Celebrity Weddings
Nuptials of Royalty, the Rich and Famous
The weddings of the rich and famous continue to capture the interest of the public, tantalizing us with the abundant display of extravagance and romance that seems to know no bounds. From the beautiful locations and towering wedding cakes to stunning wedding jewelry and designer wedding gowns, celebrity weddings come close to making us believe in fairy tales.
However, sometimes it is hard to remember that weddings are actually about the joining of two people. When one of the individuals is in a dress with a 25 foot train showing off an 18-carat diamond, it is easy to forget that vows are actually exchanged too. This was the case at the legendary wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles on July 29, 1981. Their wedding was the first public view of wedding extravagance. Princess Diana had a fairy tale wedding, showing young girls all over the world that it could happen, and it did. The media and the public were fascinated with Diana and Charles and their relationship. The media captured every detail of the fairy tale wedding from the flowers, the cake, the gowns, and the bridal jewelry. Brides-to-be all over the world know that she had five bridesmaids and her bouquet was made of gardenias, lilies, white freesia and golden roses, and are telling their florists that is what they want for their wedding, too. The wedding was such a media event that commemorative mugs and t-shirts were made to remember the day. Princess Diana and Prince Charles honeymooned in style too; first starting in Hampshire then on a royal yacht in the Mediterranean.
The heavy coverage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles' wedding can be considered the beginning of an era. Celebrity weddings were extravagant 20 years ago, but today they have exceeded all precedents and expectations. One need not look any further than the wedding of Donald Trump and Melania Knauss on January 22, 2005 to see the extent of extravagance. It was considered the celebrity wedding of the year, but there was a great deal of media coverage even long before the big event. Knauss posed for Vogue magazine in her wedding dress several months before the wedding and divulged wedding details in an accompanying article. The wedding dress, a Christian Dior Haute Couture design, cost $200,000 and weighed 50 pounds. The media continues to feed off weddings in every way by getting the exclusive story or details, photography rights or even an invitation; it is a bustling billion dollar business.
Trump and Knauss' wedding had guest list of 300 top figures from the media, politics, sports, and entertainment. They were married in Palm Beach, Florida where a local ordinance disallows fireworks and pyrotechnics, but for Donald Trump, it is a certainty that a little money helped them make an exception. The wedding cake for Donald and Melania weighed in at 200 pounds, with seven layers, topped with 3,000 white icing roses. The cost of the cake could put a student through college, but instead of criticizing celebrities for their extravagant ways, the public is fascinated, and continues to search for all the glamorous details.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes celebrated their marriage at Odescalchi Castle in Italy
The year following, another elaborate celebrity wedding was held at the Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy. The November 16, 2006 wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes was a lavish four-day affair that reportedly cost $3.5 million. Katie wore a custom Giorgio Armani off-the-shoulder wedding gown adorned with Valenciennes lace and Swarovski crystals and held a bouquet of calla lilies arranged by Roberta Armani. The nuptials were followed by a reception in the castle's Hall of the Caesars, which was decorated with thousands of white and red roses. At the reception, guests enjoyed a dinner catered by Dal Bolognese, followed by a five-tier, white chocolate mousse cake decorated with marzipan roses for dessert, and Andrea Bocelli serenaded the couple with Italian love songs. The meal was followed by a fireworks display set to classical music. The couple left the next morning on a private yacht for their Maldives honeymoon.
The public's interest in celebrity weddings isn't limited to royalty or wealthy, as seen in the popularity of reality television couple Trista and Ryan. It is hard to believe, but an estimated 17 million people tuned in to see the wedding of Trista and Ryan, the couple from ABC's The Bachelorette in December of 2003. Trista Rehn, the star of The Bachelorette chose Ryan Sutter as her mate during the season of the hit reality show. They were one of the media's most-watched couples, and when ABC offered to pick up the tab on the wedding for television rights, the couple said okay. The wedding was reported as costing $3.77 million dollars. Just the roses alone cost a half million and had to be imported from Ecuador. The wedding gown had a $70,000 price tag, and the shoes Trista wore were decorated with 282 diamonds, a $50,000 value. The event required 500 employees, and the location, a Palm Beach resort, had to be shut down four days beforehand to prepare for the event and set up security. The public and media soaked up all the benefits as well, producing an event with amazing economic benefit and an exciting television presentation for an eager audience.
