The five largest sports in the U.S. are football, basketball, soccer, baseball, and hockey. These sports aren’t just popular in America, either, and they garner plenty of attention across the globe. Even more popular than the sports themselves, however, are the athletes that play them — at least the ones who can claim they are the best in the world.
Athletes like Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan are some of the most famous people in the entire world. Not just famous athletes … famous people. And when these sports icons get married, people notice.
The average number of wedding guests is about 136, which actually might seem like a lot to most Americans. For multimillionaire athletes who have more money and popularity than average people can even dream of, 130 people is small for even a birthday party. After all, who wants to have an “average” wedding? Not the rich and the famous. So while An estimated 44,230 weddings take place each and every weekend in the United States (by some estimates, 2.4 million weddings every year), few of them can match the extravagance of a celebrity wedding.
Here are some of the most extravagant, luxurious, and downright amazing athlete weddings that have occurred over the years:
- Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto — NBA legend Michael Jordan’s second wedding with his Cuban supermodel bride took place in front of more than 300 people. Their wedding was held in Palm Beach, Florida. And some of the guests of note include Patrick Ewing, Spike Lee, and Tiger Woods.
- Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian — Unlike Jordan and Prieto, Kim is much more famous than her athletic ex-husband — so is her current husband, Kanye. But the former first-round pick in the 2004 NBA draft and the fashion icon certainly had an eccentric wedding ceremony. Among the nearly 450 guests who attended were Ryan Seacrest, Demi Lovato, Serena Williams, and Scottie Pippen. Kim’s wedding gown cost $60,000, and the entire wedding, a wedding that resulted in only 72 days of marriage, cost $20 million.
- Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren — Sadly, this is another celebrity marriage that didn’t work out, but that can’t take away their amazing ceremony. Woods rented out an entire hotel in Barbados and spent about $1.5 million on the nuptials. Wedding guests of note: NBA icon Charles Barkley and global icon Oprah Winfrey.
Of course, not all celebrities or athletes opt for an out-of-this-world wedding. In 2018, Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bündchen shared photos from their epic wedding. The power couple tied the knot 10 years ago at the Santa Monica Catholic Church. And unlike most celebrity-athlete couplings, the duo opted for a decidedly laid back California wedding. Only 20 people attended their intimate ceremony.
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There have been plenty of athlete-celebrity weddings that were much more extraordinary than most weddings. Some that just missed the cut include Kobe Bryant and Venessa Bryant, Hank Baskett and Kendra Wilkinson, and Chris Paul and Jada Crawley.