The denizens of Palm Beach — long used to partying billionaires — are bracing themselves today for an event the like of which few will have ever witnessed before.
For this afternoon will see the much-anticipated, mega-bucks mega-nuptials between Brooklyn Beckham, the 23-year-old son of David and Victoria, and his bride Nicola Peltz, 27, whose billionaire father owns the Wendy’s burgers chain, among other interests.
It’s an event which has it all. Held over three days — with three wedding dresses, three wedding planners and three enormous marquees — it started with a dinner on Friday night and will finish with a lavish lunch tomorrow.
While some may grouse about the ‘optics’ of the occasion — the post-Covid world is in the grip of a massive economic downturn, while atrocities are ripping apart Eastern Europe — the wedding is being heralded as a long, unfettered and joyful display of excess for that lucky 0.1 per cent for whom times are very good indeed.
Here, from the guests to the calorie-counted buffet, the Mail brings you the order of service for the wedding where budget is a foreign word.
Huge marquees have been erected in the grounds of actress Nicola Peltz’s family home in Palm Beach, Florida, ahead of her Saturday wedding to David and Victoria Beckham’s son Brooklyn
Brooklyn Beckham as he confirmed his engagement to fiancée Nicola Peltz
FROCKS, FOOD, FLOWERS
Nicola’s gowns, all by Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino, were selected by the bride from the atelier in Rome, although everyone is expecting further ‘looks’ over the weekend too, with something from motherin-law Victoria’s struggling fashion line surely getting a look-in.
The flowers — said to be all white and in ‘insane profusion’ — are courtesy of Rishi Patel at HMR Designs, who embellished the 2021 wedding of Bill Gates’s daughter Jennifer.
Tables and outdoor furniture are coming from Pablo Oliveira at Nuage Designs, who looked after Chelsea Clinton’s nuptials.
From the middle of last week, trucks started to arrive in Palm Beach, and police were patrolling the vicinity of the estate.
The marquees are of a size usually rented for trade fairs. Each could comfortably hold 1,000 people — and there are three of them on the lawn at the Peltz’s £76million estate.
The largest will apparently hold a dance floor where rapper Snoop Dogg is going to DJ.
The food is apparently being provided by Miami chef Thierry Isambert, who has previously cooked for former U.S. president Bill Clinton.
Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz are walking down the aisle in Palm Beach this weekend. And ahead of their lavish £3million nuptials, the smitten couple have taken part in a very revealing, Mr and Mrs game for British Vogue. In a video shared by the publication on Wednesday.
Dietary choices include the usual vegan and vegetarian options, but also stretch to allergy-specific choices and even a ‘light’ option, which comes in underneath a certain calorie-counted ceiling.
THE MAGAZINE DEAL
In true 21st-century fashion, Vogue magazine has photographers and videographers on hand to document every moment.
A source said: ‘It’s a nice event, not too big, it will be black tie.
‘There is heavy security and the hundreds of guests have been asked not to share pictures of the bride and groom as they have an exclusive arrangement with Vogue, who will put pictures up on their website.
Lots of the guests are bringing their own hair and make-up artists — it’s that sort of event.’
David Beckham with sons Brooklyn, Cruz and Romeo
ON GROOM’S SIDE
Along with a full flush of Spice Girls, there will David’s best friend Dave Gardner and Gordon and Tana Ramsay and their five children.
Victoria’s sister Louise and her daughter Libby are already in Miami, as are Victoria’s parents Tony and Jackie.
David’s parents Sandra and Ted will also be there, along with his sister Jo. Brooklyn’s brothers Romeo and Cruz will be groomsmen, the bride’s brother Brandon will be ‘Man of Honour’ and Harper Beckham, ten, will be a bridesmaid.
The bride’s maternal grandmother Bunny will be Maid of Honour. Madonna’s son Rocco Ritchie, a childhood friend of Brooklyn’s, has been invited and model Gigi Hadid, a childhood friend of Nicola, is also expected to attend.
Other guests at the event will include David Grutman, the king of Miami nightlife. The Beckhams have become friends of his recently — they have a large apartment in Miami, bought after David founded the football team Inter Miami in 2018.
Beckham’s coach at Inter Miami is pal Phil Neville, and Phil and his brother Gary — and their families — will be at the wedding.
ECCENTRIC RELATIVES
Every wedding has one guest who is a little unusual — and the Peltz family has a corker in the shape of Chandi, the bride’s aunt.
Chandi is a former belly dancer and Hare Krishna devotee who was adopted by the mega-rich heiress Doris Duke in 1988.
Duke believe Chandi was the reincarnation of her daughter, who died in 1940.
She was Duke’s companion and said that the heiress promised to ‘support her for the rest of the life in the style she had enjoyed’, although, sadly, the women fell out eventually.
After Duke died, there was a lawsuit over the Duke fortune which saw Chandi awarded $65million (£43million).
Chandi said during the legal action that she had arranged $5.3 million (£3.5 million) in bail money to be paid for Duke’s friend Imelda Marcos, the disgraced former First Lady of the Philippines.
Chandi now runs a horse farm in Hawaii.
THE TRUMP ISSUE
An eccentric not expected to attend, however, is Donald Trump, a close neighbour of Nelson Peltz and for many years a close friend as well. Peltz gave money to the Trump presidential campaign and even hosted a $10million (£7.6million) fundraiser at the Palm Beach home where the wedding is taking place — although he distanced himself from Trump after the storming of the U.S. Capitol building in 2021.
However, in order not to ruffle millennial sensibilities, it seems Trump is not on the list.
Claudia, 67, left, is a former model and Nelson Peltz’s wife, pictured with daughter Nicola
Local newspaper columnist Lesley Abravanel, a long-time watcher of the Florida social elite, said: ‘Trump is going to be dying to come but there is no way that the kinds of celebrities who will be there would let him come.
‘He would pray to be photographed with these people. Snoop Dogg would probably punch him in the face. The whole thing is nutty. I’ve not seen anything like it in my decades in Palm Beach.’
BILLIONAIRE BRIDE
Brooklyn and Nicola started dating in October 2019, after being introduced by Sofia Richie, the model daughter of singer Lionel.
They went public in January 2020 and the engagement was announced in July the same year and sealed with a £160,000 emerald-cut diamond ring.
The pair are said to have signed a pre-nuptial agreement, meaning that they will exit the marriage with whatever they took into it should romance fade.
Nicola is the youngest of eight siblings, and one of three children by Claudia Heffner Peltz, Nelson Peltz’s third wife.
She was a tomboy who dreamed of playing hockey for a living until she took a drama class when she was 12.
Her screen debut was in a Miley Cyrus pop video when she was 13.
Aged 15, she was cast as Katara in the 2010 fantasy adventure, The Last Airbender.
She is best known for her role as Mark Wahlberg’s daughter in Transformers: Age Of Extinction. She has since appeared in the TV series Inhumans.
Her exes include pop star Justin Bieber, whom she dated briefly in 2016, and Anwar Hadid, the brother of supermodels Gigi and Bella.
They split ‘amicably’ after a year, but she unfollowed him and his entire family on Instagram after he was pictured kissing model Kendall Jenner.
It has been widely speculated that she is the ‘Hollywood mean girl’ described by actress Bella Thorne in a 2015 interview.
In it she said: ‘I have a mean girl. She’s in the business, and she’s very, very mean. I stay away from her at all costs.
I never say hello to her. ‘Her siblings are not mean like she is. It’s just her. One of the reasons I don’t like her is because she’s been a billionaire since she was very little, and she’s never had to work for anything in her life.’
Thorne knows Peltz because her boyfriend Gregg Sulkin also co-starred in the film Affluenza with Nicola Peltz in 2014.
Nicola has never commented on the speculation.
Pictured: Brooklyn and Nicola with David and Victoria Beckham
FIXER FATHER-IN-LAW
As fathers-in-law go, Brooklyn’s is scarier than most: billionaire investor Nelson Peltz is a self-made man with a fearsome reputation as a tough-minded corporate raider.
He dropped out of Pennsylvania University’s Wharton School in 1962 and instead built his family’s tiny frozen food business in Brooklyn into the largest frozen food distributor in the Northeast of America.
From there he assembled the biggest packaging company in the world, Triangle Industries, which was sold in 1989 netting him around $840 million (£535million).
He has in his time bought the iced tea brand Snapple and the burger chain Wendy’s, ducked out of a deal to buy Dunkin’ Donuts, and made inroads into the megalith Heinz.
One of his closest friends is the golfer and sports entrepreneur Greg Norman, who’s described him as ‘a mental marathon runner’, adding: ‘Nelson isn’t a Harvard type. He’s street smart. He understands what the masses want.’
His phone number is said to be among the thousands in Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘black book’. He was in a consortium of investors with Epstein who were looking to buy New York Magazine in 2003.
Making waves: The Beckhams enjoy a day out at sea off the coast of Miami, Florida last week
The website Gawker, since closed down, claimed that Peltz and his wife were ‘horrible bosses’, notorious for firing staff on a whim.
The article also said that the tycoon was obsessed with personal security, being constantly accompanied by armed bodyguards. In 2016, the couple were sued by their dog walker and chauffeur Juan Gonzalez, who said that he was fired after taking a day off sick.
Peltz is a demanding father. He said in an interview: ‘My kids are exhausted every day, and I keep them that way. It’s gym, ice, homework. They’re too tired to get in trouble.’
He added: ‘I don’t want them to see me walking off with a bag of golf clubs over my shoulder. If they see me work hard, it’s better than a lecture.’
And as Brooklyn starts his new life, as the newest member of the clan, they’re words he’d be wise to follow very closely.
Picture research: CLAIRE CISOTTI
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