Code names. Decoys. Secret dress fittings. Here's what goes into pulling off a celebrity wedding.

Yahoo

6 days ago

While Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez's lavish Venice wedding — with its splashy prelude, including a foam party on his $500 million superyacht — has dominated headlines with big 'look at us' energy, not every famous couple wants to share the intimate moments of their 'I do's' with the world.
In Hollywood, there's been a noticeable shift: A-listers are increasingly trading public spectacles for private ceremonies. Demi Lovato, Hailee Steinfeld, Kristen Stewart and Millie Bobby Brown are recent brides who managed to keep their weddings mostly under wraps until they were already a 'Mrs.' The approach allowed them space to enjoy the moment — and control over what, if anything, they shared publicly.
Despite the Bezos blowout, event planner to the stars Sharon Sacks tells Yahoo that she's seen celebrity weddings move away from extravaganza toward intimacy.
'They've shifted from that over-the-top production to a smaller, intimate feeling affair,' the Sacks Productions founder says, noting a renewed focus on family and close friends. Also, 'timeless elegance' is in style more than ever, with brides embracing the 'beauty of vintage' and 'not looking for the ordinary.'
Privacy remains of the utmost importance. In the nearly 40 years that Sacks — who has planned weddings for Kim Kardashian, Meghan Trainor, and Nick and Vanessa Lachey — has been running her business, she's developed her own playbook for keeping high-profile weddings under wraps, from hiring decoys to locking down airspace.
'We're their SWAT team,' Sacks says. 'You name it, we do it all.'
But it takes a village to give a couple privacy on their big day. Sharon Sever, who's the head designer for bridal and evening couture fashion label Galia Lahav, tells Yahoo that he's personally flown gowns to A-list brides to ensure that nobody, especially the pesky paparazzi, steals a sneak peek.
'It is really about protecting the moment,' says Sever, who has made wedding dresses for Brown, Beyoncé, Simone Biles and Paris Hilton. 'A wedding gown is personal, even if the bride has millions of followers.'
Sever collaborated closely with Stranger Things star Brown to design the gown for her 2024 wedding to Jake Bongiovi, son of Jon Bon Jovi, a process he calls unforgettable.
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'Millie is the definition of today's modern bride — she's stylish, funny, emotional and knows what she wants without being overcontrolling, and that is a rare gift,' he says. 'We didn't do endless back-and-forth sketching. Her vibe was clear and loud to me. It had to be romantic, fresh and unexpected. She gave the vision, I translated it into fabric. It was less Say Yes to the Dress and more: Let's make it iconic.'
At Brown's final dress fitting at Galia Lahav's New York City boutique, they realized she was being staked out by paparazzi, shooting through the shop window in hopes of stealing a snapshot and spoiling her selection. Brown, worried the photos would be splashed all over the internet, said on the Tonight Show that she changed into a decoy dress — one that looked the opposite of her selection — and made a show of pretending she had found her dress. It worked.
'Millie wanted to keep the gown a complete secret, and she knows how to play the game,' Sever says. 'The paparazzi were lurking, it was a couture spy movie, but we were all impressed by Millie, and the 'fake' dress got its own moment. What a performance.'
Sever says that's all part of the job when you have a star-studded client list.
'There are code names, secret fittings, secret courier services,' he says. 'I personally flew a few gowns just to make sure they arrived safely and [were] hidden from curious Instagrammers.'
'We're their SWAT team. You name it, we do it all.'Sharon Sacks
These are long-established tricks of the trade. When Lady Diana Spencer married then-Prince Charles in 1981, her dressmakers used a code name, planted fabric swatches in trash cans to throw off tabloid reporters and made an entire second dress just in case, according to the documentary Secrets of Diana's Wedding Dress.
'The [dress] reveal is part of the [wedding day] magic,' says Sever.
Sacks says planning events for Hollywood superstars requires flexibility and resourcefulness.
'I had a client … [who's] about 6'9,' she says. 'I saw a gentleman working at his house … and [thought]: He'd be a fabulous decoy. So we got him a tuxedo, rented [a] Rolls [Royce] and put him in it. The paparazzi followed that car, and my bride and groom could leave that wedding for the reception not feeling any pressure.'
While planning a wedding in Europe, Sacks was concerned about how exposed the venue felt due to plane traffic overhead — and the potential of paparazzi helicopters — so she took steps to secure the airspace.
'It was not easy,' she recalls. 'We went to the American Embassy [and] I said to them, 'It's very dangerous. You can have airplanes and paparazzi.' The embassy had to take it higher up to make sure they could do it … and they approved it. They gave us the go-ahead to have the space cleared for that day, and our bride, groom and all of their guests didn't have to worry about a thing.'
It's not just air, but sometimes the sea that makes an event vulnerable to prying eyes. While managing an island wedding for another celebrity, Sacks was notified by security that there were paparazzi in boats with long lenses.
''Well, you're going to need to get in the water,'' she recalls saying to the security team. "[They took out their own] boats and … were able to block them from getting the shot.'
During her tenure, Sacks and her team have built a reputation for being trustworthy, and she runs a tight ship, including nondisclosure agreements.
'Being prepared on the backend and having … trusted relationships with vendors [is] paramount,' Sacks says. 'Many of our vendors don't know who they're working for. They're working for me. The day they start loading in, the staff still doesn't really know. They have to sign another disclosure the day of the event. That's when they know who they're working for. It's really keeping it tight.'
Sometimes, it's the celebrity themselves who keeps things a secret — even from the designer. Sever didn't know he had created Beyoncé's vow renewal dress until after she wore it.
'Sometimes [I get] a direct call [from a celebrity client], sometimes a stylist, and sometimes it's a request for something insane without too many questions,' Sever says. 'The Beyoncé vow renewal? Total surprise. Once the first photo dropped, I was staring at it saying — wait a second! That's ours! It was surreal, but I always say to myself: Design everything like Beyoncé would wear it, just in case.'
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Sacks once got nine days notice to plan a celebrity wedding.
'The plus side was there was no time to vacillate on decisions,' she says. 'We just moved straight ahead with everything. And I have to tell you, it was the greatest wedding.'
Historically, celebrities didn't always have the upper hand on their own wedding day.
In 1985, Madonna and Sean Penn famously wrote 'F*** Off' in sand at the beach wedding as a message to the paparazzi in helicopters overhead, spoiling their day. When Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck were supposed to marry in 2003, they called off their wedding, saying that when they found themselves contemplating hiring three separate decoy brides at three different locations, they realized things had gotten out of hand.
Today's celebrity brides want control not just over the guest list, venue and menu but also how the wedding news rolls out and how the photos are disseminated. In an era of social media oversharing and instant online opinions, curating the rollout is part of protecting the moment.
When Demi Lovato married singer Jutes in May, they announced it with a splash after the ceremony, unveiling their stunning wedding photos exclusively in Vogue.
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That same month, Hailee Steinfeld quietly wed Josh Allen, but after a drone video leaked, she shared their photos and wedding story exclusively with her Beau Society newsletter subscribers.
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Kristen Stewart's bride, Dylan Meyer, took a similar approach, posting images of their intimate, low-key April wedding on Instagram only after a grainy paparazzi photo of the ceremony began to circulate.
Millie Bobby Brown managed to marry twice — first in a small, family- and close friends-only ceremony, then at a larger celebration in Italy — all mostly out of the spotlight, then she dropped the photos of her big day, on her own terms, via social media.
As for the next crop of celebrities walking down the aisle, there's big anticipation over Zendaya marrying Tom Holland, Selena Gomez exchanging vows with Benny Blanco and — potentially — Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, and Rihanna and A$AP Rocky.
'If Rihanna decides to get married, I'm on my way with my iPad,' says Sever.
Not to mention, with sealed lips. Because for a celebrity, a truly private moment, away from the world's eyes, cameras and chatter, is the rarest luxury of all.