| Showiest
and Lavishest Celebrity Wedding
- Donald Trump and Melania Knauss
When Donald Trump and Melania
Knauss were married in January,
2005, it was a major news event.
From her two couture wedding
dresses, to the donated multi-course
meal from Le Cirque complete
with 7-tier cake and Cristal
champagne, to the dazzling Mar-a-Lago
venue itself, there was no expense
spared in the January wedding
of Donald Trump and Melania
Knauss.
34-year-old Slovenian model
Melania Knauss and 58-year-old
billionaire Donald Trump got
married at Bethesda-by-the-Sea
Episcopal Church in Florida.
All Trump’s four children
from previous marriages attended
Saturday night’s wedding.
His 23-year-old daughter Ivanka,
who has risen to the status
of international model from
the age of 16, dressed in a
slim tangerine dress, did a
reading.
Stunning Melania looked like
a princess in her shoulderless
off-white and gold satin gown,
created by head Dior designer,
Italian fashion king John Galliano,
that took more than 1,000 hours
to make and weighed nearly 60
pounds. The Slovenian super-model
walked down the aisle wearing
98 yards of white satin that's
been embroidered with over 1500
crystal rhinestones, a 13-foot
train, and an even-longer veil.
She supplemented the look with
Manolo Blahnik shoes featuring
diamond anklets, stunning jewels
on loan from Fred Leighton and
her 15-carat diamond engagement
ring from Graff - valued at
$1.5 million.
Melania says that she paid for
the gown rather than bought
it; such couture gowns usually
cost more than $100,000. But
don't think Trump was ready
to declare bankruptcy again.
The house of Dior most likely
gave her a steep discount for
all the publicity it has received.
Readers of Vogue get a sneak
peek at the gown in this month's
issue; editors Andre Leon Talley
and Sally Singer even helped
Melania pick out the dress.
Knauss and Talley also appeared
on the Today show to talk about
her wedding dress, and the upcoming
issue of Vogue.
The wedding ceremony itself
took about 30 minutes and after
it the couple left for Trump’s
newly unveiled Versailles-inspired
$42 million ballroom, featuring
24-karat-gold moldings and 11,000
square feet of marble flooring,
at his Mar-a-Lago estate and
club. The reception dinner featured
Cristal champagne, hors d’oeuvres
prepared by the chef Jean-Georges
Vongerichten, whose restaurant
is in the Trump International
Hotel in New York, beef tenderloin
and individual Grand Marnier
chocolate truffle cakes that
resembled the seven-tier 5ft
high wedding cake, covered with
Grand Marnier butter cream and
three thousand roses made from
white icing.
The boxing promoter Don King
characterized the event as “a
great American occasion”.
“It’s a royal wedding,”
Mr. King told The New York Times.
“It’s something
out of the monarchy. It’s
something like, you know, King
Henry or King Edward - they’ve
got so many kings it really
doesn’t matter - would
have.”
However, there was a talk of
the theme of the wedding to
be excess – from Melania's
dress that was so full it was
back-breakingly heavy and hard
to walk in, to the centerpieces
that used over 10,000 flowers
and cost over $1000 a piece.
It could have been a gorgeous
wedding but each detail was
just taken too far.
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