In early May 1974, plans for the first-ever wedding at Madison Square Garden began to take shape.
Determined to stage his upcoming wedding as the event of the year, Sly Stone picked up the phone and called Stephen Paley at the offices of Epic Records, his record company.
Stone shared his ambitious plans with Paley and said he was considering holding the wedding in either Hawaii or New York, where he had an upcoming gig.
“Why don’t you do it in Madison Square Garden?” Paley asked, per The New Yorker. “Before your concert.”
“Yeah,” Stone said. “I could be my own opening act.”
The following day, he called Paley at home and left a message. “My name is Sly, and I wish you would make my wedding the biggest event this year,” he said. “You can do it if you want to. I’ll be at home awaiting your ideas. Ha. Ha. Ha. Don’t let me intimidate you.”
“He called me back later that day, and we grew the idea from a seed to a bud, from a bud to a flower,” Stone wrote in his 2023 memoir, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).” “I could do a gig, get paid, and get married at the same time.”
More than five decades before Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s rumored upcoming mega-wedding at MSG, Sly Stone — funk pioneer and face of Sly and the Family Stone — married young model and actress Kathy Silva at the Garden, both dressed in shimmering gold jumpsuits with sweeping, floor-length capes.
By the Stone-Silva wedding, Madison Square Garden had established itself as a cultural hub. It was where Marilyn Monroe sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy at a Democratic party fundraiser.
The New York Knicks won their first NBA championship title there in 1970 and their second in 1973. The Garden also hosted Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s 1971 “Fight of the Century,” as well as historic concerts by Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones.
Stone, a soul music hitmaker, was already a major cultural force with “Everyday People,” “Everybody is a Star,” “Sing a Simple Song” and “Family Affair,” and had performed at the New York City arena several times before.
Within days of his call to Paley, the city’s leading creatives had been rallied to begin planning. Elaborate arrangements were made, many of which — such as releasing 500 white doves — never materialized.
Invitations went out:
“You are invited to a golden affair, the wedding of Kathy Silva and Sly Stone at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night the fifth of June, followed by the concert of Sly and the Family Stone,” the invites read.
“Wear something gold.”
Prep for the wedding stretched to the eleventh hour. An estimated 23,000 fans filled the arena, along with several celebrity guests. The media swarmed the scene. Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations opened the show, while Stone took a few extra minutes to rehearse.
“And then it was show time,” Stone said in his memoir. “It had happened hundreds of times before, in little clubs in New York City, in front of a huge crowd at Woodstock. But it had never happened on a night when I was getting married.”
He added, “We had twenty thousand guests at least, with some of the estimates as high as twenty-five. Years later I saw a picture of a ticket someone kept: $8.50 for a wedding and a concert both. A bargain.”
Silva came out first, followed by Stone, wearing “sunglasses to block the glint from all the gold.” The couple exchanged vows to a screaming celebration from the crowd. Then, with Stone at the front, Sly and the Family Stone performed a full set.
Television personality Geraldo Rivera, who hosted an evening news program at the time, “Good Night America,” evening news program, attended the wedding with plans to serve as an usher.
“There have been some flamboyant and elaborate weddings over the years, but I can’t imagine one that would top this,” Rivera said, per The New York Times. “I don’t think anyone ever had the idea of getting married at Madison Square Garden to a full house of crazed fans onstage.
“It was really quite spectacular.”
Without an encore, Stone and Silva zipped off in a brand-new $38,000 brown Mercedes limo (about $260,000 today), and continued the celebration at the Waldorf Astoria’s rooftop lounge.
In contrast to the flashy, fan-packed Stone-Silva wedding, Swift and Kelce are taking a more private approach to their rumored Madison Square Garden celebration.
Details of the wedding — reportedly set for Fourth of July weekend — have mostly been kept tightly under wraps. Any information picked up by paparazzi has been limited, and the event is not expected to include fans or a Swift concert.
As truckloads filled with boxes labeled “Garden Party” arrive at the arena, barricades go up and Donna Kelce arrives in New York City, it seems unlikely the MSG wedding is a master decoy from Swift — making her and Kelce the second couple, alongside Stone and Silva, to turn Madison Square Garden into the site of a celebrity wedding spectacle.
A few more pop star weddings
Madonna and Sean Penn (1985)
The “Queen of Pop” married actor Sean Penn in a lavish beach wedding in Malibu in August 1985 — on Madonna’s 27th birthday.
A crowd of 220 guests — including Cher, Tom Cruise, Diane Keaton, Carrie Fisher, Andy Warhol and Christopher Walken — gathered poolside at real-estate developer Dan Unger’s $6.5 million cliffside home, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Guards lined the perimeter to watch for intruders, though helicopters buzzed overhead with eager tabloid photographers.
Madonna wore a strapless Cinderella-style gown and walked down the aisle on the arm of her father to the song ”Moments of Love." After a brief ceremony, guests drank Cristal champagne and dined on sushi and a catered from Spago.
“I’ve never seen two more passionate people. Forget about the superstar stuff; Madonna is a girl wildly in love,” a friend of Madonna’s told People.
The couple divorced in 1989, but her 1991 documentary “Truth or Dare,” Madonna reflected on the relationship, calling Penn ”the love of her life."
Victoria and David Beckham (1999)
Posh Spice and English soccer star David Beckham married at Ireland’s Luttrellstown Castle on July 4, 1999, with only 29 guests in attendance.
Following the wedding ceremony, the couple hosted a reception with 300 guests, including The Spice Girls, Elton John and several of David Beckham’s Manchester United teammates.
Victoria Beckham wore a custom, six-figure champagne-colored Vera Wang wedding gown with a 20-foot train and accessorized with an 18-karat gold tiara set with diamonds.
Then, the couple changed into matching, memorable purple looks by designer Antonio Berardi and danced with their guests.
When celebrating their 25-year anniversary in 2024, the couple put the purple outfits back on and shared the moment on Instagram, writing, “Look what we found…"
Beyoncé and Jay-Z (2008)
Pop power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z secretly wed in an ultra-private New York City wedding in April 2008.
The couple filled Jay-Z’s 13,500-square-foot Tribeca penthouse with just 40 guests, setting up a covered tent in the living room, filled with candles, crystal icicles and 70,000 white dendrobium orchids flown in from Thailand to create their “winter wonderland” theme.
Phones were taken from guests —including Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland — upon arrival so no photos of the event could be leaked.
The public did not know the couple had been married until 2011, when Beyoncé shared an image of her wedding gown in a video for “Live at Roseland.” Three years later, Jay-Z included clips from the ceremony in their joint “On The Run” tour.
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon (2008)
Following a six-week lightning romance, Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon surprised fans with a oceanside ceremony at Carey’s private Bahamian estate on Windermere Island.
The couple met on the set of Carey’s “Bye Bye” video and kept their relationship tightly under wraps — flying their 12 guests to the island estate under the guise of participating in a music video.
Carey and Cannon exchanged vows at sunset on the beach. She wore a simple, white slip dress by designer Nile Cmylo and crystal-embellished Christian Louboutin stilettos, while he wore a Balenciaga tuxedo.
The couple renewed their vows every year until their divorce in 2016.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian (2014)
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian married in May 2014 in a weeklong celebration across multiple countries, with West spearheading nearly all of the planning.
West rented out the Palace of Versailles for the rehearsal dinner, where two hundred guests gathered, and dinner was served in the palace’s Hall of Mirrors. A surprise performance from Lana del Rey followed.
The next day, guests were flown to Florence, where West and Kardashian exchanged vows at Forte di Belvedere with a 20-foot wall of flowers.
Kardashian wore a custom, $500,000 Givenchy gown designed by Riccardo Tisci, while Kanye wore a custom Givenchy tuxedo. Their daughter, North West, also wore a custom Givenchy gown.
Andrea Bocelli sang “Ave Maria” and “Con te partirò” while Kardashian walked down the aisle and John Legend performed his song “All of Me” during the reception.
The wedding cost an estimated $2.8 million. Will Swift and Kelce top it?