When footballer Steven Gerrard, now 40, married model Alex Curran, 38, back in 2007, the wedding was the subject of months of feverish speculation. He was a star of the England team, and she was seen as one of the leading WAGS.
There were wild rumours about Alex’s couture dress, endless gossip about the star-studded reception and no end of chatter about how the most anticipated wedding of the year would look.
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But when OK! had the privilege of exclusive access to the wedding of the year, all the gossip stopped. Because every beautiful photograph, each precious moment and all the details everyone had been wondering about were all captured on our pages.
Alex Curran and Steven Gerrard tied the knot in a beautifully romantic ceremony, surrounded by their closest friends and family. Steven, then 27, was at the time one of England's most accomplished and best loved sporting heroes, and Alex, 24, was a style icon of the time, but on this day they were simply a loving couple who in their own words were taking their four year relationship to ‘the next level’.
After months of extensive searching, traveling the length and breadth of Britain, Alex and Steven chose the glorious location of Cliveden House in Berkshire. The stunning stately home, an Italianate mansion that sits in 376 acres of magnificent formal gardens and parkland, was exactly what the gorgeous couple were looking for in a venue for their big day.
As well as playing host to this very high profile wedding, Cliveden had also accommodated famous names including George I, Charlie Chaplin, former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and, most scandalously, John Profumo and Christine Keeler.
But the venue wasn’t just playing host to a wedding day – Alex and Steven had planned a three day extravaganza to include pre-wedding activities and family dinner the day before, the day itself, then a post wedding BBQ.
Alex and Steven checked into the Lady Astor Suite in the main house – a sprawling suite complete with a huge balcony with an al fresco dining table, and panoramic views over the grounds, the Thames and beyond.
The bride confessed to OK that she had ‘terrible nerves’ and kept ‘getting teary’. In keeping with tradition the couple spent the night before the wedding in separate rooms.
Then on Saturday June 16 Alex Curran woke up knowing she would see the day out as Mrs Steven Gerrard. Steven’s best man was his pal Jonathan Boggan, while guests included Steven’s England teammate Michael Owen and his blooming wife Louise, former Emmerdale actress Sheree Murphy and Jamie and Louise Rednapp, who of course were still happily wed at this time.
The 200 guests sipped on flutes of Laurent Perrier Ro, and then slightly later than 2pm, after a few last minute tears and panic about smudged mascara, the bride swept down the great staircase in a magnificent Elie Saab gown.
‘When I got to the top of the stairs I just lost it,’ admitted Alex later.
Her mum Kim Clayton gave her away and the couture dress was made of satin and tulle with over 20 metres of satin and 55 metres of tulle used to create the final effect. Alex’s train was a perfect three metres and her veil measured five metres.
The figure hugging gown dazzled with 19,000 Swarovski crystals, which needed eight seamstresses to sew on. Her simple bouquet of three long stem cream roses tied together with cream ribbon. The flower girls included Alex and Steven’s daughters Lily-Ella, then three and one year old Lexie.
Steven was blown away. ‘When I saw her coming down the stairs, she just looked amazing,’ said the happy groom. ‘And the girls looked really beautiful. I was dead proud of all of them.’
The wedding breakfast was held in a lavish marquee, but while everything about their big deal was lavish and luxurious, the new bride and groom happily insisted, ‘we’re just a normal couple with two beautiful children. We’re as normal as they come,’ said Steven. ‘But I’ll have to get used to calling her my wife.’
Aaah! Back in 2007, the couple said they wouldn’t be adding to their brood ‘at the moment’. Though they later, as we now know, they had another daughter Lourdes, now 8, and son Lio, three, to join Lilly-Ella, now 16, and Lexie, 14.
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