You Only Get Married a Few Times. Why Not Go All Out?
They were one of the world's most famous couples, their future sealed when he renounced his throne for her and she renounced her husband for him. But so much disapproval surrounded the audacious affair between King Edward VIII of England and the American socialite Wallis Simpson that their eventual marriage, before a handful of guests in France in 1937, felt more like a perp walk than a wedding.
'It was a sad little service,' Lady Alexandra Metcalfe, a wedding guest known as 'Baba Blackshirt' because of her reputed Nazi sympathies, wrote in her journal. 'It could be nothing but pitiable and tragic to see a King of England of only six months ago, an idolized King, married under these circumstances.'
It seems quaint to remember the days when second weddings were typically quiet and modest affairs, especially after a bit of adultery. Perhaps there was a sense that everyone was allowed just one public spectacle-style wedding in a lifetime. Maybe it was considered indecorous to declare 'til death do us part' once again, when death had clearly not parted you the first time you said it.
That's why former monarchs fled to France and commoners had small, tasteful celebrations, perhaps at City Hall, the brides wearing outfits like 'a gray suit and a pillbox hat,' as the high-end event planner Bryan Rafanelli described it in an interview.
In contrast, let us consider the 2025 version of a royal wedding: the forthcoming marriage in Venice between Jeff Bezos, the billionaire king of Amazon, and the ex-TV host and helicopter pilot Lauren Sánchez. Having entered public consciousness when their racy texts were leaked to the tabloids during their previous marriages, their relationship — buoyed and insulated by Mr. Bezos' estimated $228 billion fortune — has always had the feel of an extended P.D.A. victory lap.
Depending on what you read, the wedding will cost $15 million, or $20 million. Or maybe it will be scaled back to under $10 million because of the couple's supposed decision to be 'less 'Marie Antoinette'' after the Blue Origin spaceflight this spring featuring Ms. Sánchez and a group of her famous female friends. The 11-minute mission suffered from a bit of a P.R. problem when the women donned sexy space outfits, discussed their extraterrestrial makeup routines and, in the case of Katy Perry, declared the intention to 'put the 'ass' in astronaut.'
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