Still audibly on a high just 48 hours after marrying footballer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in Portugal, pop star Perrie Edwards tells Vogue that their intimate wedding, held over the weekend in a picturesque Catholic church in the sleepy village of Estoi, was “the best day of my life—up there with the births of my children.”

One of those was remarkably recent: the couple only welcomed their daughter Alanis—a little sister to four-year-old Axel—in January. “It’s been a whirlwind!” agrees Perrie, who will also be on the festival circuit this summer following the release of her debut solo album. “I have a brand-new baby, she’s just five months. It was so special to have her there in her little dress.”

As for her own gown, Perrie says she always knew she would wear lace on her wedding day. “I’ve always envisioned myself in lace,” says the singer, who shot to fame as a member of Little Mix on The X Factor in 2011, back when they became the first group to win the TV talent show. “It’s just so classic and timeless.” Perrie found her form-skimming Dana Harel design with a pooling train at the “incredible” Browns Bride in London. A bolero offered the trailing lace sleeves she’d dreamed of, but could be removed once the Mediterranean heat grew too intense. “It couldn’t have been more perfect,” she says now.

Following the church ceremony, Perrie switched into a crystal embellished floor-length dress by Galia Lahav and Jimmy Choo heels for the first dance. Once the band, Sol & the Gang (“I can’t shout them out enough”), had the entire wedding party on the dance floor, it was time for one last outfit change: a custom minidress from bridal fave Annie’s Ibiza with Christian Louboutin heels and a dramatic matching headdress. “I wanted to change for the evening so I could dance and be free,” says the bride. “It was short and fun and fab and cinched to the heavens with the corset!”

Despite everything she’s juggling, the planning process went smoothly, save for one diamond necklace-shaped drama in the days before the wedding. “Alex gave me a diamond necklace after I gave birth to Axel and I wear it every single day, but the day before I came away to Portugal it went missing. I cried all day, we looked everywhere—we even checked the hoover—but it was gone. I was convinced someone had stolen it.”

On the morning of the wedding, hairstylist Aaron Carlo—who also styled the bride on the day—was helping her to get ready when a minor miracle occurred. “He was sorting through my hair extensions and he said, ‘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.’” Sure enough, upon seeing the precious locket he’d found caught up in the hair, “I sobbed,” she confirms, laughing. “I was so happy and so relieved. It set the tone—I knew from that moment it was gonna be the best day ever.”