No expense was spared on Sunday as Richard E. Grant’s daughter Olivia married long-term partner Florian Wirst in a ‘magical’ home ceremony.
Olivia, a casting associate whose film credits include last year’s record-breaking Barbie, had previously exchanged vows with Herbst in July – a service attended only by her father and the groom’s parents.
Sunday’s ceremony, held in the grounds of Grant’s sprawling London home, gave the bride and groom’s wider circle of friends and family an opportunity to celebrate their marriage.
The bride wore an elegant white wedding gown from British designer Suzanne Neville, while Austrian financier Herbst opted for a smart black tuxedo and bow tie from Hugo Boss.
The celebration comes three years after Grant’s wife of 35-years and Olivia’s mother Joan Washington died following a battle with stage four lung cancer.
And the actor ensured it was a night to remember by drafting in luxury event planner Johnny Roxburgh Designs to organise an enormous outdoor marquee complete with fairy lights and immaculately arranged tables, adorned with floral bouquets.
Elsewhere international florist, designer and stylist Nikki Tibbles turned the grounds of Grant’s spacious home into a gardens of Babylon themed playground.
Guests were treated to a lavish dinner from Michelin-star chef Skye Gyngell, owner of modern European restaurant Spring, located in desirable central London landmark Somerset House.
Pictures shared by Grant revealed a sumptuous four-tier wedding cake and a neon drenched dance floor, where guests partied into the early hours of Monday morning.
Additional entertainment on the night was provided by pop star Ellie Goulding, who performed an acoustic set for the bride and groom.
Taking to Instagram, Grant wrote: ‘Magical wedding last night at home, for our daughter & Florian – the sun shone.’
Grant confirmed his daughter’s engagement in October, with the actor sharing four images of Olivia, Herbst and her huge diamond ring.
He wrote: ‘Our beloved daughter @oliviagranted got engaged to Florian Herbst this weekend. Pockets full of Happiness!!’
Cambridge educated Herbst, an Austrian financier, currently works as Head of Corporate Finance at Village Hotels.
He graduated in 2014 with a bachelors degree in Land Economy, combining ‘law and economics with the environment, business, finance and resource management’.
Before moving to England, Herbst took a three-year bachelor of science degree in International Business at WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business).
Grant previously revealed the ‘amazing mantra’ he has lived by since the death of his late wife.
Dialect coach Joan tragically passed away aged 75, eight months after she was diagnosed with cancer.
The actor told how his wife gave him words to live by in the days before she died which has helped him deal with the ‘abyss of grief’ ever since.
Speaking on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show with Helena Bonham Carter, he said: ‘She said to me four days before she died, she said to my daughter and I, “I know that you’re going to be sad but try and find a pocketful of happiness in each day”.
‘It’s been an amazing mantra to navigate the abyss of grief in the last 15 months and I’m grateful for that.’
Grant also told how he misses Joan more around the winter period during Christmas and their wedding anniversary in November.
Speaking in 2023, he told the Radio Times: ‘Our wedding anniversary is on 1 November; Joan’s birthday is on 21 December; there’s Christmas Day and then Olly’s [his nickname for his daughter Olivia] birthday is 4 January.
‘Last year, Olly and her partner Florian very generously invited me to Venice and then to visit his family in the south of Austria, which was absolutely magical.
‘This year I’m going with the two of them to the Caribbean, so that I’m not in London at Christmas.’
The pair had overcome tragedy in their life and spoke publicly about how their first child together sadly died after just half an hour.
Joan had suffered multiple miscarriages but had been determined they would keep trying after seeing how good her husband had been with her son from a previous relationship Tom.
Then in 1989 she fell pregnant with daughter Olivia after telling him ‘Fatherhood suits you. You’re very good at it’.
Washington, from Aberdeen, trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and had nearly 40 years’ experience in the film industry as a voice and dialect coach, working with stars including Anne Hathaway, Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Stone.
Among her early projects in the mid-80s were Yentl starring Barbra Streisand, Highlander, and The Bounty, featuring Mel Gibson and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Recent years saw her work on features such as The Witches, where she coached Hathaway for the part of the Grand High Witch, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy The Favourite, where she worked with Stone.
In a joint interview with The Independent in 2011, Grant recalled them meeting for the first time.
He said: ‘I met her at the Actors’ Centre in London. She was wearing a boiler suit and had fairly short, cropped hair and Kicker shoes, and was chain-smoking, which I thought was insane.
‘She was teaching an accent session with a bunch of actors, and I thought she had the most wonderful voice and huge, sort of monkey eyes. She seemed fairly frenetic.
‘I thought that she was really cute and all that. It was December 1982.’
The actor has previously admitted he had not considered getting married until he had met her.
Speaking in an interview with The Independent, he explained: ‘I’d never really thought about getting married, didn’t think it was necessary.
‘Joan had been married, and she had staunchly said to me that she didn’t want to get married again, and so we’d never talked about it.’
It wasn’t until the couple spent six weeks apart when Richard returned to his family home in southern Africa for a Christmas break that he realised marriage was the ultimate commitment.
The star proposed immediately upon his return and Joan happily accepted, with the couple going on to set up home together in Richmond, south-west London.
Richard added: ‘Before I got married, I didn’t hold any store by it.
‘My parents were divorced when I was 11 and it made such a profound impression on my life that I suppose I thought that by not getting married, you could avoid your life being carved in two. But that changed.’