Salma Hayek had a weekend long destination wedding in Venice, Italy attended by celebrities and bigwigs like Penelope Cruz, Bono, Anna Wintour, Antonio Banderas, Ashley Judd, Charlize Theron, and Ed Norton. Former French President Jacques Chirac was even there. Less than two weeks ago, Hayek denied that she was planning a large second wedding to follow-up her Valentine’s Day civil ceremony. She also condemned multi-million dollar weddings, saying “I think spending millions of dollars on a wedding is ridiculous and it has never been my dream. I would never do that.” Judging by the elaborate masked ball on the day before the ceremony, the ceremony with the bride in a Balenciaga gown, and the five course reception dinner, Salma and her new husband, billionaire François-Henri Pinault, had a ridiculously fabulous second wedding:
The actress and her husband, French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, tied the knot – for the second time – Saturday in a star-studded ceremony in Venice, Italy, PEOPLE has confirmed. They originally got married in a civil ceremony at the 6th Arrondisement City Hall in Paris on Valentine’s Day.
This time around, Hayek, 42, went all out. She wore a Balenciaga wedding gown by Nicholas Ghesquiere as she exchanged vows with Pinault, 46, at Venice’s opera house La Fenice. The bride, who wore her hair in a bun with a long veil, held a bouquet of orchids and stephanotis with crystals.
The couple’s daughter, Valentina Paloma, 19 months, was a flower girl, along with Francois-Henri’s son and daughter from his first marriage, Francois, 10 and Mathilde, 8. Valentina wore a dress by Bonpoint for the ceremony, which started around 7 p.m. At one point in the ceremony, the guests sang “Over the Rainbow.”
About 150 friends and family members were in attendance, including Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton, Woody Harrelson, Olivier Martinez, Luis Miguel, Ashley Judd, Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Bono, Gael García Bernal, Enrique Murciano, David Blaine, Ziyi Zhang, Anna Wintour and former French President Jacques Chirac. The wedding was a black tie affair. Guests wore black and gold masks as they arrived for the nuptials.
The weekend celebration kicked off Friday evening with a carnival-style masked ball at the Venice’s historic Punta Della Dogana. The structure, which is leased from the city by Pinault’s father and has undergone a $70-million renovation, will open to the public on June 6 as the Pinault Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art.
The couple’s guests have enjoyed the sites of Italy’s most romantic city since arriving Thursday. Woody Harrelson and wife Laura were spotted hand-in-hand taking a stroll around Piazza San Marco on Thursday.
Earlier this month, Hayek told PEOPLE, “I think a wedding is about love, friends, family and fun.” And she certainly got that during the celebration surrounded by loved ones.
The actress and Pinault, the CEO of luxury-goods company PPR, met in spring 2006 at a gala party at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, a white marble palace built in 1748-1772 and owned by the Pinault family.
[From People]
Just like the first photos of her daughter, Valentina, Salma has released her own photo from the wedding instead of offering it to the highest bidder. It really sounds like she was set against a luxury wedding and her husband talked her into it. That’s romantic that they were married in the city where they first met and it sounds like a wonderful weekend that they’ll remember forever. Congratulations to Salma and François-Henri.
Most photos credit: ELIOT PRESS/bauergriffinonline.com. Photos of Gael Garcia Bernal and Salma in the purple dress credit: INFphoto.com. Header photo credit ID Public Relations via AP
She looks beautiful. Congratulations to them both.
I love her dress.
She is fantastic and Venice is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and I am very jealous!!!!
I’m glad they are happy, of course.
That being said, they did not have a wedding. They had a party, at which they play-acted out a wedding. See, a wedding “weds” to people together. They had their wedding in February (I believe). They didn’t get divorced in the interim, therefore they were already married. Hence, this was not a wedding.
Nevertheless, I hope they had a lovely party and that their friends didn’t mind watching an already married couple go through the motions of a wedding.
She looks absolutely stunning.
I wonder how many of those celebs are actually her good friends.
My G-d….to be that beautiful and rich…how fun!
That said, last year I went to a “second wedding”, and it really kind of ruined it for me. I mean, WTF? YOUR ALREADY MARRIED… have a party…to make guests sit there will you re-marry is sooo self-indulgent.
Tacky!!
Self-indulgent or a sign of lasting commitment.
Sounds like we have some Bitter Bettys in the room.
Amen, barneslr. Unless you’ve been married for like 30 years, I think it’s tacky to throw yourself a second wedding. They’ve been married about five minutes. But I guess Salma wanted to squeeze as much attention out the “bride” title before things go south three years down the road.
Bono’s wife’s dress is absolutely hideous.
Their wedding picture looks like some 78 year old dudes holding hands….first you have babies then you get married…what is this new trend now??? the pupose of getting marrried is to have kids,,if you already have kids what is the use of getting married(twice..??)
you peopel need to get real with life…
I don’t see love in any the pictures of these 2…can not understand them….
I know a lot of people are going to tell me off about this post …but don’t really care….everyone is entitle to their opinion…
good day fellows
I don’t mind the second wedding, but to go out of your way and make a public statement about how you are against people having million dollar weddings and how you would never do that because it’s ridiclous and then do just that a few days later is beyond tacky. Why not just keep your mouth shut? I just hate liars.
Salma is absolutely gorgeous. But God Bless the groom if he can live with her!
If the repeated their vows, they had a formal wedding. They had a civil one first and then had one by their minister..maks it a wedding and not a party.
I don’t think it’s tacky. This is Salma’s first wedding at age 42 and why shouldn’t she have a bit of a blow-out? Good for her! She has a darling baby and obviously adores her new husband too.
Isn’t this pretty common in some countries? You have a civil ceremony and then you have a wedding? I don’t see it as tacky or self-indulgent.
Yes Kelly. In France, in order to get married, you HAVE to have a civil ceremony first in front of the mayor/justice of the piece in regardless of your religion. After that, you an do the religious ceremony or whatever it is you want to do. It’s not tacky, it’s following the law. Doesn’t anybody remember when Eva Longoria got married? She went through the same process when she got married in France.
They had a civil ceremony in France to make it legal. I don’t know how Italy’s laws work but maybe they are similar?
You know, everyone’s being really harsh I think, calling second weddings “not real” or “tacky” or whatever. My husband and I got married in a hurry before he deployed. Went to a judge, family couldn’t make it in time because they lived too far away.
We had a wedding with a minister and all of our family later, when he got back and we had time to plan. And to us, that was a real wedding, and it was just as important and real as when we were legally bound to each other in front of the judge because it included our family and friends in on the love we wanted to share with each other for the rest of our lives.
So whatever, to me, that wedding was the real deal, regardless of the fact that I was already married. Say what you want, call me tacky, call me an attention whore trying to prolong my “bride time” — I say stop getting so caught up in your definition of what a wedding is and accept that evryone does it differently.
So I guess what I’m
Love Selma..one of the only few brilliantly beautiful, talented Latina actresses/Producers along with Penelope Cruz. I give up on Eva Longoria and J-HO….they are knockoff Latina’s who are simply out of touch! I Love Selma..she is a “class act”!
Her name is Salma, not Selma. I liked everything, I do not agree for Salma to get married in the church but refused to have her daughter baptized. Double standards? Or is because she wouldn’t get the publicity she is getting by getting married? . . .
i love you salma