Lady Eliza Spencer Shares Her "Dream" Destination Wedding Locale and How Her Proposal Was Like an "Out-Of-Body Experience"
Princess Diana's niece opened up about her engagement for the first time in an interview with 'Hello!'
Twins Lady Amelia Spencer and Lady Eliza Spencer are often spotted wearing coordinating outfits on London's social scene, and now Eliza has another accessory to match her sister's: an engagement ring. Amelia and Eliza, the younger daughters of Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer and his ex-wife, Victoria Aitken, grew up in South Africa. That’s also where Eliza met her future husband.
"I'd been single for about two years and wasn't really socializing much," Eliza told Hello! in a new interview on December 8. She was invited to a dinner party hosted by Lady Amelia's now-husband, Greg Mallett, and "didn't plan to go, but Amelia and my best friend dragged me there," Eliza admitted.
The couple dated for nine years before he popped the question in Santorini, Greece in July, and Millerd said that he went ring shopping with his father and brother-in-law, "visiting many different diamond merchants in South Africa, trying to find the perfect stone."
Eliza showed off her ring in a photo she shared from the engagement.
Eliza Spencer is seen at the British Museum Ball in October.
"I told him the shape that I loved," Eliza said of her 2.5-carat, pear-cut diamond ring. "It's perfect—the most beautiful ring ever—and so special that it's from South Africa."
Millerd got down on one knee during a romantic cliffside dinner on a balcony overlooking the sea. "I couldn't see," Eliza shared. "As my eyes were closed, the most beautiful song was playing."
She explained the music "was a cover of Stand By Me, played on the cello by Vesislava, an award-winning cellist," while Channing added that he "cried when I found that song."
Speaking of the moment her longtime boyfriend asked her to marry him, Eliza called it "an out-of-body experience." She continued, "I laughed and I cried. I don't know how he pulled it all off, but it was so special. He did the most amazing job—above and beyond. I couldn't have dreamt of such a beautiful setting. It really was a dream come true."
Eliza (right) and twin sister Amelia (left) posed at an October breast cancer awareness event.
Eliza (left) and Amelia are pictured at the Fashion Awards in London on December 1.
Eliza and Channing have thrown out a destination wedding as an idea, with Eliza stating, "I've never been to Lake Como, but it looks so beautiful. I think that would be my dream destination, but we still have to visit it first."
In October, Lady Eliza told Marie Claire that she was excited about finally celebrating her engagement with family and friends this Christmas.
"I'm looking forward to going back to Cape Town and his his family's obviously from South Africa, and a lot of our closest friends and, you know, my South African family," she said. "It'll be really nice to all just get together over that Christmas time and celebrate our engagement and Christmas and just all be together."
As for her family's holiday plans, Lady Eliza added, "We actually decorate the tree on the 24th, and then maybe watch a bit of Love, Actually, or something like that. The day is very relaxed. It's very different, obviously, to the traditional English way of doing it all. But it's just that time of year where it we've always managed to be together."
