Weddings are dedicated occasions to celebrating love, but there’s nothing about love that excludes opulence and luxury, now is there?
Celebrities and high-class socialites alike are renowned for their extravagance when it comes to hosting wedding parties, with invitees exceeding a thousand, flowers from the most exotic locales, gowns worth more than their homes, and beautiful dance floors invigorated with music from the hottest DJs and recording artists.
We have to give them credit when it comes to the attention to detail and when it comes to knowing how to throw a good party! These weddings were all notable in that their guests danced the night away. Some because they were so thoroughly indulged in champagne and caviar to notice how much their Manolo Blahniks hurt their feet.
Others because the musical entertainment was remarkably on point. Either way, these are the opulent and luxurious wedding discos of the rich and famous:
Celebrity Opulence: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel
In October of 2002, JT and Jessica threw a crazy wedding bash but didn’t want a bunch of paparazzi showing up and ruining their wedding.
So they went out of the country to get hitched. Surrounded by friends and relatives, the pair tied the knot at the Borgo Egnazia resort in Italy with celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Timbaland, and Andy Samberg in attendance. Renowned DJ and musician Questlove, of The Roots fame, took to the DJ booth during the wedding reception. The happy couple spent in upwards of $6.5 million on the festivities, which surely kept folks on the dance floor until late into the evening. It didn’t succeed in keeping their marriage together, however, but that’s another story.
Hollywood Royalty: Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise
In November of 2006, these tabloid favorites also took their nuptials to Italy in an estimated $3.5 million affair at the medieval Odescalchi Castle in Lake Bracciano, after three days of festivities in Rome.
The couple was decked out in Giorgio Armani designs, and after the ceremony, the 150 guests, including Brooke Shields, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez, enjoyed cocktails, dinner, and toasts to the happy couple, while singer Andrea Bocelli provided an ambient and decadent musical performance in the background. Then night’s extravagance was then kicked off with a fireworks display, which prompted DJ Mark Ronson to take to the DJ booth. He spun the tunes all night long, maintaining the classy disco vibe for all to enjoy.
The It-Couple: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt
This A-list pair famously took their vows in July of 2000 at a beachside Malibu mansion in front of 200 guests including their A-list cohort of friends Cameron Diaz, Courteney Cox, Salma Hayek and Edward Norton.
Aniston spared no expense on her frock and walked down the aisle in a glass-beaded silk and satin Lawrence Steele gown with Manolo Blahnik heels and a Swarovski crystal crown. A 40-person gospel choir sang the wedding march, creating a mystical aura to go along with her ethereal appearance. The reception and subsequent disco balanced somehow a Zen garden motif with Latin Jazz. The dance floor, lined with lanterns and floating lotus flowers, played host to the Latin jazz band Gypsy Magic, who performed elegantly all night long. Almost five years later, the couple filed for divorce, and we know where his then co-star Angelina Jolie fits into that story.
European Heirs: Delphine Arnault and Alessandro Vallarino Gancia
France’s wedding of the year in 2005 was undoubtedly that of Delphine Arnault, the daughter of LVMH billionaire Bernard Arnault, who married Italian wine heir Alessandro Vallarino Gancia.
The two wed in the Cathedrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Bazas in Gironde, while the reception took place at a legendarily elegant vineyard in Bordeaux. The opulent reception venue was filled with five thousand white roses, lining a dance floor that seemed to come straight out of a fairy-tale.
