Chloe Laws, acting senior audience development manager
Last month was a biggie for me. I got married at the end of June in a fun-filled London wedding in my neighborhood of Hackney, with 145 of my nearest and dearest. We danced through the heat to pop classics, ate full-to-the-brim souvlaki wraps, and generally had the most silly, lovely time. I’m slightly bereft that I’ll rarely have another occasion to wear a huge taffeta gown (mine was made by the talented designers at The Own Studio), or accessorize with an iconic Simone Rocha pearl egg clutch.
After packing up the wedding venue the next day, my partner and I hopped on a flight (and then a ferry) to the Italian island of Ischia to decompress. And decompress we did, with lazy days spent floating in the sea and soaking in the thermal pools at the hotel where we holed up—San Montano—which has now become a firm favorite and somewhere we’re already planning to return to for a future wedding anniversary. We ate exceptionally well, hopping between small trattorias, local pizza spots, and beach clubs. My hankering for proper buffalo mozzarella since returning has been insatiable. Two weekends before the big day, I also ventured to the Cotswolds for a remote cabin stay to settle any pre-wedding jitters. If you like the idea of a cabin but don’t want to forgo any luxuries, the newly opened Alcoves are a treat.
All in all, I think I’ll look back on June 2026 as one of the best months of my life, which means July has some big boots to fill. More realistically, though, its task is to stave off the inevitable post-wedding blues. First on the agenda is a low-key weekend in the city, where I’ll be going to the Tracey Emin exhibition, seeing a screening of Olivia Wilde’s new film The Invite, and mooching from coffee shop to coffee shop, writing, planning, and regrouping after a few busy months. Then the rest of the month is full of even more love, with two weddings (dotted across England) and a stay at The Hoste Arms in Norfolk, near where some of my family live. On the final day of July, I’ll be traveling once more, this time to Mykonos—my first visit—for a slow jaunt around the island, checking out a few hotels and working my way through my summer TBR pile. I’ve just finished the funny and razor-sharp Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash, and next up is Josh Silver’s Fruit Fly.
