It’s been a long time since 2005 when the actor Matt Damon married the then-bartender Luciana Barroso. Yes, it was many moons ago, but one can’t help but reminisce about this special day. The nuptials took place in Sugar Beach resort on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
Surrounded by the serenity and beauty of nature, the island is bordered by rainforest and used to be the heart of an 18th-century sugar plantation. But alas, this did not come cheap, as it was reported that the actor splurged around $1 million to rent out the full resort for the weekend. This could also be your destination wedding if you have a million bucks to spare!
THE Wedding of 2023
The picture-perfect wedding of Sofia Richie and Elliot Grainge was set on the French Riviera in April 2023. This wedding most definitely pushed the envelope when it comes to celebrity destination weddings. The couple selected the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Rock in Antibes for their nuptials. The event set the couple back (or, whoever was paying) an estimated $4 million. The venue itself cost over $1 million.
The beachfront sanctuary offers panoramic ocean views, overlooking the Mediterranean, and is arguably one of the most exclusive resorts in the French Riviera territory that has hosted a number of royals and politicians over its 150-plus-year history. The bride had three custom-made dresses from Chanel, one for each day of the wedding weekend events: the rehearsal dinner, the formal ceremony, and the after-party.
Billionaire Babies
Hotel Heiress Nicky Hilton and banking heir James Rothschild wedded at Kensington Palace (yes, you heard that correctly, and yes, the official residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate). The wedding was as enchanting as you would expect a wedding of two billionaires to be!
The blonde beauty wore a dramatic white Valentino haute couture wedding gown composed of three different shades of ivory and silver and abundantly adorned with crystals. The showy wedding was a three-day affair that included cocktails on the first day, a black-tie reception on the following day, and ended off with a lavish lunch on the final day.
Humbly Lavish
American sweetheart Anne Hathaway married jewelry designer Adam Shulman in 2012 at a private estate on the rugged coastline just south of San Fransisco. A relatively small affair, with only about 180 guests (we said relatively), surrounded by wilderness in Big Sur, California (Fun fact: Natalie Portman also got married in the Big Sur region).
Red carpet fans and movie lovers may have assumed that she would wear Prada, but in fact, it was a vintage-inspired Valentino gown, after all. The decor of the outdoor ceremony was inspired by nature and featured plenty of branches and outdoorsy ornaments. The affair cost about $1 million, with $100,000 of that going solely towards flowers.
Oh, to Be an Heiress
The heiress Ivy Getty, the great-granddaughter of billionaire oil magnate J. Paul Getty, wedded Tobias Engel, a photographer, in a perfect matrimony held in San Francisco's City Hall, in the fall of 2021. Coming from an oil tycoon family, it's understandable how this precious granddaughter secured herself a wedding valued at a couple of million dollars. It is well known that the town hall in SF is an absolute treasure that celebrates and embodies the American golden age of the late 1800s.
With bronze-coated gates and staircases, it's tough to match the elegance of this venue. The bride's dress was an absolute jaw-dropper and featured four coatings as well as actual fragments of a shattered mirror — a totally vintage masterpiece of a dress to match their 1960s wedding theme.