On a Wednesday in mid-April, the Champagne Bureau and The Wedding Edition took over the Granville Suite at Raffles London at The OWO – a building that has, across its long life, housed the British Armed Forces, sheltered the planning of the Battle of the Bulge, and offered corridors wide enough to ferry MI5 and MI6 without interruption. A young Ian Fleming once ran through those same halls; five James Bond films would later use them as a set.
For this spring luncheon, the same trio of rooms was dressed with appropriate understatement – soaring dark walnut panelling, fluted pilasters, barrel-vaulted ceilings – the pale April light doing the rest.
The table, set for fifteen, was laid with Maison Margaux linen – a watercolour-print tablecloth, its white ground threaded with artist Mary-Clare painterly hydrangea motifs in fresh greens – alongside hand-painted Spanish dinner plates in deep Cotswolds green, and woven rattan chargers to complete each setting. Fi Passey of Corky and Prince arranged the emphatically seasonal floral centrepieces – white roses, ranunculus and narcissi in low clusters along the table’s length, with taller bud vases and ikebana vessels interspersed at intervals, the blooms the same spring-white and clear green as the linen beneath them.
An intimate group of guests arrived at half past twelve, snapped by photographer Alexandra Moss: Genevieve Harris, Saff Michaelis, Arabella Golby, Rita Farhi, Leah Lane, Paula of Hill House Vintage, Gabriella McCoy, and Henry Southan among them.
Over lunch, Victoria Henson and TWE founding editor Kendra Leaver-Rylah led a conversation that ranged considerably further than the glass in front of them. The setting was not incidental – the OWO’s corridors were once frequented by Winston Churchill, who served here as Secretary of State for War and later as Minister of Defence and whose enthusiasm for Champagne was well-documented. Pol Roger, the house he favoured above all others, supplied a couple of bottles of vintage for the occasion.From there the talk moved through the practical and the pleasurable: glassware, temperature, the case for drinking Champagne on any given day rather than saving it for ceremony. The conversation closed with a dispatch on the region itself – where to go, what has opened recently – leaving guests with somewhere new to add to their lists.
Throughout, guests scribbled notes in gold-lined caramel croc Aspinal of London notebooks embossed with Coco Chanel’s eternal phrase: “I only drink Champagne on two occasions, when I am in love and when I am not.”
A menu of four Champagne styles – Brut, Vintage, Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs – was paired with dishes from head chef Roger Olsson. The kitchen opened with cured Cornish sea bass with confit lemon, elderflower and cucumber. Herb-crusted lamb cannon followed, with slow-cooked lamb cutlet, plum compote, courgette and chimichurri, and rose panna cotta with raspberry compote and lychee closed the meal on the same precise, unfussy note on which it had begun. Leeming Brothers printed the menus on 700gsm card stock, to a design by Charlotte Wilmore.
Guests departed with spring treats: a dinky Wildflower Bee key charm from Aspinal of London and Jo Malone London’s Red Roses cologne, a botanical expression of violet leaf, lemon and seven rose varieties.
And so carriages were called for ebullient guests, living proof of Madame de Pompadour’s maxim: “Champagne is the only wine that leaves a woman beautiful after drinking it.”
Hosts – @theweddingedition_ x @champagne_officiel @sekoyacomms
Location – @raffleslondon.theowo
Photographer – @alexandramossphotography
Stationary – @charlottewillmoredesign
Printing – @leemingbrothers
Tableware – @maisonmargauxltd
Gifting – @jomalonelondon, @aspinaloflondon, @sekoyacomms
Florist – @corkyandprince
Social – @fran_newmanyoung
