The Most Lavish Celebrity Weddings Of All Time
Celebrity weddings are some of the most expensive and highly sought after events in the world. With the most beautiful brides and handsome grooms, it is hard to find a more perfect dream wedding anywhere. Putting on a magnificent day isn't all sunshine and rainbows though, especially when it comes to paying for everything and dealing with the paparazzi. We've collected the most stunning celebrity weddings and the juicy details about each, like who attended, and didn't, as well as how much the final check cost these Hollywood star couples.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
Not all marriages end in wedding bliss, as Tom Cruise found out with ex-wives Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman. He took a two million dollar gamble the third time with Katie Holmes when the two held a ceremony for friends and family on November 18, 2006. Cruise and Rogers were married about two years, while he and Kidman lasted a decade. Cruise and Holmes tied the knot at the Odescalchi Castle in Italy. A guest list of family and friends, plus a host of Hollywood stars, witnessed the Scientology ceremony. Katie’s pricey Armani dress was adorned with Swarovski crystals, and her lingerie was worth three thousand dollars. The wedding party also wore Armani atti
re. Odescalchi Castle typically comes with a rental price tag of fifty thousand dollars for private affairs, and for this wedding of the year, photographers paid 1,500 dollars for access to prime viewing spots. The next morning, the couple boarded a private jet with baby Suri to spend their honeymoon in the Maldives. They had forty pieces of luggage with plenty of toys in tow. Unfortunately, however, Tom Cruise's luck did not change and the couple divorced in 2012. This wedding ballparked the cost of 2 Million dollars for the couple that didn't last long at all.
Cruise was only twenty-four years old when he married Mimi Rogers, and the wedding was understated. It was a quiet ceremony in New York, unlike his lavish wedding with second wife, Kidman, in Australia in 1990. Together he and Kidman owned a three million dollar Los Angeles home, a 2.8 million dollar house in Darling Harbour, Australia, and Alibi, their forty-foot yacht.
When Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault signed nuptials on Valentine’s Day 2009 in Paris, it was the first of two ceremonies. A second was held in Venice on April 25, 2009, for a crowd of celebrities and was a two-day affair. Pinault, a French businessman and one of the richest individuals in the country, had no problem dropping 3.5 million dollars on the day full of a dreamy ceremonies and celebrations. A masquerade-themed rehearsal dinner kicked off the festivities on Friday night. The next day, guests descended on Teatro La Fenice opera house to see Hayek dressed in designer Nicholas Ghesquiere’s Balenciaga wedding dress. Her bouquet was a collection of fully-bloomed orchids and stephanotis, adorned with crystals. Guests adhered to the black tie dress code, some returning with Venetian masks.
Salma’s marriage advice is to 'find the right guy,' as she said in an interview in The Edit. The actress started her career in her home country of Mexico. She moved to Hollywood in 1991 to pursue her dreams and four years later landed a role opposite Antonio Banderas in Desperado. Hayek and Pinault met in 2006 when his stepmother introduced them. He is the CEO of Kering and has a net worth of 13.8 billion dollars. When asked about spending millions on the wedding, Salma denied it, saying, "I think spending millions of dollars on a wedding is ridiculous and it has never been my dream. I would never do that."
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Princess Salama
This could easily be classified as the most extravagant wedding in recent history. The seven-day event between the Prince of Abu Dhabi and Salama bint Hamdan bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan took place in 1981 at the Palace of Versailles. It was attended by guests who filled a twenty-thousand-seat stadium built for the occasion. The entire affair cost up to 137 million dollars. Over the course of the celebratory week, the couple traveled by horse, visiting and feasting with residents of each emirate of Dubai. The country declared a national holiday to mark the marriage. Camels, twenty in total, were also in tow and adorned with expensive jewels and carrying gifts for the bride-to-be. Guess this is what happens when a prince has a seven-day wedding affair.
Princess Salama is the founder of the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, whose goal is to improve social, economic, and educational opportunities for the people of the United Arab Emirates. As a mother, she strives to promote early childhood development and was recognized for her work in the arts when she was awarded three times for significant achievements. When his father, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, died in 2004, Sheikh Mohammed became the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. The next year, he added General of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces to his repertoire. Besides serving on various business and education boards, he holds political positions and, as a first, spoke to the country on matters concerning the United Arab Emirates in 2015.
Vanisha Mittal and Amit Bhatia
The father of the bride is recorded as one of the richest people in India, so it is no surprise he spent 55 million dollars on the marriage of his daughter, Vanisha Mittal to banker Amit Bhatia in 2004. An engagement party was held in Paris at the Palace of Versailles, while the main event filled the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte with pomp and circumstance. The couple invited one thousand international guests to witness the occasion. Not only did they receive invitations in silver boxes, but their complimentary plane tickets and five-star hotel bookings were also packaged inside. Guests were treated to a dinner flown in from India, followed by fireworks at the Eiffel Tower and a special concert by Kylie Minogue.
Vanisha is a graduate of Business and South Asian Studies from the European Business School and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She works for the family business as the director at LNM Holdings, Arcelor Mittal, Mittal Steel, Temirtau JSC. Her father is Lakshmi N. Mittal, chairman of the multi-billion-dollar company, ArcelorMittal. Amit Bhatia, now employed for one of his father-in-law’s companies in Britain, graduated from New York’s Cornell University in 2001. Educated in economics, he started his career at Morgan Stanley and Merill Lynch in New York before relocating to London to delve into investments. Some of his highlights include working for a gaming company, Supercell, and being one of the first to invest in Dropbox.
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries
Married in 2011, this seventy-two-day marriage did not turn out to be a smart investment of 10million dollars. Do the math, and that equates to $137,818.39 per day of not-so-wedded bliss. The wedding took place at the estate of Google’s executive chairman, Eric E. Schmidt in California. Complaints of traffic and other disturbances from Santa Barbara neighbors led to the enforcement of a new law because Schmidt had not acquired the designated permits. He was fined only one hundred dollars, but an increase to five thousand dollars was approved as a fine for first-time offenders in the county. It was done to eliminate the burden on taxpayers for the lifestyle of the rich.
The wedding party of ten consisted of five groomsmen and a bridal party of five. Kourtney Kardashian was maid of honor and her son, Mason, carried the symbolic white pillow. Kim’s Vera Wang wedding dress was a simple strapless gown, and Kris wore a white tuxedo jacket with black pants. After the vows, she switched to a flowing gown and Kris sported a black jacket. When the couple split, Kardashian received two million dollars from the divorce settlement. A year-and-a-half of legal issues ensued, and in the meantime, she became pregnant with her and Kayne West’s child. She later said she found out the marriage was “just one of those life lessons you have to learn, and it’s OK.”
Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky
Chelsea Clinton was sure to have an extravagant wedding as the daughter of former president of the United States, Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary. Taking place in Rhinebeck, New York, she married Marc Mezvinsky, son of political figures, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and Edward Mezvinsky, on July 31, 2010. It was an interfaith ceremony costing 3 million dollars. The Clintons gave their daughter the wedding of her dreams. It was a top-secret affair, but photos show Chelsea in a strapless gown with a jeweled sash. The Clintons spent about 600 thousand dollars on air-conditioned tents to help beat the heat of the summer ceremony. A highly coveted guest list and ample security also raised the price tag of the wedding.
Chelsea lived her teen years in the White House in front of the public eye. She attended Sidwell Friends School, where she was given more privacy. After graduation, she attained her master’s degree and by 2011, was hired as a correspondent for NBC. In 2015, she authored It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired and Get Going! She sits on the board of the Clinton Foundation.
Marc was raised in a Conservative Jewish upbringing. He met Chelsea as both sets of parents were friends. Three years after their wedding, the couple moved from Gramercy Park in New York to Manhattan’s Flatiron District, where they bought a 10.5 million dollar condominium. They have one daughter, Charlotte, born in September 2014, and son, Aidan, born in June 2016.
Paul McCartney and Heather Mills
Former Beatle Paul McCartney married second wife, Heather Mills, on June 11, 2002. The wedding, which ended four years later in a rocky divorce, came with a 3.6 million dollar price tag. Held in Ireland with an Indian theme, details were kept on the lowdown. Reports estimate the cost of flowers and fireworks neared 300 thousand dollars, but what cost even more than that was the venue: a castle. The secret ceremony was kept quiet, and guests were asked to arrive at one of Heathrow Airport’s hotels, from which they would be flown to the location. McCartney wrote a song, Heather, for the wedding reception, which had a celebrity-laden guest list of three hundred. A rare photo leaked out after, showing McCartney performing a striptease there for his new bride.
McCartney married Linda Eastman in 1969. She died of breast cancer four years before his nuptials with Mills. Public scrutiny of his relationships in 2004 led McCartney to reply, "[the British public] didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher ... I married [Linda], a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that". McCartney and Mills split on May 17, 2006, but the final divorce settlement did not take place until early 2008. Mills cited McCartney’s daughter, Stella, as the cause of the separation, saying she was 'jealous' and 'evil,' but other sources suggest Mills was a gold digger. She received £16.5 million and assets totaling £7.8 million, plus annual child support of £35 thousand.
Melania Knauss and Donald Trump
When Slovenian model Melania Knauss married The Trump in 2005, times were different. Bill and Hillary Clinton were on the guest list of the lavish million-dollar wedding, and the two were not under the same magnifying glass as they are today and Melania said it was a simpler time. “It was completely different than it is now,” she added. They were married in Trump’s 126-room mansion in Florida. Melania wore a Dior dress with 1,500 crystals, which took 550 hours to make and cost 100 thousand dollars. Trump was in a traditional tuxedo. The wedding cake, made of Grand Marnier, stood at five feet tall and weighed two hundred pounds. Entertainment included serenades by Tony Bennett and Billy Joel.
In his third marriage, Donald's net worth was 4.5 billion dollars according to Forbes’ 2015 list, but Donald claims it is more than ten billion dollars. He married his first wife, Ivana Zelníčková, on April 7, 1977, but after a troubled relationship and his affair with Marla Maples, they divorced in 1991. He was then married to Maples for six years.
Prince William and Kate Middleton
Not to be outdone by his parents, Prince William’s marriage to Kate put the Royal Family out by 34 million dollars. The two dated for ten years before making the matrimonial commitment on April 29, 2011. When they announced their engagement on October 20, 2010, the country anticipated an occasion on par with the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. The 2,800 guests, one million people on the streets and tens of millions of television viewers were not disappointed. The ceremony took place at the Westminster Abbey in London with 1,900 invitees, followed by a reception for lunch served at Buckingham Palace for six hundred guests. The dinner, hosted by the Prince of Wales was limited to three hundred people.
Security took the majority of the entire wedding budget, costing a whopping thirty-two million dollars, while flowers weighed in at 800 thousand dollars. Instead of gifts, the happy couple asked for donations to various charities, which resulted in Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton Charitable Gift Fund being formed. Kate named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World is a fashionista who has created the Kate Middleton effect on the world of British and American fashion. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and the son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, is second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles.
Prince Charles and Lady Diana
Married on July 29, 1981, the 'wedding of the century' came in at a total cost of 110 million dollars. Not only did Diana’s dress cost as much as many couple’s entire wedding, totaling thirteen thousand dollars, but security came to 600 thousand dollars. The wedding took place a year after the couple started dating. Lady Di wore an ivory silk taffeta gown adorned with handmade Carrickmacross antique lace, embroidery, sequins, ten thousand pearls, and a twenty-five-foot-long train designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel. It had an estimated value of £9000 at the time. Charles was dressed in a full naval commander uniform. The wedding party had seven in the bridal party and two best men.
Lady Di arrived to meet Charles at the St. Paul’s Cathedral, escorted by six mounted metropolitan police officers, in the glass coach with her father, John Spencer. There were 3,500 guests, including royalty from all over Europe. Two million spectators tried to catch a glimpse along the roadways, and approximately 750 million people watched the ceremony on television. The ceremony was followed by a breakfast at Buckingham Palace for 120 selected guests, and the reception included twenty-seven wedding cakes. Two official wedding cakes were prepared by the Naval Armed Forces, which took fourteen days, one as a back-up if the other was ruined. The couple honeymooned in Broadlands, then cruised in the Mediterranean and ended in Scotland with family.
