Why should I pretend I am anything but fascinated by Brooklyn Beckham’s wedding? He was at his parents’ wedding (I have committed many of the photos to memory) and now he’s had his own blowout, just as over-the-top but still as genuinely-in-love earnest as his parents were at the time.
Over the weekend, and after a COVID-stalled engagement, Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz married at her parents’ estate in Florida. Let’s be clear about where the money comes from here: the Beckhams are rich and the Peltz family are wealthy. I differentiate that in my mind because the Beckhams still work for their money whereas the Peltzs have entered the B status.
As Lainey wrote last week, why would this be restrained? The Beckhams love a celebration – they threw Harper a tea party at Buckingham Palace and rented out Versailles for their anniversary and throw massive New Year’s Eve parties, so why would a wedding be a quaint affair? They ball out and it may sound trite, but they do it together. They are an extremely close-knit family and spend a lot of time together. They are hands-on parents. The British media has been picking away at them for years in ways big and small but one of the “marriage problems” the press has been focusing on in the last five years is that there’s a rift between David and Victoria because she posts about their children too much on social media. If you follow either of them, this is a nonsensical storyline. If anything, David is more of a self-promoter than she is and he posts photos of their children very regularly, including Romeo (who is now playing for David’s football team). As Victoria told British Vogue, they are a unit and they move through this world as a unit. And it’s interesting how negative a twist the UK press has put on that, again and again, from David kissing his children on the lips (which is totally normal and adorable!!!!) to the ways they work their connections for their children (as EVERYONE in their position does). It’s like there’s an underlying resentment for how close they are and it comes out in petty op-eds in The Sun or the Daily Fail.
I’ve made this about David and Victoria (obviously) when really it should about Brooklyn and Nicola. Brooklyn is 23 and in my world (which I understand is not everyone’s world), that is a young age to get married. Nicola is 27 and that still is a little on the young side. But Brooklyn’s parents married young, he’s been in serious relationships (Chloe Moretz, Hana Cross) and he seems eager to get married. I wouldn’t be surprised if the plan was to be young parents. (Nan and Grandad Beckham, OMG.)
And let’s get tacky for a minute: her family definitely shelled out for this wedding. They paid for the majority of it, there’s no doubt about it. It was at her family’s estate, she wore custom Valentino (a couture dress cannot be acquired by just anyone) and it mixed wealth (obviously) and celebrity, with Marc Anthony performing (good friend and godfather to Harper and Cruz), Eva Longoria (a good friend of Victoria’s), Venus and Serena (sports royalty!!!!!), the Ramsay family (Gordon and Tania and the children are long-time family friends), Spice Girls Mel C and Mel B. I haven’t seen pictures of Gigi Hadid, Nicole Richie, Tom Brady and Gisele but Page Six is reporting they were there.
David and Victoria (who wore a really pretty silver dress) reportedly gifted them matching Jaguars as a wedding gift. Beyond that, it has been reported that in lieu of gifts the couple asked for donations to a organization helping in Ukraine, which is of course the way to do it (and hopefully they can match it). It also helps alleviate some stress from the guests because you can’t exactly roll up with a toaster.
The British press has gone about getting mad about this in two ways: first was an article on the “tacky” outfits which completely missed the point that it’s MIAMI. Like maybe a zebra print sequin dress wouldn’t work at a regular wedding, but at this it probably did. And Dan Wootton has already pounded his keyboard about them spending too much money when people are struggling. Wootton wrote that he “snapped” because the Beckhams are forcing us to watch their child get married. Did someone put a gun to the all these editors and force them to buy the paparazzi photos? Apparently so! Has anyone checked on Alison Boshoff and see if she was held hostage while writing this story? I’m concerned about the working conditions if the Daily Mail staff is being forced to look at paparazzi photos. Is someone holding their eyes open with toothpicks?
The fact is, everyone is a little jelly that this is getting prime time coverage in Vogue and British Vogue, which is going through a massive creative and cultural resurgence thanks to Edward Enninful. There’s a thread here as Victoria covered British Vogue with her children (and a separate issue with David, which kicked off divorce rumours for months) and Edward Enninful and the Beckhams seem to have if not just a strong working relationship, a friendship. Whatever other people think of the wedding, the Peltz-Beckhams have the stamp of approval of a prestigious and well-loved fashion editor and that’s worth more than a million inches of print from the tabloids.
One more thing about the specificity of how the UK tabloids resent this family: Daily Mail columnist Alison Boshoff said she had to wish them the best but she gives them five years tops. I’m sure she would have said the same thing about his parents.
Attached - Various celebrities attending the Beckham wedding as well as a post-wedding brunch yesterday in Miami.
