Perrie Edwards was overjoyed as she married Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain over the weekend, but the wedding almost faced a crisis. The Little Mix star and the footballer, both 32, tied the knot in a low-key ceremony in Portugal on Saturday. The couple, who have a four-year-old son named Axel and a six-month-old daughter named Alanis, celebrated with friends and family at a scenic Catholic church in the village of Estoi. The event was also attended by her bandmates Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall.
Missing Necklace Causes Panic
Hours before the ceremony, Edwards realized that her precious diamond necklace, a gift from Oxlade-Chamberlain after Axel's birth, was missing. She had worn it every day since receiving it. The day before traveling to Portugal, she noticed it was gone. In an interview with Vogue, she said, 'I cried all day, we looked everywhere – we even checked the hoover – but it was gone. I was convinced someone had stolen it.'
Hairstylist Saves the Day
Hope was fading until the morning of the wedding, when her hairstylist, Aaron Carlo, came to the rescue. While sorting through her hair extensions, he found the necklace tangled in them. He told Edwards, 'Okay, Perrie: what I’m about to show you is your something old, your something new, your everything in one, and you’re going to cry.' Upon seeing the locket, she burst into tears of joy. 'I was so happy and so relieved. It set the tone – I knew from that moment it was gonna be the best day ever,' she recalled.
Emotional Ceremony
Edwards wasn't the only one crying. She described the moment at the altar: 'Alex isn’t a crier – he doesn’t get emotional that often. But when he turned around at the altar and saw me for the first time, we both just cried our eyes out. I thought: “I’ll never forget this moment right here. It was beautiful. I’ve never experienced a room so full of love.”'
Celebration Continues
Jade Thirlwall had to leave early for the Primavera Sound festival in Porto, but Leigh-Anne Pinnock stayed to dance the night away. Edwards joked, 'We were absolutely going off to En Vogue… we still remembered all of our harmonies and the choreography!'
A Big Year for Perrie
Perrie and Alex have been together since 2017 and got engaged in 2022. The wedding marks another milestone in a busy year for the singer. After releasing her debut solo album in September, she welcomed her daughter Alanis in January. Reflecting on the timing, she said, 'Yes! I have the birth of my album and the birth of my child coming, and I can’t believe it’s all fallen at the same time. It’s wild. Obviously, it wasn’t planned, but I feel like it’s worked out to be good, because I can promote the album, I can work my ass off, get the album out there, and then the industry kind of switches off at Christmas and January. So really, the timing works out perfectly. I’m excited, I love a challenge!'
