A wedding is a time for a couple to celebrate their love among their closest family and friends, but it’s also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a bride to wear a dress that costs thousands of dollars, and feel absolutely no guilt about splurging (sometimes on more than one gown). While most couples tend to spend months of their lives planning the perfect day (and spending way too much money on one event) not everyone likes to go the traditional route, and celebrities are no exception.
Some celebrities have decided to ditch the white gowns on their wedding day in favor of something more colorful, or like Sarah Jessica Parker, have opted to wear a black gown instead — a decision that she later came to regret. Then there are those who have got hitched in unusual destinations, like a yacht in St. Tropez, or in a Las Vegas wedding chapel, and other celebs like Britney Spears and Kevin Federline who decided not to tell their family and friends about their wedding day at all, instead getting them together for surprise nuptials.
Below are 17 celebrities who ditched tradition for their wedding day in favor of something much more unique, and dare we say, unusual.
17 Dianna Agron Wanted A Moroccan Themed Celebration
Former Glee star Dianna Agron didn’t opt for a traditional wedding when she married Mumford & Sons band member Winston Marshall, but if their pictures are anything to go by, then it was a truly magical celebration. After a roughly ten-month engagement, the couple headed off to Morocco for their big day, for a three-day secret wedding held at the picturesque Beldi Country Club — and also a decision that resulted in them being away from the prying eyes of the media.
During the celebrations, Agron was photographed wearing a beautiful nude chiffon Valentino dress from the fall/winter 2016/17 runway, with Vogue Australia reporting that it has an estimated cost of US$20,000. And this was only one of the looks Agron wore over her weekend celebrations because Harper’s Bazaar notes that she was also photographed wearing an embroidered Gucci look from the fashion house's Spring 2016 runway.
As for their relationship? Well, apparently Marshall is the nicest guy and treats Agron with a lot of love and respect. An insider told Us Weekly, "He is the nicest guy and treats her like a princess. He is so thoughtful and flies her family everywhere they go, and [her] to see them whenever she wants. He is also so good to her friends."
16 Jessica Biel Was A Pink Princess When She Pledged Her Love
Jessica Biel is another celebrity who ditched the traditional white wedding dress on her big day when she married Justin Timberlake in a lavish Italian ceremony in 2012. She ensured that she stood out of the crowd by opting for a voluminous rose pink dress, which was created by her good friend, designer, Giambattista Valli.
She told Hello! she wanted her dress to be romantic but also "kind of whimsical and dramatic,” and judging by the pictures of her big day she achieved this. She also spoke to Elle magazine about the unusual color choice and revealed that it was actually not something that she had originally planned. She said, “I wanted the dress to be very romantic and feminine and a shape that I very rarely wear. I have never been crazy about all-white wedding dresses, for me at least. [Giambattista Valli] had created that same fabric in a fuschia-and-pink combination for a dress in a previous collection, and I asked him if he could create that same pattern in a white combination, and he suggested pink. It was a bit of a leap of faith at the time, but it turned out better than I could have ever imagined. [Putting it on], I felt like I had made the right choice. I felt elegant. And it moved like a dream.”
15 Britney Spears’ Wedding Guests Thought They Were Attending An Engagement Party
Britney Spears’ wedding to Kevin Federline was not traditional because she actually surprised her guests with their marriage, which took place in a neighborhood of Studio City, California. The singer’s rep spoke about her 2004 nuptials to People magazine, telling the publication that guests thought they were attending an engagement party but were surprised when they learned that this was actually to be the wedding of Spears and Federline.
The couple was meant to exchange vows the following month, in a luxurious celebration at the Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara, but choose to have their wedding early, keeping it an intimate affair with just 20 guests, including Spears’ mom, Lynne, and her younger sister, Jamie Lynn.
This was not the only time during this relationship that Spears ditched tradition, because almost everything about her relationship with Federline was untraditional, including the engagement. She spoke about this in an interview with People, saying, "Then all of a sudden I said, 'What if you want to get married?' And I kind of went from there to asking him if he would marry me. I asked him... He said no because he thought it wasn't the right way to do it.” A few minutes later, Federline asked Spears if she would marry him, and she obviously said 'yes.'
14 Kristen Bell And Dax Shepard Had A Super LowKey Wedding
Some Hollywood stars spend millions on their wedding day celebrations, but not Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard! This couple waited six years before they were ready to exchange vows, and when it happened it was a super low-key wedding at the Beverly Hills County Clerk’s Office in October 2013, Today reports. The groom wore a black tuxedo, and the bride didn’t opt for a white gown, rather she kept it simple and elegant in a black dress.
In fact, it was such a simple celebration that the couple has trouble remembering the exact date of their wedding day, something which Bell shared on an appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden (via Refinery29). She said, "Here's the funny thing...neither of us remember, genuinely, what the day is [of our wedding.] I think it's October 17th, but that's because your segment producer told me that. We only know because my mom reminds me. She's like 'Happy anniversary!' [Dax and I] wake up and check our texts and go 'Happy anniversary, honey.'"
But it was a moment that will never be forgotten by Bell, and if she had the chance to repeat it she would, as she revealed in response to a fan who tweeted at her, "What moment in your life would you like to repeat?" She replied with, "[The] moment i promised myself to @daxshepard1. best decision ive [sic] made 2date."
13 Dawn O'Porter Wanted To Say I Do In The House A Movie Was Filmed
According to Daily Mail, Dawn O'Porter met Irish actor Chris O’Dowd at a dinner party in Los Angeles in celebration of her 30th birthday back in 2009. The pair hit it off, and in 2012 they got married, and the publication quotes O’Porter as saying, “I was quite lucky that there was never this, ‘Oh, I’ve got to find the one.’ I met Chris at a point where he just kind of came into my life and that was that. We’re a great team.”
The wedding was an intimate ceremony in London, England, and the couple was surrounded by family and friends, The Independent reports, and their wedding guests included local British celebrities. At the time, the couple decided not to reveal the destination of their wedding, but the following year O’Porter revealed that it was the same house where The King’s Speech was filmed, a London townhouse dating back to 1755. According to Hello! magazine, she wrote, "This is the house we got married in. It's SO weird watching it. It was exactly the same on our big day!"
There are a lot of things that are interesting about this wedding, including the bride's dress, which O’Porter later revealed was a vintage piece that cost very little money. According to Closer, on her third wedding anniversary, she shared on Instagram, “Three years ago today I married the man I love in this old and beaten outfit I got for £24 (roughly $32) on eBay.” Although she did have another ceremony where she wore a more traditional, floaty dress (as pictured above).
12 Sarah Jessica Parker Loves Black So Much She Wore It On Her Big Day
Sarah Jessica Parker is celebrated as a style icon, so on her wedding day everyone expected something special from her wedding dress, and it definitely was. When Parker married actor Matthew Broderick in a New York celebration on May 19, 1997, she walked down the aisle wearing black.
Although, sadly, this is a decision that she later came to regret. Harper’s Bazaar notes that although Parker’s decision to wear a black Morgane Le Fay dress for her wedding was incredibly memorable, when she appeared on Watch What Happens Live, she told host Andy Cohen that the reason she did this was not because she was a bada** but rather, "I just was too embarrassed to spend any time looking for a wedding dress. There was a store that I liked that I knew, and I just went and got whatever they had hanging."
When asked if she would make the same decision and opt for a black gown, her answer was telling as she told the Today Show, she would wear white. She added, “I'd wear a beautiful, proper wedding dress, like I should have worn that day."
This was not the only untraditional part of the couple’s wedding day though, because they also surprised their 100 wedding guests, who, according to Brides, thought they had been invited to a party.
11 Elizabeth Taylor Got Hitched So Many Times She Ditched Tradition
Elizabeth Taylor is a woman who got married multiple times and keeping this in mind, it probably makes sense that not all of her dresses were traditional. The first time she got married in 1950 to hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, she did it in a traditional white wedding gown, but by the time her fifth wedding came around, she had ditched the white in favor of more colorful dresses. According to Refinery29, she wore this daffodil-yellow dress for her marriage to Richard Burton, who she had met on the set of their film, Cleopatra.
According to Brides, Cleopatra's costume designer, Irene Sharaff, was responsible for creating the gown she wore on her wedding day and Taylor completed her wedding look with flowers in her hair. And rather than wearing an engagement ring, she wore an emerald Bulgari brooch.
But the dress was not the only memorable thing about the celebration. Interestingly, Taylor married Burton just nine days after splitting from her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, Glamour reports. The couple were married for ten years and ended up splitting in 1974, but gave their love another shot the following year, and this time she got married in Botswana a flowy multi-colored tie-dye garment.
10 Gwen Stefani Stayed True To Her Bold Style
Gwen Stefani is celebrated for being a punk-rock princess, and it would have almost been disappointing had she opted to tone down her normal style for her wedding to Gavin Rossdale in 2002. She didn’t though, and her dress was bold and beautiful.
According to Brides, the former couple exchanged vows at St. Paul's Covent Garden in London, and their day was traditional in some ways; it was in a church, the bride arrived around an hour late, she was accompanied by her father down the aisle. There were about 150 wedding guests in attendance, and after the ceremony, the guests were shuttled in double-decker buses to the place of the reception, and while it was, on all accounts, a memorable affair, it was the dress that really stole the show. Stefani opted for a custom Christian Dior gown designed by John Galliano, and what made this dress so memorable was not just the pink ombre effect, but also the fact that it was a dress that truly seemed to reflect the singer’s personality.
The dress even went on exhibition along with other famous and unusual celebrity wedding dresses at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as part of its exhibition called, Wedding Dresses 1775-2014, E! News reports.
9 Zosia Mamet’s Wedding Was A Moody Affair
The wedding photos of Girls star Zosia Mamet seem to suggest that her 2016 wedding to Evan Jonigkeit was a moody affair held at Cedar Lakes Estate. The images are dark and gloomy, yet still breathtakingly beautiful, and Mamet spoke about her nuptials in an interview with Vogue, telling the publication the reason they chose this destination. “We knew we wanted to get married out of the city at somewhere that felt like a destination, but was still easy for all of our friends to get to," she explained. "We wanted somewhere that felt special, but also homey and where we could have people stay through the weekend.”
They went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that their wedding was kept secret, Refinery29 notes. But the thing that made this wedding truly untraditional was that Mamet opted to go down the same route as Sarah Jessica Parker and chose to get married in a black dress. She told Vogue that she has never been one for traditional clothing, and she definitely didn’t want to start on her wedding day. She said, “I’ve never really dreamt of my wedding day, I’ve only dreamt of finding a person who I’d want to have a wedding day with—so I was starting from scratch.”
And choosing the dress proved a lot harder than she thought. She told Vogue, “I wanted something comfortable, and I didn’t really want to wear white. The dress I ultimately chose was by Givenchy, and it was the last one I tried on—the minute it went over my head, both my friends gasped…”
8 Gisele Bündchen And Tom Brady Planned Their Nupitals In Ten Days
Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady’s wedding was an interesting one for many reasons, but mostly because they planned the whole thing in just ten days. According to Business Insider, Brady proposed to the love of his life on a private plane in front of her parents in late 2009. The couple decided they would waste no time in getting hitched, and when they exchanged vows in Santa Monica surrounded by close relatives (there were only around 20 guests) and they planned the whole thing in just over a week.
Two months later, they had a second wedding celebration, which was held in Costa Rica. According to Harper’s Bazaar, this celebration was just as intimate as the first, and only around 25 guests were in attendance. The couple has also been very secretive about their wedding, and little information is known about their big day.
When Brady first started dating Bündchen, his ex, Bridget Moynahan learned she was pregnant with their son, John Edward Thomas. According to Business Insider, Bündchen was initially hesitant to pursue a relationship with Brady after learning this because she wondered if she should have left so he could reunite with his baby mama. In the end, she decided against this idea.
7 Dita Von Teese Ensured She Caught Everyone’s Eye
Dita Von Teese can never be accused of being a wallflower, and when she married Marilyn Manson (her partner of almost five years) in 2005, her dress was anything but traditional. Hello! magazine notes that she wore a custom-made purple taffeta gown by Vivienne Westwood, and the bold color was truly unforgettable.
The couple first married in a home in Los Angeles, and then a week later they said “I do” for a second time, this time at a friend’s castle in Ireland. Their marriage didn’t last though, and after a year of marriage, Von Teese filed for divorce in December of 2006. Although their wedding, and the choice of attire, was unconventional, the couple’s views on marriage were very traditional, and Von Teese revealed that when they went into a marriage they thought it was going to be for the long-haul. She spoke about her relationship with Harper’s Bazaar, telling them,"I would not get married if I didn't believe in it. I've always believed in tradition. I think both of us did, at the time."
Along with Gwen Stefani and other celebrities dresses, Von Teese’s wedding gown was also featured at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as part of its exhibition called Wedding Dresses 1775-2014.
6 Pamela Anderson Wore A Bikini Instead Of A Wedding Dress
While most brides opt for white gowns which they spend thousands on, Pamela Anderson is not like most people and she decided to get married in a white bikini instead of a white dress. According to People magazine, when Anderson celebrated her marriage to Kid Rock in St. Tropez back in 2006, she did so in a string bikini. This was the look she favored for their wedding reception which was held on a yacht, and it wasn’t just any old bikini, it was one that was reportedly designed for her by Melissa Odabash, and she accessorized her look with a sailor’s cap.
For modesty’s sake, this is not the image that we chose to share, but instead, have featured the mini-dress she wore by Heatherette when she exchanged vows with Rock. For many, this would not exactly be the example of a romantic wedding, but Anderson described her day on her website as “The best most romantic wedding of all time,” People reports.
Then again, this celebration shouldn’t come as that much of surprise, considering the couple got engaged in 2002 in Las Vegas, only to split up later. Then when they saw each other again in 2006, they realized that it was meant to be and had a whirlwind romance, which Anderson explained to People happened at the right time in their lives. She said, “It’s just timing. It’s being in love, obviously, and it’s time for me to move on with my life and get on with the rest of it with my kids.”
5 Kelly Ripa Got Married In Las Vegas (And She’s Still Married)
Weddings in Las Vegas have a bit of a bad reputation, and although celebs like Britney Spears and Nicky Hilton have gone on to have a celebration that they later regretted, not everyone who marries in Vegas has their relationship fall to pieces. Just ask Kelly Ripa!
Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos had an unconventional start to their married life when they eloped in Las Vegas in 1996 at the Chapel of the Bells wedding chapel. According to People, it all happened when they were drinking wine and eating pizza in Consuelos’ apartment and he surprised his girlfriend of a year with an engagement proposal. According to her, this is how it went down: “I said, ‘Ask me when you’re serious.’ And he said, ‘I am serious. Let’s go to Vegas tomorrow and get married.”
After more than two decades as a married couple, they appear to have found the secret to wedded bliss, and in 2018, Ripa took to social media to celebrate the love of her life and honor their 22nd anniversary. She captioned a slideshow of photos of them with the sweet message: “Feliz Aniversario lover! 22 years. You’re a human roller coaster that I’m tall enough to ride. @instasuelos."
4 Kate Winslet Had Leonardo DiCaprio Walk Her Down The Aisle
It’s tradition for the bride’s father to walk her down the aisle, but in more modern times this tradition has been altered slightly, and for Kate Winslet’s third marriage she had her good friend and fellow actor Leonardo DiCaprio walked her down the aisle.
According to Daily Mail, in 2012, Winslet secretly married Ned RocknRoll in New York and the special job of escorting her went to DiCaprio. A rep for the actress told the publication, “I can confirm that Kate Winslet married Ned RocknRoll in NY earlier this month in a private ceremony attended by her two children and a very few friends and family. The couple had been engaged since the summer.” Apparently, they managed to keep the relationship and the nuptials so private that even Winslet’s parents were unaware that she was getting married again.
The Sun (via The Independent) reported that the wedding was a "romantic, private" which took place in a converted barn, and only six close friends from either side were present, including Winslet’s two children from previous marriages and Ned’s brother, Jack. And considering that celebrities can’t really do anything without their every move being documented, it’s impressive that Winslet was able to keep this special day so secret. But, because it was so secret it’s unfortunately impossible to find photos of their wedding!
3 Chrissy Teigen And John Legend Got Hitched Days Before Their Ceremony
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend are one of those celebs whose wedding was a 'go big or go home' kind of affair. The couple celebrated their marriage with lavish nuptials in Lake Como, Italy, where they were joined by 125 guests, Martha Stewart Weddings reports. The destination of their 2013 wedding was significant for the couple because it was apparently one of the first places that they took a holiday together, and Legend revealed, “we thought it would be nice to marry where we fell in love.”
Teigen also didn’t hold back when it came to the gown she wanted to wear, and actually ended up changing three times into three different Vera Wang gowns, which according to Livingly ranged in price from $8000 to $23,000. But having that much cash to splash on multiple outfits is not what made their wedding unconventional, what did, was that they had actually gotten hitched just days before they celebrated their love in front of family and friends.
According to E! News, the pair went to the courthouse in New York, days before their big celebration. The model told the publication, “We actually got married after going to a couple Fashion Week shows at Vera Wang, ironically who actually did my dress, but we got married at the courthouse right after. We are dumb and didn't realize that our Italian wedding would not be recognized unless we had a real ceremony in New York City. So Irina Shayk was our witness—the most beautiful woman on earth!"
2 Keira Knightley Ran Through The Streets Of France In Chanel
Keira Knightley’s 2013 wedding to musician James Righton was simple and romantic. The pair headed to the South of France and were married at the town hall in Mazan, Vogue reports. The couple was joined by just 11 guests for the ceremony, and the afternoon reception was reportedly hosted by Knightley’s mother, playwright Sharman Macdonald, who organized for a marquee in the garden, where up to 50 guests were expected to join, including Sienna Miller and Karl Lagerfeld.
The bride didn’t choose to wear white, instead, she opted for a pale grey Chanel dress (with a much shorter hemline than your traditional gown) which she paired with flats and a tweed jacket. But the most exceptional part of this wedding was not that it was intimate, or that the bride’s choice of dress was unconventional, but that the couple, despite being well-known stars, chose to run down the streets holding hands after they were hitched.
The man who married them was the local mayor, Aime Navello, who spoke to Daily Mail about the couple, saying, “Keira was a charming bride, very modest and simple in her attitude, as was James. I got the impression that it was a very moving experience for both of them.”
1 Beyoncé And Jay Z Said 'Yes' To An Apartment Celebration
Beyoncé and Jay Z have been married for ten years and there is no denying that they are one of Hollywood’s power couples, but while celebs like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, or Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake chose to go all out with their wedding celebrations, Bey and Jay Z chose to keep their wedding simple, and for the most part, out of the media.
According to Brides, the couple didn’t even announce that they were engaged when they managed to pull off their super secret nuptials, and their marriage only came onto everyone's radar when they were spotted picking up their marriage license in New York in April of 2008. As for their wedding day, this is believed to have happened on April 4, but the couple remained hush about this for months and few images from their big day have been shared publicly. What we do know is that the bride and groom’s attire appeared to be very traditional, and we have Beyoncé’s mom, Tina Knowles Lawson to thank for this because she celebrated their nine-year anniversary on Instagram.
We also know, according to People, that the couple had their ceremony at Jay-Z's home in Manhattan (an unusual spot for a wedding), and were joined by 40 guests for their intimate ceremony, all of whom were not allowed recording devices. An insider told People, “It was a very emotional wedding — lots of crying — and really very spiritual.”
References: Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Us Weekly, Hello!, Elle, People, People, Today, Refinery29, Kristen Bell Twitter, Daily Mail, The Independent, Hello!, Closer, Harper’s Bazaar, Today, Brides, Refinery29, Brides, Glamour, Brides, E! News, Vogue, Refinery29, Business Insider, Harper’s Bazaar, Hello!, Harper’s Bazaar, People, People, People, Kelly Ripa Instagram, Daily Mail, The Independent, Martha Stewart Weddings, Livingly, E! News, Vogue, Daily Mail, Brides, Tina Knowles Lawson Instagram, People.
