Celebrities are rarely shy about cashing in on the happiest days of their lives.
For the past three decades, everyone from A-listers to soap stars has found ways to work with brands and media outlets to make an easy profit from their nuptials.
David and Victoria Beckham were pioneers of the trend when they sold exclusive picture rights for their elaborate 1999 wedding to OK! magazine. The then-record £1million deal helped fund the lavish event at an Irish castle.
Six years later, Katie Price and Peter Andre funded their luxurious £1million nuptials at Highclere Castle – the primary filming location for Downton Abbey – by signing an exclusive deal also with OK! magazine.
But such deals didn’t always go in the stars’ favour. Former Blue Peter and GMTV host Anthea Turner faced a huge backlash for posing with a white chocolate Cadbury’s Snowflake bar during her wedding to Grant Bovey in 2000 amid claims it was ‘tacky’ and too commercial.
More than 25 years later, however, and there are no concerns about such transactions between celebrities and the glossier end of the media.
Today’s new wave of stars flaunting products at their weddings are doing so not in the pages of magazines, but on their own social media pages.
Post-nuptial Instagram posts, which once featured only the bride and groom, are now crammed with influencer-style tags plugging brands that celebs ‘partnered’ with for their ‘big day’.
Katie Price and Peter Andre funded their lavish £1million nuptials at Highclere Castle by signing an exclusive deal with OK! magazine
From paid posts where stars earn cash by tagging brands, to items ‘gifted’ for free in exchange for exposure, the opportunity to profit from life’s biggest moments has become easier than ever.
And celebs can pocket huge sums. Payments for promotional content can stretch from tens of thousands of pounds up to millions, depending on the brand and the number of followers a celebrity has.
It means spending an additional 20 minutes or so taking pictures on your wedding day can net thousands more pounds in profits for celebs savvy enough to broker commercial partnerships in advance.
And while some may have just tagged the brands with no financial benefit, this seems unlikely in the current influencer climate of lucrative brand deals.
So which recently married stars cashed in the most from the happiest day of their lives? Our wedding snitch reveals all…
Emily Atack
First up is Rivals star Emily Atack. The actress, 36, last month wed Dr Alistair Gardner, her step-cousin, and celebrated at their home in Bedfordshire.
Despite being worth an estimated £1.5million, several elements of her big day appear to have been gifted – including, most prominently, a personalised McDonald’s van that provided the catering, complete with a Mr and Mrs Gardner McFlurry sign.
As my mole tells me: ‘If McDonald’s shows up, you know the couple are saying yes to brands who are offering up freebies for exposure.
‘But a freebie deal takes over the day a bit because you have to fulfil your duty to take social pics for it.’
Emily Atack’s marriage to Alistair Gardner featured a personalised McDonald’s van providing catering, complete with a Mr and Mrs Gardner McFlurry sign
And the happy couple have the content to prove it. Emily posted pictures of herself and her new hubby posing in front of the van to her Instagram stories, captioned: ‘Gifted the most amazing van for the day. Let’s face it. It’s all you want after about 23 glasses of champagne.’
The shameless plugging didn’t stop there. Two months earlier, Emily – who plays forthright Sarah Stratton in the Disney+ series – had a raucous hen party in Cannes with 20 friends. There, she thanked the drinks brand Lady A – the £20-a-pop rosé created for Meghan Markle’s friend Markus Anderson by Soho House owner Nick Jones – for supplying enough alcohol ‘to last a lifetime’.
During the weekend getaway she also tagged a spray tan company for ‘keeping me glowing’ in an Instagram story.
After all this exposure, brands will surely be clamouring to gift her goodies for when she continues her wedding celebrations with a three-day Spanish extravaganza scheduled for later this month.
Jack Whitehall and Roxy Horner
Next on the list are comedian Jack Whitehall and his wife, Victoria’s Secret model Roxy Horner, who wed in April in a countryside ceremony at Euridge Manor in Wiltshire.
The couple, who have a daughter, Elsie, are estimated to be worth a combined £18million and yet – despite this and Jack’s comfortably middle-class upbringing – they are also guilty of cashing in on their fame for a freebie.
Roxy Horner teamed up with American jewellery brand Brilliant Earth to advertise wedding rings for her marriage to Jack Whitehall
She posted a number of pictures of the ring from the couple’s big day
Roxy, 35, teamed up with American jewellery brand Brilliant Earth to advertise wedding rings.
Alongside a slew of snaps posted on Instagram from their big day, the couple posed with the rings alongside the caption, clearly marked as an advert: ‘It wasn’t that long ago we flew to NYC to pick our wedding bands from @brilliantearth and now we get to wear them forever. AD #brilliantearthpartner.’
As one industry insider told me: ‘That wedding was branded up to the nines. You can’t move without some paid partnership or tagged brand in their wedding posts. Their official post reads more like a love letter to companies that gave them things rather than to each other.’
There were 19 plugs in their Instagram wedding post, including one that thanked their luxurious venue – which is £42,000 to rent for the weekend.
Two months after the wedding (featured in Vogue) Roxy was still finding ways to plug brands. On June 30 she posted a promotional Instagram carousel of eight pictures and videos of her customised pearl Omnipod glucose monitor, which she uses to manage her diabetes.
What Jack’s old classmates from £65,000-a-year Marlborough College would make of such shameless plugging remains to be seen.
Mel C and Chris Dingwall
If you wanna be her lover, you gotta get with her tags… When former Spice Girl Mel C wed Australian model and actor Chris Dingwall in Cumbria in July, there were plenty of companies namechecked alongside the photographs she posted on social media of the happy occasion.
On Instagram, she tagged the venue, The Country House Cumbria, a slew of events organisers, wedding cake maker Sally Jean Wedding Cakes, her entire glam crew, and musicians Morassi Quartet, Natalie Williams and Tough Love.
Melanie C tagged her wedding venue, wedding cake maker and musicians for her marriage to Chris Dingwall in Cumbria in July
Although Mel, 52, is worth £22million, she also appears to have called in a few favours from her A-list pals.
My source tells me that her Victoria Beckham dress was ‘lent’ to her by her former bandmate, and ‘DJ Chris Moyles hosted the event’.
Sporty Spice spoke at length in a Vogue interview about how her Victoria had stepped in at the last minute to provide a white lace-trimmed slip dress from her own wardrobe (and label) for the couple’s Australian wedding. Victoria, 52, also designed and created a custom white gown for her friend, inspired by the original slip dress, for the later UK celebrations.
Olly Murs
The Troublemaker singer, 40, wed his bodybuilder partner Amelia Tank at a multi-day celebration called ‘Murs Fest’ on Osea Island in Essex in July 2023.
Like Atack, X-Factor star Olly and his partner had a personalised McDonald’s truck, which they posed alongside while eating chicken nuggets and chips.
My spy reveals: ‘At the time, a source conveniently told newspapers that “Olly and Amelia had a food truck from McDonald’s serving up all of the classics, including McNuggets. They were lovin’ it.” If that isn’t a PR plug, I don’t know what is.’
Like Emily Atack, Olly Murs had a personalised McDonald’s truck for his wedding to Amelia Tank
On Instagram, Murs wrote: ‘Not every day you marry the 3 things you love the most! McNuggets, McFried and McMurs.’ He also thanked the company for their food van.
Murs might be worth an estimated £13.5million, but he also posted another promotion thanking The Grooms Room for providing suits to his groomsmen.
In addition, the couple’s wedding appeared as a cover story in Hello! magazine, in which they ensured they mentioned Australian Pallas Couture, the designer behind Amelia’s wedding dress.
Sophie Habboo and Jamie Laing
Former Made In Chelsea stars Sophie Habboo and Jamie Laing are veterans at capitalising on life’s most intimate moments.
After meeting on the show in 2017, the reality stars wed six years later, first in an intimate ceremony in west London, which was followed by a larger celebration in Sotogrande, a luxury community in Spain.
Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo… her Instagram page tagged a bridal accessory brand and also plugged photos of goodie-bags from her hen do
Sophie’s Instagram page tagged bridal and bachelorette accessory brand Gigi & Olive repeatedly.
‘I’m sure she was reluctant to stoop to the level of tagging brands all over her chic wedding social coverage,’ my spy tells me. ‘But the founder, Georgie Le Roux, is best friends with Jamie. But, even so, it’s not a great look as it lumps her in with all the rest of the pluggers.’
Sophie was also sure to promote her husband’s company, Candy Kittens, posting photos of goodie-bags from her London hen party filled with the brand’s sweets and several items from Gigi & Olive.
The brand busting continued during pre-wedding celebrations with friends in Paris, during which they wore sparkling cowboy hats from the brand. And who was at the party? Ms Le Roux herself.
