Photo: Getty Images
Remember Ciara and Russell Wilson’s fairytale wedding earlier this summer? Yep, we’re still not over it. (Are you even surprised?) From the singer’s Roberto Cavalli lace wedding dress to the honest-to-goodness English castle wedding venue, the nuptials were the definition of a fairytale wedding. But, as it turns out, the big day almost never came to be. What?! Yes, apparently we were almost denied the delight of fawning over Ciara’s gorgeous gown and picture-perfect wedding photos. In fact, the now-newlyweds had actually canceled their wedding twice before their July ceremony in England. But the reason might surprise you — and make you love these two even more…
Postponing a wedding is never fun. Obviously, right? With so many logistical things to worry about — from informing friends and family of the pushed-back date to vendor contract battles — most brides would never think to postpone their nuptials unless it was super duper necessary. That’s why we find Ciara and Wilson’s wedding postponement so admirable, as they cancelled their wedding — the first time around — in response to the North Carolina bathroom laws. A bride who sticks up for what she believes in? What could be more awesome than that?
The couple’s wedding planner, Mindy Weiss, recently shared that the wedding between the sultry singer and football player was originally to take place in North Carolina. “I did the whole thing — three times,” said Weiss (poor girl!). “They were first getting married in North Carolina, but they called it off due to the transgender bathroom laws,” Weiss shared, explaining how they to-be-wedded couple cancelled the nuptials in protest of the state’s controversial law that mandates that transgender citizens must use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth gender.
Photo: Dennis Leupold
So next up after North Carolina was a no-go was Paris. After all, what could be more romantic than Parisian “I do’s?”
“It ended up being [Couture] Fashion Week,” explained their wedding planner. “And it was really difficult.” Oops! Well, on to round three…
Photo: Courtesy Russell Wilson via Instagram
The third time really was the charm, as the couple’s third go-around at wedding planning was a sweet, sweet success. “We ended up in London,” said Weiss of Ciara and Wilson’s beautiful July nuptials. “They wanted to be away. And we found a castle that was an hour out of Liverpool and they had about 110 guests.”
And judging by how totally stunning the big day ended up being, we couldn’t envision a more perfect ‘happily ever after’ for this (kinda crazy) wedding planning journey!