There was no way this material girl was going to have some mediocre ceremony when she wed film director Guy Ritchie in 2000. The couple held an intimate, but incredibly lavish, ceremony at Skibo Castle in Scotland. They booked each and every room in the entire place for their guests, which included Sting and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The star-studded wedding cost the two an estimated $1.5 million, which in today’s terms equals out to about $2.5 million. Madonna wore a beautiful gown by Stella McCartney, while Ritchie decided to don a kilt, a nod to his own Scottish heritage. The castle was rife with security guards, which kept the reporters at bay until they had officially tied the knot.
Prince Albert's Big Day
This is another one of those numbers that will make your head spin. After all, an average human looks at a couple of million dollars like a lot of money – so what about $65 million? That’s how much Prince Albert II of Monaco spent on his wedding with South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock.
The marriage was held in 2011, in Monte Carlo, Monaco, and spanned the course of two days at the beginning of July. They held two separate ceremonies so that they could have both a civil and a religious ceremony, the first of which took place in the Prince’s palace. Wittstock wore a sleek and sophisticated Giorgio Armani gown for the second part of the event and they rented out a Lexus to transport them to and from the different venues. This definitely holds a rightful spot on the list of the most expensive weddings of all time.
The Billion-Dollar Wedding
Said Gutseriev, son of Russian oil tycoon, Mikhail Gutseriev, got married in Moscow in 2016. The bride was 20-year-old dental student Khadija Uzhakhovs, who wore a dress that was covered in so many jewels that it weighed nearly 30 pounds. The celebration cost Mikhail an incredible $1 billion, almost ¼ of his total net worth.
Several stars showed up to perform at the show, including Sting, Enrique Iglesias, and Jennifer Lopez, who was paid a cool million for the evening. Guests were shuttled to and from the ceremony in Rolls Royces and dined on a cake that was taller than everyone in the room. An incredible fireworks display provided the perfect end to the fairytale when it was time for everyone to leave.
Jen and Brad's Iconic Wedding
Anyone who was familiar with pop culture in the ’90s is aware of the marriage between Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, Hollywood’s original “it” couple. The young stars tied the knot in a $1 million wedding ceremony in July of 2000. That may not seem like a huge amount of money compared to some others on the list, but it’s still quite a bit, especially considering it went down nearly two decades ago.
The event was wholly star-studded and some guests in attendance included Salma Hayek, Cameron Diaz, and the cast of "Friends," except Matt Leblanc who was working at the time. Four bands were hired to perform throughout the festivities, along with Melissa Etheridge and a church choir. Unfortunately, the marriage ultimately went downhill.
A Minelli Wedding
Eleven years after Minnelli attended best friend Elizabeth Taylor’s marriage to Larry Fortensky, Taylor would find herself returning the favor as a guest at Liza’s wedding to producer and comedian David Gest. Like Taylor, this was far from Minnelli’s first rodeo, as this marriage would be her 4th. The couple dropped between 3 and 4 million dollars on their ceremony, which took place inside the Marble Collegiate Church in NYC.
The wedding was such a huge deal that some of the biggest names in show business were in attendance, like Mia Farrow and Anthony Hopkins. The millions of dollars spent on the event went towards things like a $40,000 cake and over $700,000 of flowers. Michael Jackson actually acted as Fortensky’s best man, while Elizabeth Taylor was the maid of honor. Minnelli walked down the aisle in a custom-made Bob Mackey wedding dress strewn with crystals and pearls as Natalie Cole sang her father’s hit song, “Unforgettable.”