Weddings are events that most people would like to have in their lives. Birthdays are special, but nothing beats the feeling of being united in the love of life. Weddings can be a handful of events, but celebrity weddings are mostly off the charts. From choosing the right dress/suit, wedding shopping, to writing the guest list and choosing the perfect cake design, among other things, you can’t imagine how much money will be spent to sculpt a perfect wedding. So many of these celebrities have pledged to give their diaries things to write about at their cherished celebrity weddings.
We’ve taken the time to pick out the top 20 of this expensive celebrity wedding for your viewing pleasure.
1. Diana to Prince Charles – $110 million
This royal wedding took place on July 29, 1981, and topped the list of the most expensive celebrity weddings of all time. The late Princess Diana’s dress, with its 25-foot train – the longest in history – in hand-embroidered ivory silk taffeta was covered in 10,000 pearls. Its value was £9,000.
The wedding was attended by members of the British Royal Family, Republican Heads of State and the bride’s family. In total, the wedding had 3,500 guests. Over 30 cakes were baked for the event and the site was heavily reinforced in terms of security – security alone costing $660,000. The total expenses incurred for the wedding are dubbed “Wedding of the Century” and rounded up to $110 million. Down that!
2. Vanisha Mittal to Amit Bhatia – $78 million
This comes second on our list of most expensive celebrity weddings in history. The groom was a British-born Indian who had made a name for himself as a very successful businessman while the bride was a holder of several family degrees one of the richest men in the world – Lakshmi Mittal, a steel magnate.
The wedding lasted a week and included dinners and ceremonies at the destination venues. There were approximately 1,000 guests whose travel expenses and accommodation in a 5-star hotel were covered by the couple and their families. Among the expenses is the $33,000 honorarium paid to music star Kylie Minogue. The wedding cost a specific amount of 78 million dollars. Talk about expensive celebrity weddings and voila.
3. Princess Salma to Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan – $45 million
Sheikh Mohammed is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, UAE. He married in 1981 in a 20,000 seat stadium specially built for the event. It lasted seven days and included horseback riding of the bride and groom in all the cities of the emirates and gifts.
The wedding included jeweled camels that brought the bride’s gifts to her husband. This wedding cost $45 million at the time, but would cost around a hundred million dollars if it were to be today.
4. Katherine Middleton to Prince William – $34 million
This royal wedding went down in history as the fourth most expensive celebrity weddings. It was estimated to have cost $34 million. Prince William is the second in line to the throne of England and he is getting married to his longtime friend Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London on April 29, 2011.
Most of the wedding guests were top notch celebrities. The amount spent on his security was $8 million. Kate’s wedding dress, designed by Sarah Burton, cost $430,000; along with her bouquet of flowers and the cake, the cost rose to $1.3 million. Around 2,500 people attended and the show was broadcast around the world.
5. Aleksandra Kokotovic to Andrei Melinchenko – $30 million
Aleksandra Kokotovic is a model and former Miss Yugoslavia. She is also Serbian and the wife of Russian business tycoon, Andrei Melinchenko. The couple tied the knot in a grand wedding in September 2005 in Cote d’Azur, Rivera, France. Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera flew to France and paid $3.6 million to perform at the event. The number and caliber of guests are unknown, but one can imagine who was on the list. The total cost of the wedding was $30 million, putting it on par with the next wedding we’ll be looking into.
6. Kim Kardashian to Kanye West – $30 million
The wedding of popular rapper and singer, Kanye West to his gorgeous bride, Kim Kardashian came with a lot of glitz and glamour. They were married on May 24, 2014 at the 16th century fortress, locally called Forte di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. Kim had been married before – one of the most expensive celebrity weddings on our list – but the cost of her marriage to Kanye West exceeded that of her previous marriage (and we even think she deserves an award for making two entries on our expensive celebrity weddings list). This wedding was celebrated at a cost of 30 million dollars and her dress cost 500,000 dollars, while 250,000 dollars were spent on the logistics of transporting guests. The reception spanned two different countries, yes, you heard that right!
7. Priya Sachdev to Vikram Chatwal – $20 million
The seventh on our list of the most expensivePriya Sachdev and Vikram Chatwal, who married in February 2006, occupy celebrity weddings. Priya is an actress and model who featured in the Indian version of Elle, while Vikram is a former hotelier, actor and model who is popular for his nightlife. Priya got married in the traditional Indian way. The wedding brought together 600 guests who were flown by private jets to three Indian cities, from Bombay to Udaipur and finally to Delhi.
The wedding lasted 10 days and cost $20 million. Bill Clinton, former President of the United States of America, was present.
8. Petra Ecclestone to James Stunt – $20 million
The lavish wedding held at the Odeshalchi Palace at Lake Bracciano, Italy in 2011. Petra Ecclestone is the daughter of British business magnate and former motorsport CCEO, Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone; and even though the groom, James Stunt is also a billionaire tycoon, it was Petra’s father, Bernie, who single-handedly sponsored the wedding.
Talking about expenses, the wedding venue cost £330,000. The wedding featured standout performances from music superstars such as The Black Eyed Peas and Alicia Keys, priced at $2.6 million. The event also had a feel of good music mixed in by popular DJ David Guetta. The wedding cost $20 million.
9. Kim Kardashian to Kris Humphries – $10 million
Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian’s extravagant wedding is one of the most expensive celebrity weddings of all time. It took place on August 20, 2011 in California and was endowed with 10 million dollars. It was Kim’s first wedding and she got there with flying colors changing three Vera Wang dresses that cost a total of $60,000. She also had diamonds worth $20,000 at the wedding while her wedding cake cost $20,000.
Members of the Kardashian family were in attendance alongside over 400 other guests which included celebrities such as Demi Lovato, Eva Longoria, Ciara, and more. The reception was superb and grabbed headlines.
10. Yvette Prieto to Michael Jordan – $10 million
Micheal Jordan is our favorite former basketball player who played for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. He married Yvette Prieto, a Cuban model in 2013. The couple married at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Church in Palm Beach and hosted around 300 guests.
The wedding was estimated to cost $10 million. This high cost is mainly due to the wedding dress, the cake, the white roses and the stunning golf reception located in Florida, among others. Usher Raymond, sensational R&B singer, was among the guests.
11. Coleen McLoughlin to Wayne Rooney – $8 million
Wayne Rooney’s wedding to his idol, Coleen McLoughlin was one of a kind and lasted for four days – starting July 12, 2008. Coleen and Wayne were high school sweethearts and got married at Villa Durazzo on the Italian Riviera. Wayne Rooney is a footballer (soccer) who played for English football club, Manchester United and the England national team while Coleen McLoughlin was a television presenter. Her wedding dress is rumored to have cost up to £20,000 and beaded into it.
Guests were flown by private jets to Italy and luxury reservations were made for their comfort. Coleen’s favorite band, Westlife, played a $700,000 musical snippet, excluding travel expenses. The wedding cost the couple $8 million.
12. Delphine Arnault to Alessandro Vallarino Gancia – $7 million
Delphine Arnault exchanged her wedding vows with Alessandro Vallarino Gancia at the Cathedrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste and had a grand reception at the monumental Château d’Yquem vineyard in Bordeaux, France. Marriage was the talk of the town in France in 2005.
The couple included the president of the Louis Vuitton empire Moët Hennessy as the future wife and future heir to an Italian wine dynasty.
Arnault’s dress was designed by House of Dior and you bet it cost a fortune, although that cost is not documented anywhere. The white rose-adorned wedding and reception reportedly cost the couple $7 million.
13. Jessica Biel to Justin Timberlake – $6.5 million
The American singer got engaged and married Jessica Biel at the Borgo Egnazia hotel in southern Italy on October 12, 2006. Jessica broke the classic rule of wearing a white wedding dress by wearing a pink Giambattista Valli Haute Couture dress. Absolutely stunning!
Justin Timberlake loves his privacy and went the extra mile to make sure his wedding didn’t get inundated with paparazzi. He paid for all the rooms in the hotel, paid for neighboring buildings to shut them down and put in tight security. Her guest list was just a minimum of 100 people which mostly included stars. The wedding cost $6.5 million.
14. Chelsea Clinton to Marc Mezvinsky – $5.4 million
The son of former Pennsylvanian Congressman MarcMezvinsky married Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former United States President Bill Clinton, in 2010. The wedding took place at Astor Courts Estate, New York, in $600,000 of air-conditioned tents.
The couple exchanged their vows in front of 400 guests who were mostly celebrities. The bride’s wedding dress was a chic and modern strapless white dress that complemented her beauty. The event had tight security and cost $5.4 million.
15. Gabrielle Union to Dwayne Wade – $5 million
Gabrielle Union’s wedding makes our list of the most expensive celebrity weddings. The Hollywood star tied the knot with her fiancé, Dwayne Wade, on August 30, 2014. The wedding took place at Artisan Castle, Miami.
Gabriella looked stunning in her Dennis Bassorobe. Some 200 guests attended her wedding, including Hollywood stars Kevin Hart, Ludacris, LeBron James and classical music group John Legend, who also performed. All wedding-related expenses cost the couple $5 million.
16. Amal Alamuddin to George Clooney – $4.6 million
One of Hollywood’s richest celebrities, actor and producer, George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin and the couple partied in Venice, Italy on September 27, 2014. George looked handsome as usual in his Armani tuxedo, while his fiancée wore an Oscar de la Renta dress. The wedding lasted a weekend and paid for all the rooms at the Cipriani Hotel.
The guest had over 100 guests and they all enjoyed an all expense paid trip. The wedding cost $4.6 million.
17. Liza Minnelli to David Gest – $4.2 million
American producer and television personality David Gest tied the knot at a fairly late age, however, in very grand style. He married Liza Minneli on March 16, 2012. The wedding was marked by the appearance of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, as the groom’s best man and by Elizabeth Taylor, as the bridesmaid.
The wedding was attended by 850 guests and was held on Fifth Avenue, New York. The wedding cost $4.2 million.
18. Elizabeth Taylor to Larry Fortensky – $4 million
Elizabeth Taylor is famous not only for her beauty, but also for her fleet of weddings. The legendary Hollywood star of Hollywood ended up with a construction worker – Larry Fortensky – as her last husband.
The couple married on October 6, 1992 at MichaelJackson’s Neverland Ranch. The wedding had 150 close friends in attendance. Veteran Hollywood actor Eddie Murphy was among the guests. Wedding expenses have been rounded up to $4 million.
19. Trista Rehn to Ryan Sutter – $4 million
When talking about the most cherished fairy tales and celebrity weddings, those of Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter would certainly not be outdone. The couple met on the ABC television series The Bachelorette and married on its finale episode on December 6, 2003.
Their wedding was shown live and had over 17million viewers. Most of the wedding costs were covered by the ABC station, while the couple contributed $1 million. The total cost of the weddings was $4 million.
20. Salma Hayek to Francois-Henri Pinault – $2.6 million
Last on our list is the most romantic. The wedding ceremony took place on February 14, 2009 – Valentine’s Day. The true celebration of love took place at the Grand Teatro La Fenice, in Venice, Italy.
The Hollywood actress turned heads with her gorgeous Balenciaga dress and the bouquet of orchids and stephanotis in her hand. The wedding guest list numbered 150 people, mostly celebrities and family members. The reception was a masquerade party and the wedding cost $2.6 million.