Comedian Chris Hardwick married his girlfriend, Lydia Hearst, on Saturday with a unique spin on “’til death do us part.” The 44-year-old host of AMC’s The Talking Dead married the 31-year-old actress (and great-granddaughter of famed publisher William Randolph Hearst) in a ceremony in Pasadena, California. Chris and Lydia exchanged their vows in front of 450 guests who paired cocktail party chic with cowboy boots. Chris certainly cleaned up nice in a blue Prada suit.
The couple, who share a love for all things nerd (Chris’ podcast is called the Nerdist, you know), incorporated elements from some of their favorite geeky delights in the ceremony and reception. Chris told PEOPLE magazine what he felt was important to have at his wedding including “traditional things like zombies, Jawas, astromech droids, Blue Star Donuts and a TARDIS cake.” Prior to the ceremony, Lydia posted a zombified picture with Chris to Instagram.
A week before the wedding, Lydia posted a sneak peek of her gown, designed by Project Runway alum Christian Siriano, with the caption, “I am truly blessed to have you in my life @hardwick. I love you, and I will never stop loving you. I cannot wait to marry you in one week.” In addition to the Siriano creation, she also wore custom-made shoes from Stuart Weitzman. I am so jealous right now. The dress is gorgeous, with sheer, bead-accented sleeves and a tulle train accented in shades of pink, but isn’t it bad luck for the groom to see this before the wedding?
In lieu of wedding gifts, Chris and Lydia requested that their guests donate to one of their favorite charities, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Operation Smile, GLAAD, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Best Friends Animal Society. Yes, it’s a noble gesture, but Lydia has Hearst money and could buy all of the Vitamixes and Le Creuset cookware they would ever need. They are also spending their honeymoon in Japan. Now I’m even more jealous. Sounds like it was a great party and they make a cute couple. Congrats, kids.
Photo credit: Instagram, WENN.com, Getty images
If it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, Croatia would have a 100% divorce rate. The bride’s guests gather at her house, the groom’s guests gather at his house ( there’s food and drink and music), then the groom’s guests go to he bride’s house and then they all go to the church together. And then to the reception. So if it were bad luck, everyone would be divorced here.
They look nice together. The age gap is on the bigger side, but he seems a bit immature so it probably works. The cheesy instagram messages I do not like.
My mom tried to talk me into staying at their place the night before. I laughed. I ended up staying up until like midnight the night before the wedding getting the last of the favors done – there was no way I wasn’t sleeping in my own bed.
I believe that is the same tradition in Lebanon as well. Many countries have a similar type of wedding procession.
Yeah, I know several cultures that have sikilar customs. But where did the “don’t see eachother before the wedding” come from?
The tradition comes from the time of arranged marriages and dowries. The bride is kept hidden in case the groom finds her so unattractive that he panics and runs away (ruining the financial contract between the two families).
If you get right down to it, the Croatian version (his family going to her house, then everyone heading to church together) function in a similar way: the bride and groom meet in a crowded area controlled by the family, and then get married. It’s still designed to minimise the chance of the groom running away in horror.
Not necessarily the wedding tradition here Locke, you described old timey country weddings when both parties are from the same or neighboring villages. I lived with my husband before marriage so everyone just gathered in our apartment, my brother in law is from a village further from Zagreb so everyone gathered in his house etc. Depends on the couple and their circumstances and preferences.
Agree with your point though.
Yeah, I described the way it is in my small town. But my dad is from a different part of the country, so for my parents wedding everyone gathered at my mums’s house. My point is that I don’t know anyone who had the whole “the groom sees the bride at the altar for the first time” thing.
I don’t either, but I think it’s because in Croatia whereever the gathering is we consider that the wedding begins hours before the actual ceremony, you know you have to feed people and get them half drunk before the church or registry office and the actual dinner and wedding party 😉
My sister in law actually was hiding in a separate room so that her fiance wouldn’t see her before the wedding which of course started in his front yard god knows how many hours before the church.
Hahaha, true.
And I don’t know if people everywhere in Croatia do this, but I’ve been to so many weddings where half of the people don’t even go to the church, they just hang around nearby cafes until the ceremony is over. God, we’re such a romantic bunch.
Armenians do that too!! I chose not to do it for my wedding because it’s soooo exhausting but it is a fun filled day!!
We eloped, so I spent the entire time with my then fiancé. Married 15 years & counting. It also rained on our beach ceremony, haha. Bt I guess there’s another superstition that rain is lucky on one’s wedding day. Shrugging..
She really looks like her mother Patty. Sounds like a fun wedding. Hardwick gave us the phrase “Loki’s poky.”
She’s Patty Hearst’s daughter? I hadn’t put that together. That’s a strange, fascinating family.
I have a soft spot for zombies.
I like the dress, it’s very pretty and who wouldn’t want a Tardis cake??!
I want pics of the cake! I made a Tardis cake for my teen’s birthday this year – took forever and it looked great for a first time, non-professional project (after spending hours on Pinterest trying to figure it out!!!) but I would love to see what a pro came up with.
And yes, the dress loos awesome!
ahhh fingerprints on the windows!
Chris explained on Instagram weeks ago that they don’t care about the “it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding” tradition. I’m on my phone so can’t copy his Insta message but it’s on a photo of her gown from June 17.
It is a nice in between too. She got to share the dress with her followers (she was obviously excited about the dress) You don’t see her face and it is black and white so the coloring is still a surprise. There would be surprise elements for the big day: make up, hair, the bodice, the color, and the beautiful detailing on the sleeves. It is a well done tease.
Didn’t this chick date Cumberbatch for a hot minute?
She dodged a bullet. Just be happy for her.
Yes. She was a blonde then. They posed together for a silly photo shoot a few years ago. I think it was for Marie Claire. He looked very young, and she looked so skinny that she scared me. She looks great with her darker hair color now.
I think Chris and Lydia are very cute together.
She sure did – apparently Cumby was fascinated by the Hearst family name more than he was into her.
http://pasiapuska.tumblr.com/post/18480265026/so-benedict-cumberbatch-is-reportedly-dating-lydia
They were spotted in London and at awards season parties. On the now defunct eggsbenedish, someone reported gossip that the Hearst family was surprised that he was dating her, since he was very intellectual and she was a bit lightweight in that department. Then came his camp’s denial that they were a couple (see the end of the linked article) – that was a major burn and they weren’t seen together after that.
He is 13 years older than her. I wonder what the bride’s mom Patty thinks about that. I also wonder if any of Patty’s buds from the SLA were at the wedding. Some of them are out of prison by now so they would have been able to come.
Lydia is 31, so what does it matter?
Exactly, I think once you’re past your early twenties, age gaps are no big deal.
For real, she is not 15, she’ s an adult. And 13 years isn’ t that much anyway. I think that as long as the older person was still a kid the year the younger was born, then there’ s no problem.
I would find it creepy if he could tell her something on the line of: “Hey, when you were born I was already divorced!”. With 13 years he, at most, can tell her that in 1984 he was having problems convincing his parents to let him go see “Ghostbusters” by himself.
Yeah. You never stop growing up, but there comes a point in which talking about power imbalance because of age doesn’t make much sense anymore. 18 y/o girl and 31 y/o dude? Eeeeeeeeeek. 31 and 44? Eh. That doesn’t sound so weird, and it’s the same age gap.
Don’t mind this post.
The power imbalance between these 2 would favor her anyway. She’s a Hearst for goodness sake (and a very successful working model for over a decade), and he’s a jobbing television host and comedian.
Her “buds” kidnapped her when she was a college student and she was molested and brainwashed.
He was given a family ring for the engagement by her mother so I think she’s cool with it.
I actually believe a 12 year age gap is perfect. That way they are approximately the same maturity level (that is if the bride is the younger of the two)
I would say she seems like a mature 31, and he seems like a young 44. I don’t see it as too much of an age difference.
Lord my dream wedding.
Such cute nerds. Hope they have a long and happy life together.
Also that gown is gorgeous and I’m a nerd myself so I love their wedding touches. And kudos to donations in lieu of gifts.
I just love everything about this.
What nerds lol but they seem like a fun couple. Mazel tov
They seem sweet & in love!! Sounds like a fun wedding!
A TARDIS cake? Amazing
I think it’s funny she uses Hearst instead of her dad’s name (Shaw, who was her mother’s bodyguard when she got out of prison). She’s clearly not above trading on her name.
I like Chris, my kids have been fans of his for years, but he and Hearst got together suspiciously fast after he broke up with his less generically famous girlfriend, Chloe Dykstra. I always felt kind of bad for her that she had to see how effusive (on all forms of social media) he was about her replacement.
But yes, they’re cute and all that.
see also http://www.pajiba.com/celebrities_are_better_than_you/nerdist-host-chris-hardwick-engaged-to-lydia-hearst.php
Why did he describe his proposal in detail? On fricking instagram? Some things should remain private.
6 months really isn’t fast at all to start dating someone. Chloe was dating Sam Witer before they broke up…that’s pretty fast!
I didn’t see that Chloe started dating him then, but I’ll believe you. Either way I def think Chris is an over-sharer but whatevs.
Well, she’s listed as Hearst-Shaw on wiki, as is her sister. So I don’t think you can really call that trading on her name. I am technically hyphenated now that I’m married, but for ease of use, I go by my maiden name more often than not.
I used to listen to his podcast until I reached peak Harwick and quit. He’s nice enough, in an annoying kind of way, but I always felt he was actively looking for the prettiest, but technically still a nerd girl possible and as soon as he found it he would lock it down. I didn’t buy his whole commitment issues schstick, it felt disengenuous, but whatever, congrats to them.
I don’t like the dress. At all.
They look like a sweet happy couple. Congrats!
That kiss is…awkward.
Kisses look weird in pictures more often than not. A cousin of mine used to do wedding photoshoots and she always had trouble with those shots.
Nah, there are always teeth in my husband’s and my attempted kiss selfies. We always feel lucky if we escape a forehead banging. Awkward love for the win!
That’s what I was thinking. I love everything else, but the kiss is giving me Hilary Swank’s engagement kiss vibes.
She appears way more into him than he does her. I hope that’s not really the case.
Nope – he mentions her quite often on The Talking Dead.
Actually, I would have had your same thoughts, but in reverse.
A Tardis cake? Best wedding ever!! Congrats to both of them, may they have a long and fulfilling marriage.
I liked Lydia a lot as a model, unlike the insta-models of today, I think she could’ve made a career for herself without nepotism (though obviously it helped her enormously). Then I started disliking her a little when I watched The Face and she was a completely incompetent and sour coach. I don’t know him.
But anyway, I love weddings like this. I’ve always thought planning your wedding is the closest women get to performing drag, lol. It should be nothing but an expression of yourself and your partner. Me and my BF decided if we ever get married, it will be Game of Thrones themed and that we’re both get killed at some point. An aunt once told me “you can regret a marriage, but you should never regret the wedding”.
I like your aunt’s style! 😉
I didn’t have the wedding I wanted, the wedding I had been planning for 5.5 years by the time my then-fiance decided to finally go ahead. I still get sad about that (mostly because none of our family was there, no friends), but we were married by our favorite podcast/NPR host, the morning we all left for a cruise to the Bahamas. There are things I would do differently, looking back, but all in all, no one else has our story. And it was less stressful than merely getting ready for any other wedding I’d ever been to.
I want to see MOAR OF THE DRESS!!!
There sure is a “Hearst” look, isn’t there?
I love his podcasts and The Talking Dead. He’s such a geeky fan. They look cute together. Hope it lasts a lifetime.
He’s 44? Wow! Never would have guessed that. he looks great.
Hope the BI that came out the day before the wedding isn’t true!
what was it?
I recently got engaged and have been thinking more and more about a wedding dress in color vs the traditional white or ivory. I looooove the white into pink ombre. Hummmmmmmmm! If only I had a designer friend like CS to call on.
Not a fan of pink wedding dresses, but I’m not much of a pink person anyway. As long as the bride is happy with it, that’s all that matters though.
Chris seems like a genuinely nice guy and I listen to the Nerdist podcast every so often, but I find him oddly annoying on TV, not sure why. But he’s having a lot of success doing stuff he enjoys, which is great. Good luck to them!
Beautiful wedding gown.