Episode 23: Taylor Swift Got Married… And I Have Thoughts

Episode Summary

Friends, I have thoughts about the speculation around Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. In this two-part episode, I share my first reactions to the reported Madison Square Garden event, then revisit my assumptions after seeing guest accounts and emerging details. We talk celebrity privacy, fashion, and the different ways couples share their celebrations, including what I loved about Dua Lipa’s wedding rollout. I also unpack the planning challenges of a large guest list and why station-style dining can make room for guests to mingle. As always, I’m curious what you think—and what details we might see next.

Let’s Connect

julianleaver.com | @julianleaver

Resources

Full Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Mind Over Matrimony, friends. And it wouldn't be a wedding podcast if we weren't talking about the hottest wedding happening this year, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. And what is there to say more than what's already been said? Actually, a lot.

It is interesting that this wedding is happening in New York at this location, right? Madison Square Garden, and that it's happened at this location because it's just a very odd choice for someone who has so many assets and deployable resources.

Because it's literally in the middle of the city. It is a very difficult venue to get in and out of. It's a very difficult venue to work in. It presents a lot of very odd logistical challenges. And there are so many places on the planet that this could have happened in such a more discreet way.

Now, are we going to actually see photos more than what we've seen? Who actually knows? But what we've seen thus far is been questionable, frankly, from a taste perspective, really.

I think the guests walking out with kind of those weird boxes from the Thursday night party and just the, I don't know, it seems a little odd.

It still, for me, feels like she actually didn't get married on Friday, but this was more of just a large party that took place to celebrate something that had already happened somewhere else, and this was just a way to get everyone together in a larger scale to be able to celebrate that.

Also because his mother arrived into New York on Thursday, flying commercial. There's just some weird things adding up that don't feel like it's as special as it would normally be for something of this scale.

That feels a little bit more casual to me, maybe even still like an announcement of a record label or any number of other things that we still could find out and have more revealed to us.

I think, really, honestly, it's none of our actual business, right? Let's just say that out loud. It's her business, frankly.

I think the wedding industry is so interested in this because we would love to have a trend dictated to us. We would love to have someone tell us exactly how everything is going to look for the next year. We would love for there to be just like all of this conversation and hoopla around this, but ultimately, it is their moment. It's their special day. It's their memories, right?

We all believe that we have and are entitled to, I think, a little bit of a piece of her because we've grown up with her. We've been through all of her heartbreaks. We've been through all of her relationships with her. We've wanted them to work out. We've all been hoping and hoping that whatever person that she was dating at the time would be the one. And this does seem like the one. And so really, frankly, we should just leave them alone and let them enjoy it.

But as a wedding planner, I'm sorry, but we have to have some kind of commentary on this a little bit, just so those bad boxes don't become some kind of weird trend that we have to all work on for the next year.

It looked like an award box in some ways, but there's not been a lot leaked about this. There has been like confirmations here and there and some vendor chatter here and there and who's involved here and there, but nothing has really actually been publicly confirmed except for that there was an event that took place this past weekend at Madison Square Garden.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were supposedly present. We still have not yet seen a photo of that. People were walking out with what appeared to be a box with their monogram on it. Confirm or deny, unclear.

So basically, it's still all a mystery, which is literally Taylor Swift's blueprint. She loves a mystery. She loves an Easter egg. She loves to keep everyone listening. And are we all listening? Yes, the entire world is literally on edge waiting for a photo of this.

People throughout the wedding industry are teasing that they're a part of it just to see what the algorithm does to amplify their following. It's really pretty wild.

It's been like the wild west of weddings. And thankfully, in really the quietest wedding season, part of the year, really for everyone, right? Everyone can pay attention. All we're doing right now is watching the World Cup and watching it's Taylor Swift getting married and when is that going to happen? It's a pretty unusual, an unusual situation.

I think juxtapose this situation with what we just saw Dua Lipa do. And in my opinion, Dua Lipa's rollout of her wedding and the actual wedding taking place was a masterclass in how this should be done.

Because what I really loved about how she rolled her wedding out is that it was rolled out around a story. It was rolled out around fashion and it was all done in conjunction and the PR teams all worked together and it's just felt a little bit more cohesive and it made sense.

And then friends, she gave us the gift of literally letting us all follow along on this baller honeymoon that she decided to take through Italy and go to these incredible hotels and just show us her love and how much fun they're having because frankly, her wedding just looked like a lot of fun.

And so maybe Taylor's gonna let us do that. Maybe she's not. Unclear at this point, but I would say for me and for this podcast, our wedding of the year was by far Dua's.

In terms of the rumors of the castle, in terms of the rumors of whatever is being constructed inside, I think it's highly likely. It's highly likely she's very theatrical and she has shown us again and again through every single one of her shows that there are these elements of theater and there are these elements of playfulness in some ways with her. I think MSG is one big dupe.

I really do. I think it's not, this is not the real deal. This doesn't actually feel like them. I do think that they got married before. They're already married is my personal philosophy on this.

That MSG is either some kind of an announcement of a record label or it's an announcement internally or because also they haven't really shown anyone major. It's been mostly looks like family and friends, which okay, great. Maybe it was a live stream of where it was actually happening somewhere else.

There's so many crazy theories on this. Back to Dua Lipa.

Her marriage in London, in that fabulous outfit with the hat, it's next level. It's like you're just claiming the top celebrity spot.

And I think with these celebrity weddings, like it can go one of two ways, right? That's the thing about celebrity weddings is that they can either be super crazy private and they never get published or we get like a little tiny glimpse. Okay, great. Here's like a little glimpse. It happened. We all see it. It's lovely.

I feel like that's how Selena Gomez's wedding was rolled out. Very tiny glimpse, right?

Then you get Dua's wedding and that was like a much more grand situation. There's the rollout with all of the different fashion houses and this is how this is going and let us give you the peeks into the welcome party and into the wedding and who designed this and who did that and here are all the details and like we're gonna give them one more.

And those are like two places on either side in some ways. This one just feels a little different. Like it feels still a little not real. We're not really sure what's happening. We're not really sure what's actually taking place. It's not confirmed. It's not denied.

There's literally not even a comment from anyone except for the mayor of New York and the police department. And then on top of that, it's also been like very weird leaks, like a t-shirt that has Taylor Swift's name on it or like a piece of paper from the NYPD that has like a weird timeline. It's just very, those are odd. That's odd.

For two people who are so skilled at media manipulation, I'm not really, I don't get it. I don't get the strategy.

I don't think she's gonna get published. I don't think she's going to give anyone anything about any of this. None of us are going to see this wedding.

If it was put there, it was put there for a purpose. If it is actually taking place in MSG and did take place there, then there was, I would like to just say that for the record, that there are like so many other insane things happening right now in the world, but our attention is focused on is she or is she not getting married at Madison Square Garden?

So friends, more to be revealed. We will see if she gets published in a magazine. We will see if we ever see any pictures, but just keep in mind, there are other things going on the planet and Viva México.

Welcome back to Mind Over Matrimony, where literally we're 48 hours after Taylor and Travis's wedding, which friends, it did actually happen at MSG, which I do think is interesting because the only other major private party that's actually happened at MSG was done by Elizabeth Taylor.

And so in looking at her last album and the fact that she does love to leave us an Easter egg, maybe that was the Easter egg, actually, in her own way of saying, hey, I'm just going to leave this here and we're going to talk about life of a pop star, really is truly, should have been the album name, but it's interesting, so fascinating, friends.

I know we were all kind of shocked. I was wrong. Let's just call it, I was wrong. They were not married before. They really did the whole thing at MSG. They did the rehearsal dinner

like it was leaked on the second. They did the wedding on the third and the guest list was off the chain, friends.

If you were a celebrity, you were there minus those who weren't, which we won't name any names here, friends, but we all know who we're talking about.

Unless you were literally performing a concert, okay, Ariana Grande, or you're like on tour or filming a movie, you were at this wedding.

There was a comment from one of the guests who helps her with her music videos and he said on his Instagram that it was like being inside of the internet and that AI would never be able to even render what was going on inside because it was so spectacular.

And what I think has been really fun so far is that we haven't gotten anything from the two T's themselves. All we've gotten is really great feedback from guests

who clearly had a blast, had so much fun, had the time of their lives and also it was apparently very sentimental and that I love, right?

Because weddings are sentimental. Weddings are these, yes, even weddings of this caliber and size. Ultimately, it's two people who've fallen in love and who are out there and just trying to build a family for themselves.

Everybody was invited. She said on Graham Norton many years ago that the place where weddings get sticky is when you have to narrow the guest list and so she chose not to do that. If you have worked with her, if you've interviewed her, if she's been on your podcast, if she interacted with you in any way, even from her ring designer was invited to the wedding, people who never actually get to see weddings, the ring designer or the stationer. If you were involved with them, you were invited.

I love that his mom did fly commercial. There was not a joke, it was not a hoax. She showed up and then on the 4th of July, she was literally outside her hotel in her July 4th gear ready to go and do whatever they were gonna do for 4th of July and she basically said, I can't tell you much but it was amazing and that's pretty unbelievable.

What's also been fun is really watching the fashion roll out of the guests, right? In my opinion, it's very hard right now to determine what guest code was, like what dress code was actually asked for because I think the clothing choices

are kinda all over the board but it's been fun to watch guests have their own photo shoots. Basically, everyone has had a photo shoot, everyone is releasing photos, everyone is leaning in to the kitschy TNT monogram that they put outside of Madison Square Garden when they actually got married and I think it's just been fun, right?

It clearly happened, it happened with the secret team that kind of everybody thought was going to plan it and so we haven't seen anything and what will be interesting now and in the coming weeks will be,

do we get an actual release? We know that she wore Dior, praise Dior and Louboutin, also amazing, incredible. Both of them were custom Dior and the jewels were Cartier. Other than that, really, we don't know that much.

There's been like one leaked video and then there's some drapery being set up, basically. So that's what we've seen and then also, I would like to say

the things that are now coming out of Madison Square Garden are funny, right? It's just everything that was covered that was put in before is now uncovered. So we're seeing that monogram, we're seeing the arcade games come rolling out, we're seeing all the trees come rolling out.

It was described basically like a fairy tale princess pixie wedding and honestly, that tracks friends.

So more power to them, love them so much, excited to see more.

What will be interesting is that with the wedding planner that they chose, generally, you never see photos from one of his weddings and so it will be interesting what they release. My guess is some kind of picture of the two of them in a closeup and maybe they're going to keep the rest of the experience private.

Based on her COVID albums, which I actually feel like is more of her real personality like this foresty, nymph-y, fairy situation. I feel like that's gonna be what the decor is ultimately gonna look like, right?

This ELLE Decor article that literally just came out a couple of hours ago is talking about it being a mix between a garden and a greenhouse and a forest and so I definitely think that tracks.

Clearly, there were some incredible performances. Obviously, Taylor's song that she walked down the aisle to, which I think is actually very sentimental because so many people who are Swifties and who love Taylor and her music and her story have picked her music to walk down the aisle to and so now she actually got to have that moment with herself. That's pretty magical.

Of course, Stevie Nicks, of course, Paul McCartney and then Adam Sandler officiating, which is pretty wild.

I cannot imagine what that conversation was like or those meetings. I'd love to just be a fly on the wall in those meetings. Let's plan this wedding ceremony with Adam Sandler and Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. That sounds, I don't know, magical and so much fun and just full of joy and full of laughter

and apparently the vows were very long. Apparently they were both around 20 minutes each so that's wild. You're sitting there for 40 minutes listening to vows but there's, I don't know, something special about that

coming from two people who don't really do personal interviews, who don't really talk about themselves too much.

They're very interesting because I do feel like they let you in just enough to allow you to think that you know who they are but to actually sit there and listen to them speak to each other had to have been something really special to watch.

I hope that he hired some people to help because that would be a lot of pressure to be up against the ultimate writer, Taylor Swift.

This is the other thing I think that's interesting too is that you really are trying to entertain, from a guest perspective, guest experience moment,

there are a lot of different types of people that you're trying to make this make sense.

I also read that it was a station-style meal which I think was right. It was the right move for them because number one, if it was station-style that means they didn't have to do seating, right? And you could pick your seat, pick your friends,

be with the people that you knew, get the food that you want, meet somebody new, oh maybe you met them at the rehearsal dinner and you're like moving around and this is actually a trend that I think we've been seeing a lot more of is this relaxed atmosphere in these larger guest counts of going back to this station-style because it does allow for a lot more flexibility.

The last two weddings that we've done at Julian Leaver Events have actually been station-style and they've been so much fun. People can do whatever they want. They're wandering around, they're bumping into people and that's fun.

And you can have lots of different genres of food, right? You're not just tied into, oh we have to pick one appetizer and then you're gonna have a choice of entree. No, you could have Italian food, you could have Chinese food, you could have pizza, you could have like all of these very fun, different elements to be able to make all of these disparate groups of people make sense in some way.

I also like that idea of the arcade. I'm guessing there was probably a whole thing to deal with all of the sports people, friends.

This is the convergence of also some very different worlds like media and then music and then sports and then family and then friends from when you're like, we're six. I think that's a group of people to get together and to figure out how to make that all make sense is really, truly a challenge.

And from what it seems and what's been reported in the very little bit that has, it seems like they pulled that off really in a masterclass.

So everybody has had fun, everybody has basically commented that they're epically hungover and that they'll get back to us later.

And so that's been so fun to just watch and see and also be surprised about who was there.

And what's interesting I think too is that she didn't pick a farm, right? She didn't pick her home in Rhode Island. She didn't pick just a remote location in Montana. She picked literally the largest venue in the arguably the largest city in the United States and controlled that city, controlled the environment, was able to keep the details for the most part secret.

And then the cherry on top, if you will, is that the Empire State Building changed to blue for something blue. And really, what else can you say, Taylor Swift? The largest star on earth.

So friends, hopefully we see some photos. We're gonna be all looking for these little tiny tidbits. What are the things that stood out? We really wanna see that Dior gown. So Taylor, if you're by any weird off chance listening, please just send us a picture, share a picture. We're dying to know.

Thank you guys for joining. And we hope that you are also following along as more will be revealed from this incredible wedding.

A The Media Socialites Production