One way to ensure your marriage has a little extra sparkle: Make America’s birthday your special day.
While New Year’s nuptials are certainly a popular choice (we see you Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith) and Valentine’s Day vows are all about the love (hi, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter!) a number of celebrities have chosen to commit to their spouse on Independence Day.
Though it’s possible Brits Victoria Beckham and David Beckham just saw July 4 as a potentially pleasant Sunday when they selected it for their Dublin-set vows in 1999, there are definite advantages to holding your wedding on a holiday where you’re already likely to be gathering with friends and family. (Plus, you know, the probability for built-in reception fireworks.)
Julia Roberts and Danny Moder, for instance, sprung the committing-to-forever section of their 2002 Fourth of July bash on guests like George Clooney and Brad Pitt, who gathered at their New Mexico ranch for barbecue and sparklers.
As for Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, July 3, 2021 was simply one of the first Saturdays they could safely celebrate with loved one at the country singer’s sprawling Oklahoma spread amid the coronavirus pandemic.
So The Voice coaches had a private chapel built on his 1,300-acre property and found a pair of white stiletto cowboy boots. “It got really small. I had this fantasy of building bleachers, but it just got smaller and smaller,” she later explained to Ellen DeGeneres. “It was, like, the perfect amount of people. It was so intimate, it was so exactly what it needed to be.”
And those are just a few of the celebrities who started their marriages off with a literal bang. Raise a cold beer and a grilled hot dog to all the stars celebrating their anniversary this Fourth of July.
Julia Roberts & Danny Moder
Though they marketed the day as a standard Fourth of July bash to pals like Brad Pitt and George Clooney, the Pretty Woman actress married the cameraman at her estate near Taos, New Mexico in 2002. She wore a pink dress while her groom wore a ruffled red shirt.
“19 years,” the actress wrote on Instagram on July 4, 2021, alongside a rare selfie showing herself with her husband. “Just getting started!”
Mila Kunis & Ashton Kutcher
The Secret Garden at Parrish Ranch in Oak Glen, Calif. offered stunning mountain vistas and plenty of seclusion when the former That 70’s Show co-stars tied the knot in 2015. For the big day, Mila and the couple’s then-infant daughter Wyatt wore coordinating white dresses.
David & Victoria Beckham
Why yes, the Spice Girl’s 1999 wedding to the soccer star was quite posh, the pair selecting the 560-acre Luttrellstown Castle outside Dublin, Ireland for their vows. Sitting upon golden thrones at the altar, the couple reportedly had nude figurines of themselves on their wedding cake, which they cut with a sword, naturally.
Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne
The Black Sabbath frontman married his manager’s daughter in Maui on July 4, 1982. Ozzy later said that he chose this date so he would never forget his wedding anniversary.
Tom Hardy & Charlotte Riley
The British actors, who met while filming an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, made the leap in a castle in the South of France in 2014.
Billy Joel & Alexis Roderick
For his fourth wedding, the “Uptown Girl” singer married equestrian Roderick at his Long Island estate. The 2015 ceremony was officiated by now-disgraced former Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. The couple welcomed their first child the next month.
Tina Turner & Erwin Bach
After a 27-year partnership, the late singer finally married music executive Bach in a 2013 private ceremony on Lake Zurich in Switzerland.
(Originally published July 4, 2023 at 6 a.m. PT)
