Sonia Reynolds is marrying solicitor Barry Lyons, and the pair are holding their reception in Co Meath. Given her background, a large fashion contingent has been invited to this event, so the key question on the day will not be what to give the couple but instead - what to wear.
The expectation is for exceptional style from - and competition between - those invited to attend. Weddings, after all, are one of the few opportunities available in this country for serious dressing-up. Their relative rarity, however, can lead to some guests making unfortunate mistakes. What might appear beforehand to be the ideal outfit rarely makes a comfortable transition from church ceremony to post-dinner festivities. An open-air gathering, for example, seems like the perfect occasion for wearing something flimsy and delicate, but what happens if - as is so often the case in this country - the weather changes during the course of the day? Similarly, a pair of spindly heels may look like a wonderful option but can exclude you from the dancefloor as you nurse exhausted calf muscles and ankles. Careful consideration, plus packing a few extra items - pair of flat shoes, cardigan, make-up bag and umbrella - into the boot of the car, can make all the difference. Be prepared is the wise party-goers' motto. "I certainly want people to dress up for my wedding," says Sonia Reynolds and so, just in case some guests have not yet found the right outfit, we took her shopping for the kind of clothes she would like to see when walking up the aisle next week. While specific details will not be revealed until the day itself, her own dress is being made by Peter O'Brien in Paris, necessitating a couple of fitting trips to France. No one else needs to travel quite so far, since within the space of a couple of hours, we found four distinctive looks which would each make a strong statement at any wedding. Although quite different from one another, the quartet share certain similarities such as delicacy of fabrics. At the moment, fine materials including silk devore, lace and silk crepe are much in demand. So too are surfaces decorated with embroidery and beading. Also in favour is layering and wrapping. All of these qualities are evident in Sonia's choice of clothes, with a certain ethnic spirit coming through in some pieces such as the Dries Van Noten shawl used as a sarong and the Oasis sequinned shirt.
Glaringly absent in these pictures are any examples of one item which usually puts in an appearance at weddings - the hat. Various milliners' confections were examined but none of them seemed satisfactory with the kind of clothes chosen by Sonia; usually the brim was either too big or too small, or else the degree of decoration overwhelmed everything else. Today's hats are frequently elaborate affairs and need to be worn with the simplest of garments to avoid giving the impression of one style competing with another. Instead of a hat, we decorated Sonia's hair with sprigs of freshly picked lavender or else one of Denise Downey's delicate necklaces. The jewellery designer also creates wonderful costume tiaras in a wide variety of shapes and colours and one of these would certainly complete anybody's wedding ensemble. But before rushing out to bedeck yourself in Downey baubles, just bear in mind one small point - guests are never supposed to out-dress the bride. No matter what those invited to the Reynolds/Lyons wedding chose to wear, Sonia will still outshine everyone else.
Correction : Last Monday's fashion page featured an embroidered short-sleeved net shirt by Jacqueline de Young which was wrongly credited to Sasha. In fact, the shirt is available, price £29, from branches of Vero Moda throughout the country.