Olivia Henson and Hugh Grosvenor's 2024 Wedding in Chester

Olivia Henson married Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, at Chester Cathedral on June 7, 2024. She became the Duchess of Westminster that day. The ceremony brought crowds onto Chester's streets, while a choir and orchestra performed inside. A look back at the wedding takes in the couple's connection to the city and a tiara made more than a century earlier.

A food-business background

Before the wedding, Henson worked in the food and drinks industry. ITV News' June 2024 profile named London-based Belazu as her most recent employer and described her upbringing in London and Oxfordshire. The reporting introduced readers to her working background as preparations for the ceremony drew wider attention.

The engagement came a year earlier

ITV reported that the couple were introduced through mutual friends in 2021. They dated for two years before Grosvenor proposed at Eaton Hall in April 2023. The engagement therefore came a little over a year before the ceremony in Chester, with the family's Cheshire estate featuring in both the proposal story and the wedding celebrations.

The dress had a named designer

Henson's wedding dress and veil were by British designer Emma Victoria Payne. In her eyewitness report, Tatler's Dora Davies-Evitt described the bride arriving in a vintage black Bentley at midday. A gust of wind lifted the veil, and the designer helped arrange it. Henson wore blue heels, a small flash of colour beneath the gown.

Chester was more than a backdrop

The cathedral's June 2024 notice announced the wedding date and described the occasion as a private event. It declined to release the ceremony time or guest-list details. Chester's connection to the couple also extended beyond the wedding: the Westminster Foundation's May 8, 2024 account recorded their visits to local charitable programmes a month before the service.

Prince William worked as an usher

Prince William, the Prince of Wales, served as an usher. Carrot Productions, whose musicians performed at the wedding, confirmed that role in its own account. Tatler's reporter saw him arrive with fellow ushers and enter through a side entrance, giving the crowd only a brief glimpse before he went inside.

The family connection to London

Grosvenor's own history traces the family's London property interests to the 1677 marriage of Sir Thomas Grosvenor and Mary Davies. Meadow, marsh and pasture land west of the City of London came into the family through that marriage. Development of Mayfair began in the 1720s; Belgravia followed a century later. The history explains the long association between the Grosvenor name and those London districts.

A music session before the wedding

During the May visit, Henson and Grosvenor joined Small Sounds at Chester Cathedral. The foundation described it as a pilot parent-and-toddler programme offering free weekly music groups for children aged zero to five. The Cathedral Music Trust also trained music staff in early-years practice. The couple met members of the cathedral's music team ahead of the wedding.

Meeting young people at Storyhouse

At Storyhouse, they met participants in Young Leaders, a programme for people aged 14 to 25 with limited opportunities to connect with others. The foundation described mentoring, training and practical work opportunities. They also spoke with young people in The Agency, which supported community-based social change projects, and saw a session run by Cheshire Dance.

The orchestra inside the cathedral

Carrot Productions supplied a 23-piece orchestra for the wedding service. Its musicians accompanied the hymns alongside Chester Cathedral's choir, with arrangements by artistic director Daniel Whibley. The company said the couple had sought to involve local and regional businesses. Its account names the performers behind the music that accompanied the ceremony.

A tiara made for an earlier wedding

Fabergé confirmed that Henson wore its Myrtle Leaf Tiara. It was commissioned in 1906 for the wedding of Lord Hugh Grosvenor and Lady Mabel Crichton. The diamond-set piece has two sprays of myrtle leaves and berries with engraved red-gold stalks. Fabergé identifies the workshop as that of its workmaster Albert Holmström, whose maker's mark appears on the tiara.

What the crowd could see

Davies-Evitt found onlookers outside the cathedral at 9:30 that morning; some had been there since six. Guest coaches arrived, while Grosvenor came in a green Land Rover and waved before going inside. After the service, the newlyweds emerged and kissed in front of the crowd. They then left in the Bentley for Eaton Hall, where a private celebration awaited.