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Bride: Madonna Louise Ciccone (singer/actress)
Groom: Guy Stuart Ritchie (Film director, screenwriter)
Venue: Skibo Castle in Dornoch in Sutherland, Scotland
It has been said that Madonna’s first choice was to use Princess Diana’s estate as the setting, but was not granted permission)
Date: 22 December, 2000
Hair: Blonde to dark tips, styled in loose curls, framing Madonna’s face
and touching her shoulders – adorned with the diamond tiara and lace edged veil.
Vows: Hundreds of candles glowed as the guest gathered at the foot of the
grand staircase in the Great Hall of the 19th-century castle. A lone bagpiper
gave way to the music of French pianist Katia Labèque playing an organ. Madonna’s
4-year-old daughter, Lourdes, wearing a long ivory dress, descended the staircase
throwing red rose petals from a basket. The stair balustrade was entwined with
ivy and white orchids.
Trudie Styler read the ‘Lorica’ hymn, followed by Sting singing ‘Ave Maria’.
The vows were exchanged in front of a century-old stained glass window. Madonna was given away by her father Tony and the ceremony was administered by the Rev Susan Brown, a Church of Scotland minister, who had baptised the couple’s four-month old son Rocco the day before in Dornoch Cathedral.
It had been reported that Gwyneth Paltrow would be the maid-of-honour, but on the day, it was Stella McCartney. Guy had two best men, London nightclub owner Piers Adam and Matthew Vaughn, who produced two of Guy’s films.
Dress by: Stella McCartney – an ivory silk strapless gown with a fitted
corset bodice and long train. She had a 19th-century lace veil, with an Edwardian
diamond tiara.
Jimmy Choo shoes completed the look.
Jean-Paul Gaultier designed Madonna’s dress for the dinner.
Versace –Donatella Versace designed Madonna’s next dress for dancing
Bouquet: A lily of the valley spray
Jewellery: Adler of London – pearl and diamond bracelets
Asprey of London – 1910’s Edwardian tiara with 765 diamonds totalling 78 carats. It can be converted into a fringed necklace and is worth over £170,000.
£36,000 antique French bracelet with 19 carats of diamonds, reportedly a gift from Guy, although other sources claim it was only borrowed.
Harry Winston of New York – 37 carat Diamond cross necklace 2.5inches
Madonna had already been given a wedding ring on 16th August (her birthday) after the birth of their son, Rocco. It is a platinum band with several embedded diamonds.
Groom’s attire: Alfred Dunhill - Lovat Shetland wool teal jacket.
Scotch House of London - Navy and green kilt in Hunting Mackintosh tartan. Antique diamond cufflinks, a wedding gift from his bride. The couple’s son Rocco, wore a matching kilt.
Photographer: Journalists and the public were excluded by tight security
and very few images appeared following their marriage.
Reception: Held in the castle drawing room, the menu included langoustine,
smoked salmon, Aberdeen Angus beef, roast potatoes and red cabbage. Followed by
caramelised profiterole cake made in London and flown over for the celebrations.
Toasts with champagne, followed by a ceilidh – a traditional party with Scottish
music, singing and dancing. Completed with a firework display.
The couple had booked all 51 bedrooms at the 7,000-acre castle estate, and stayed with guests leading up to the marriage.
Honeymoon: The couple joined Sting and his wife for Christmas at their
Grade 1 listed Tudor mansion in Wiltshire, England.
Cost: Dress estimated at £27,000, security £35,000, hire of Skibo Castle
£100,000, Firework display £100,000 – overall total thought to be in the region
of £750,000
Number of guests: Approx 60
Special guests: Gwyneth Paltrow, Rupert Everett, Donatella Versace, a kilt-clad Sting, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Robin Williams.
Engagement: Guy gave Madonna a 5-carat, 3 stone diamond engagement ring in an Edwardian setting.
Where did they meet? They were introduced to each other 2 years previously by the singer Sting and his wife Trudie Styler. Guy is 10 years younger than Madonna.
History: Madonna had been married once before to actor Sean Penn for 5 years.
Apart from Madonna’s daughter Lourdes (from a previous relationship with Carlos Leon) and their son Rocco, born in August 2000, Guy and Madonna went on to adopt a boy from Malawi, David Banda Mwale Ciccone Ritchie.
Divorce: Madonna and Guy divorced in November 2008, Guy received a £30 million settlement and their Wiltshire home. While Madonna, whose fortune was estimated at the time to be £300, returned to the US with the children as the couple did not want to split them up.
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