Kim Kardashian, Kanye West marry in Florence after Versailles party - Los Angeles Times
Advertisement

Kim Kardashian, Kanye West marry in Florence after Versailles party

Share via

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have gotten married at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence, Italy, according to reports out Saturday.

Rich Wilkerson Jr., a pastor from Trinity Church in Miami, performed the ceremony after Bruce Jenner walked Kim down the aisle, People magazine said. Andrea Bocelli sang as they walked.

While it’s Kim’s third wedding, it was Kanye’s first, and the groom apparently had the jitters. “It was funny how nervous he was.... This morning he was all smiles, but as it got closer, you could see that the nerves were kicking in, an eyewitness told the magazine.

Advertisement

The union was also confirmed by Us Weekly, which noted that the couple will attend a friend’s wedding next and then proceed on a honeymoon without daughter North West.

The ceremony was to have taken place in front of a giant wall full of white flowers, Us said, including white gardenias, peonies and roses from Paris and Belgium. The banquet table was made of 229 feet of marble that had to be hoisted up over the fort’s walls for assembly inside. An aerial paparazzi shot taken ahead of the wedding day revealed the undecorated wall, which formed a corner in front of rows of chairs.

Jay-Z, Kanye’s “Watch the Throne” collaborator, was expected to serve as best man, though that has not been confirmed.

Advertisement

Kim’s bridal party consisted of Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner, E! News reported.

Dinner was traditional Tuscan cuisine, followed by a seven-tier wedding cake.

Also on Saturday, while fans -- mostly female -- crushed the entrance to the wedding and reception site, not everyone was happy about the historic site, built by the Medici family in the late 1500s, being used for a wedding and reception.

“The city is renting out our palazzi for small change to be used as dance halls,” Prince Ottaviano de’Medici di Toscana told the Telegraph. “Events like this represent a danger to the cultural integrity and historical authenticity of the city.”

Advertisement

Rental of the venue, which has not previously hosted a wedding, reportedly set Kim and Kanye back about $400,000.

The Forti di Belevedere, like France’s Chateau du Versailles, home to the couple’s pre-wedding bash Friday night, are both on UNESCO’s world heritage list. That list identifies sites worldwide that have “outstanding universal value” with regard to cultural and natural heritage. (The Statue of Liberty, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate in Virginia and Yosemite National Park are among U.S. sites listed -- and all of them are available for weddings.)

The bride and groom had arrived early Saturday in Italy on separate girls-only and boys-only party planes, according to TMZ, with all the wedding guests hopping various private and commercial flights from Paris to Florence after a pre-wedding gala at the aforementioned Chateau du Versailles.

On Friday, with the palace’s doors closed to the public, the couple welcomed guests for a show-stopping pre-wedding event.

Though they dressed a bit matchy-matchy in complementary plunging necklines, Kim and Kanye showed up in separate cars, while the guests were part of a 90-car convoy. Arrivals ran from 7 to about 7:45 p.m., according to People. On the guest list, the mag said: Kardashian pals Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck, “Yeezus” collaborator Rick Rubin, Madonna manager Guy Oseary, personal trainers Gunnar Peterson and Harley Pasternak, and Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz.

Kanye surprised Kim with a three-song performance by Lana del Rey, according to E! News, with a seven-minute fireworks show delivered later in the evening despite late-arriving rain. There was no sit-down dinner; folks filled up instead on hors d’oeuvres.

Advertisement

“It was all French stuff. Pretty much everything was truffled,” said a TMZ source.

Among the guests spotted by E! News spies: designers Valentino, Alexander Wang and Oliver Rousteing, Vogue contributor Andre Leon Tally, film producer Joel Silver, director Steve McQueen, magician David Blaine, reality star NeNe Leakes, tennis’ Serena Williams and rappers Big Sean and Tyga.

(Talley, by the way, apparently gave it a lot of thought when he packed for the trip, according to a list and explanation posted by Vogue.)

The New York Daily News listed Lala Anthony, Kardashian pal Brittny Gastineau and designer Rachel Roy as attendees. Jaden Smith, Italian Vogue editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani and “Girls Gone Wild” mastermind Joe Francis were all spotted at the airport in Florence on Saturday.

And of course, Scott Disick and Rob Kardashian also made the wedding trip overseas.

Advertisement