A
“secret” celebrity wedding: In the age of social media, it seems like a
Hollywood oxymoron on the order of “late-career comeback” and “no-fault
divorce.”
Even so, to judge by the number of celebrities trying off-the-grid nuptials, far from the prying lenses of the paparazzi (Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, married Aug. 5 in
a quiet ceremony at their home in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles,
are but the latest), the underground wedding has become one of
Hollywood’s biggest status symbols.
Cameron Diaz
and Benji Madden, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, and Zooey Deschanel and
Jacob Pechenik are among the many couples to attract intense media
speculation over their stealth unions, which generally managed to unfold
in private without the tabloid scrum.
The
famous friends who earn coveted invitations seem to acknowledge that,
among the celebrity class, the No. 1 wedding gift on every registry
these days is silence.
“I’m afraid to even talk about that wedding because everyone is on top-secret lockdown,” Howard Stern,
a guest at the Aniston-Theroux ceremony, said on a recent SiriusXM
broadcast. (“Howard Stern discretion,” of course, is another oxymoron;
the Medusa-haired shock jock promptly let slip that Jimmy Kimmel had
presided over the ceremony.)
No matter how much stars try to hide under the dome of silence, leaks are inevitable.
Ms.
Aniston and her Ducati-loving husband, for instance, tried a major
head-fake before their ceremony, reportedly hiding their party gear in a vacant house next door and telling guests they were being invited to Mr. Theroux’s 44th birthday party, not a wedding.
But
within days, the tabloid-hungry public already knew about the guest
list (which included Lisa Kudrow, Orlando Bloom and Lake Bell), Ms.
Aniston’s dress (summery, boho-inspired) and their cake
(Muppets-themed).
TMZ and People published numerous photos
of the backyard setup, taken from high overhead, and grainy shots of a
vendor carrying the cake. But no photos have emerged of the couple
themselves, denying the gossip-hungry public even a mental image of the
affair, the kind that can linger for years after, say, a royal wedding.
The
truth is, the best efforts of the stars are not enough. Even the most
discreet wedding is a team effort, so it comes down to the wedding
planners, charged with overseeing the whole affair, to make sure that
everyone, guests included, observes the lockdown.
“There’s
no midpoint: It’s absolute secrecy, or it’s everywhere,” said Marcy
Blum, the planner for several celebrity weddings, including LeBron
James’s 2013 hyper-private event (the printed invitations did not even
list a time or place). “Because of cellphones, TMZ doesn’t have to stake
out a wedding for there to be a leak. Everyone’s an investigative
reporter.”
Here
are a few A-list planners discussing the new rules of the hush-hush
celebrity wedding. (The following interviews have been edited and
condensed).
In Weddings, Too, It’s Location, Location, Location:
“The secret is, look for venues that are hard to get to. Anything with
ocean access is easier to get to for the press. If secrecy is really a
problem, do it inside a building. Then the chances of people seeing it
are a lot less. Or you can use a tent. But sadly, there lies the
problem. How do you make it beautiful and romantic without compromising
the vision by having to cover it all up?” — JoAnn Gregoli, an owner of Elegant Occasions in New York.
Keep Your Friends Close and Your Guest List Closer:
“If you really want to keep it secret, you have to invite fewer than
100 guests, and that is really pushing it. Second, like in the case of
Jennifer Aniston, or Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, it helps if
people have no idea where they are going. When we planned LeBron’s
wedding, we sent an invitation that said it was going to take place
somewhere on the West Coast, but we didn’t give details until we called
them back, after we vetted them to make sure it was an invited guest or
their representative. Still, it’s rarely foolproof. One of their save-the-dates showed up on TMZ.” — Marcy Blum, Marcy Blum Associates, New York.
Secure the Perimeter:
“The problem is, once something leaks to one press outlet, it’s like
sharks feeding on a dead carcass. They swarm. I did a wedding a few
years back in the Hamptons involving some very well-known artists in the
music industry, and we had security every seven feet around the
perimeter of the property. The media will sit outside, waiting for
leaks. And they don’t just show up the day of. They’ll be talking to
people who provide luxury trailers, the generators, it could be the
tenting company. We have to plant security four or five days in
advance.” — Andrea Correale, Elegant Affairs Caterers, New York.
Establish a Paper Trail:
“Very often in an event of this magnitude, you have two to three
hundred people on site. It’s not just the caterers you have to worry
about. There are lots of vendors involved: musicians, people renting
lounge furniture, fabric people. You have to make sure you get the
proper forms signed so no one in the other companies leaks word, either.
You dot your I’s and cross your T’s, but in the end of the day, you
can’t control everything.” — Andrea Correale.
Spare the Phones, Spoil the Party:
“Unless you’re going to make every single guest including Cousin Harry
sign a nondisclosure agreement, then nothing is foolproof. So we leave a
letter in the guest rooms saying: ‘We really want you to be present for
this. Please don’t bring a cellphone, if you do bring it we’re going to
ask you to leave it at the check-in desk.’ Then we organize them and
put them in separate plastic bags with the number on the outside. It’s
not about the couple being so paranoid. There are a lot of non-famous
people there. It could be a cousin, an old college roommate. It’s about
the couple not wanting the famous guests to be bothered by the
non-famous guests for selfies. It’s a wedding, not a red carpet event.” —
Marcy Blum.
No One Is Above the Law:
“With guests, you can say ‘Please don’t take pictures,’ but you know
they’re going to Instagram it, so we have just said, ‘Please deposit
your phones.’ You can ask them to shut them off, but they won’t. Some
people take great umbrage and don’t want to give up their phones. There
was a celebrity once who told me, ‘Hey, I’m not going to do it.’ We just
had to watch that person. You can always tell what they’re doing. If
someone takes a picture just to take a picture, they put the phone down.
But if they take a shot and start typing simultaneously, they’re
leaking it out.” — JoAnn Gregoli.
Consider Calling in the Air Force:
“Really only in the last year, these magazines are buying drones. They
are able to launch them, hover them low. You could drop a drone
outfitted with video cameras into a property almost undetected. At one
event I did recently in the Hamptons, one came in over the water. There
is no way we could have stopped it. They are a lot more annoying than
helicopters ever were. Before, with a helicopter, you had a TV crew on
board, and you’d have to wait for the show to air. Now with drones, they
can put it on YouTube, on Periscope, on Twitter, almost in real time.
To the world of celebrities, that is horrible. What do you do: Shoot
them down?” — JoAnn Gregoli.
Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/15/fashion/jennifer-aniston-justin-theroux-how-celebrities-keep-their-weddings-a-secret.html?_r=0
![Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux were engaged for 3 years before tying the knot on August 5 [Wenn]](http://images.ok.co.uk/1439058490_jennifer-aniston-2.jpg)
