Taylor SwiftWhy was New York’s Madison Square Garden chosen for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s knot-tying?
It wasn’t that it could hold 20,000 of their nearest and dearest.
There were a number of reasons. State of the art security and VIP surveillance provided by the venue for its events, and its closed roof and lack of windows meant paparazzi and drones couldn’t film inside.
It was also offered sentimental value. Swift had performed there many times. The MSG also represented top tier concerts and sports matches, which summed up their two worlds.
However, there were ten cooler places they could have done their wedding waltz in.
Australia Zoo
Actually this was offered to Taylor and Travis by wildlife conservationist and zestful TV personality Robert Irwin. He told them, “hit me up” if they wanted to be surrounded by mother nature during their precious day.
Las Vegas Chapel
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This was where Britney Spears hitched up to someone called Jason Alexander, whom none of her friends knew. Apparently they were childhood friends who had recently reconnected.
On January 2, 2004, they’d gone clubbing at Ghostbar, the nightclub at Las Vegas’ Palms Casino Hotel where they were staying.
Some time in the night, club security was informed Brit wanted a limo. A lime green one belonging to the hotel was provided.
The hotel bellhop drove them down to the Little White Wedding Chapel, a quickie place with packages as a pink Cadillac driven by an Elvis Presley impersonator, serenades by an Elvis tribute act and drive-through Tunnel Of Love.
Others who’d entered heavenly bliss there were The Chicks’ Natalie Maines, and Bruce Willis & Demi Moore.
However the chapel staff told the two they could not get married until they got a licence. No problems, even though it was well past midnight. The bellhop carted them to the Clark County Marriage Bureau office and woke somebody up to do the paperwork.
They returned to the chapel for the vows. She wore a baseball cap and sneakers, and was walked down the aisle by the bellhop.
Alas, once they became sober, the marriage was annulled after 55 hours. In her memoirs, The Woman In Me, Brit said they were “very drunk” and “bored” and the whole thing was “innocent fun”.
But, oops, she did it again, this time with one of her dancers, Kevin Federline. On September 18, 2004, the original location was the Spanish-themed Ritz-Carlton Bacara Resort and Spa near Santa Barbara, California.
Others who had also done a fling-and-a-ring there included Nick Carter & Lauren Kitt, Fergie & Josh Duhamel, and Travis Barker & Shanna Moakler, whose ceremony had a red and black Nightmare Before Christmas theme.
In the case of True Brit and K-Fed (as he was quickly christened by the media), a pesky media person leaked the news.
It was hastily moved to 4053 Farmdale Ave. in the affluent Colfax Meadows neighbourhood of Studio City in Hollywood. It was their wedding planner’s house. The liaison went kaput 24 months later, and the groom’s nickname changed to FedEx.
Oak Beach, Tropical Queensland
The 145-acre Thala Beach Lodge which fronts on to the 2km Oak Beach, south of tropical Port Douglas, was where Silverchair’s Daniel Johns and Natalie Imbruglia held a secret ceremony on December 31, 2003 at sunset. A select few family and friends met at a Cairns hotel and bussed down for the festivities.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported she was in a designer gown, and he was in a vintage blue suit. Everyone danced away the night to a piece of orchestral music composed for the day, and a DJ set from Daniel’s close friend Paul Mac.
Bali, Indonesia
Over their first 12 years together, Texas-born model Jerry Hall proudly boasted she carried a wedding ring with at all times “just in case”. That moment came when Hall and Mick Jagger arrived in Bali at the tail end of an Asian holiday.
They stayed at the Amandari luxury resort overlooking the Ayung River in the village of Kedewatan in the hills of Ubud. On November 21, 1990, they got married in a six-hour traditional Balinese Hindu ceremony in the modest home of a wood carver.
Rituals included the purifying of the site by slitting the throat of a black chicken and scattering its blood.
Jagger and Hall’s two children, Elizabeth, 6, and James, 5, attended the finger-shackle. The best man was Alan Dunn, a one-time Rolling Stones tour director.
However, someone forgot to register the exchange of vows. When they got divorced in 1999, the High Court of England and Wales declared the marriage had therefore been invalid, making it null and void. Hall had no claim on the Jagger fortune.
Statue of Liberty, New York City
Billy Joel and his uptown girl, Christie Brinkley, sailed their guests around the New York Harbour in a 147-foot yacht, and then parked next to the Statue of Liberty.
Beach In Cancun, Mexico
Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson (then a Playboy model) met in Hollywood’s Sanctuary nightclub. He slobbered, “I’m going to marry you” and licked her face. “No one's ever said that to me in a first sentence,'" she cooed, giving him her telephone number.
He rang as she was about to fly to Mexico for a photoshoot, “You’re going without me?” She told him, “Please don’t come there.” He replied, “OK, see you later.”
He then surprised her by catching a Mexico-bound flight and turning up at the Ritz-Carlton where she was staying.
Lee wasn’t allowed into the hotel, so their first date was at a disco called La Boom.
In his band Mötley Crüe's 2001 autobiography, The Dirt, he recalled his proposal. "I took off my pinky ring, put it on her finger and asked her to marry me. She said yes, hugged me and stuck her tongue down my throat."
About 96 hours later, they were on a Cancun beach reciting their vows before eight people.
The date was February 19, 1995. She was barefoot and in a white bikini. Rather than exchange rings, they tattooed each other’s names on their ring fingers. On their honeymoon they recorded a now-infamous sex tape. By 1998, she accused him of physical violence and ended it.
Yacht In France
Detroit rocker Kid Rock, 35, and Pamela Anderson, 39, began chilling out in 2001 and announced their engagement in April 2002. "I'm in love. I'm happy, I see the light,” she said about her second waltz up the aisle. He, a first timer, told a magazine, "[I] love her to death."
They had a few split-ups. But on July 29, 2006, they got married on a mutual friend’s yacht off the French resort of St Tropez. She sported a white bikini and captain’s hat, he was in shorts and a fedora.
But the hitch-up wasn’t legally binding under French law. So they held more ceremonies, in Detroit, in a Beverly Hills courthouse (legalising it on August 3), and onstage on August 17 in Nashville bar Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge surprising its patrons.
She was in a white Juicy Couture tracksuit. He was in his signature white tank and sang Some Kind Of Wonderful to her. She filed for divorce in November.
12th Century Cathedral In Malta
Delta Goodrem and musician and songwriter Matthew Copley were in Malta in 2023 for a music festival. That night, in the seven-acre gardens of Valetta’s five-star Phoenicia Hotel, he popped the question.
When they chose the wedding date for June 2025, it was a return to Malta. This time it was the 12th century baroque-style St. Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina.
“Both Matt and I love tradition,” Delta told Vogue. “We love history, connection, and family is everything to us. So finding the right mix of elegance and a whole heap of fun, a bit of luxury and grandeur that was also grounded, and kept our love relatively private, was important to us.”
She used two Australian designers. Paul Vasileff, creative director and designer of Australian formal wear label Paolo Sebastian who dressed her for the Logies and a music video, based her gown on the interior of the cathedral.
For the reception at Naxxar’s 18th century estate Palazzo Parisio, with Italianate gardens, Con Ilio created two gowns. Read Vogue’s full report here.
Wildwood Valley Winery, WA
One of the best BS stories from social media in February 2019 was that when Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker and school friend, marketing strategist Sophie Lawrence, took it to the next level, it was in a McDonald’s café!
It was actually celebrated at an Italian family-run award winning Margaret River winery called Credaro Family Estate. The reception site was decorated with red roses and white orchids.
There was a McDonalds connection, however. The 175 guests were treated to slow-cooked meats through the night. But at midnight, 150 Macca burgers were delivered and the party swung on until dawn.
Palace of Versailles, France
The lavish Palace of Versailles outside Paris can be hired for upwards of €500,000 (close to AU$825,000) if you have a guest list of 1,000. The price goes up with food and drinks, fireworks and fountain displays.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian actually wanted to do their altar-strike here on May 23, 2014. But French officials refused permission.
So West, who planned the whole event, turned Versailles into a pre-wedding dinner on the Friday night, with the entourage flown to Florence, Italy, the next day for the maritals.
Their entourage of 750 – including producer Rick Rubin and artist manager Guy Oseary – were flown in from the United States in a chartered plane. On arrival they had brunch at designer Valentino Garavani’s 17th century chateau.
At 7:30 pm, guests were delivered to the palace in 90 vehicles to be met by plumed horses and staff in 18th century costumes.
West in a suit with satin lapels, arrived in a Porsche. Seeing him, fans who’d been hanging around outside for hours, broke through the barricades and started thumping on the car windows shouting “Beyoncé! Johnny Depp!”
Dinner was at the famous Hall of Mirrors, which King Louis XIV had built with 357 mirrors and decorated with rare paintings, statues and furniture, to remind other European rulers he was the Sun King.
Guests were entertained with horse-and-carriage rides, a palace tour, a full orchestra, a seven minute fireworks display and a surprise live set from Lana Del Ray.
The next morning, the guests were taken by chartered plane to Florence for the sunset vow-exchanges.
It was at the 16th century fortress Forte di Belvedere, with outstanding views of the city, and a hiring price tag of 300,000 euros or AU$500,000.
Kim wore a US$500,000 long sleeved lace Givenchy gown. Their eldest daughter North, then 11-months old, also wore Givenchy. The parents said she had been conceived in Florence. Andrea Bocelli serenaded the couple with Con te Partire.
Vows were exchanged before a 20-foot wall covered in white flowers. At the reception, John Legend sang All Of Me for their first dance. There were $100,000 worth of flowers, a seven-tier cake and a 224-foot (68 meter) marble dining table.
The Italian part of the nuptials later made for entertaining viewing on At Home With The Kardashians.
It concerned sister Kourtney’s 2022 wedding to Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, which was also in Italy and also used Bocelli. “You stole my fucking wedding country and my wedding performer,” Kim screeched.
