The Booming Industry Keeping Taylor Swift's Wedding a Secret

0:05This Fourth of July weekend, journalists across the country are waiting for the answer to a major cultural question.

0:16Is Taylor Swift's love story entering a new era? Let's talk about the wedding nobody can stop talking about. Is it happening this weekend at Madison Square Garden? I mean, it has consumed my algorithm. That's our colleague Javi Lieber. The Swifties and the numerologists and the astrologists, I mean, people have pretty much lost their minds over all the speculation about this date. So Taylor and Travis are definitely getting married this weekend. I mean, why would you get married on a Mars-Uranus conjunction? First off, I think it's totally a smokescreen. Like, this doesn't sound very Taylor. This is Madison Square Garden wedding.

0:54Yes, it's tacky. No shade. Even the mayor of New York City hinted something about it. July 4th, America 250, Taylor Swift's wedding all happening at the same time. And even though the U.S. is celebrating 250 years of independence, we still have American royalty. And Javi is a resident expert on this privileged population. Celebrities, influencers, hot people. I think those are our American royalty today. Hot people. Look, I'm just being real. I love that. For this potentially major event, the wedding of Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelsey this weekend, Kavi has been on top of the reporting as well as the rumor mill.

1:39There's just been nonstop speculation. I mean, basically every publication that covers fashion and beauty has all these guessings like, who is she going to wear? What bridal brand is she going to wear? Will she wear this shade of red lipstick or that shade of red lipstick? But all that speculation around this possibly monumental cultural event is just that. Speculation. Which, given how soon it might happen, takes an equally monumental effort to keep under wraps. For a celebrity of this scale and an event of this size, they're working really hard to make sure everything is ironclad and that no information gets leaked out.

2:16Because it turns out, keeping a celebrity wedding free from serious leaks is big business. There's an entire industry dedicated to this very thing. How would you describe the lengths that celebrities and high-profile people and hot people today are going, you know, to try to keep their wedding secret? The best comparison I would make is warfare, essentially. Everything from really high-end technology to boots on the ground to military dogs to fake venues and fake names. They're pulling out all the stops to make sure that the wedding is private and secret.

3:00Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Thursday, July 2nd.

3:13Coming up on the show, inside the lucrative wedding security industrial complex.

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4:34Three years ago, one of Taylor Swift's closest collaborators, music producer Jack Antonoff, got married. Causing chaos as she arrived for the wedding of music producer Jack Antonoff and actress Margaret Qualley. Details of the event leaked, along with the rumor that Swift herself was attending. And fans stormed the streets outside the venue. A massive crowd of her fans filling every blank space outside the event. Again, this was just Taylor Swift's producer's wedding. And police had to intervene. They had to close roads. It was, in a word, chaos. Javi says this is the kind of disruption that many high-profile people want to avoid on their wedding day.

5:17How are the goals of weddings different for celebrities and extremely rich people? Like, what are the concerns that they have that us regular people don't? For sure. I interviewed a celebrity planner, Sharon Sachs, and she had this line to me, which I thought was so deep. She said, a bride is a celebrity on her wedding day and a celebrity is a bride on her wedding day. And they deserve privacy. And we're talking about people that have paparazzi chasing them and screaming fans. And I mean, especially in Taylor's case, stalkers. So the stakes are very high. And then again, you have to remember, like, there's also this element of eat the rich and angry people regarding wealth.

6:00Think about the Bezos wedding from last year in Venice where they had tons of protesters. Today in Venice, Italy, hundreds of protesters took to the streets saying kisses yes and no to Jeff Bezos. And these people are worth a lot of money. So when we're talking about their events, think about the jewelry they're wearing, the handbags they're carrying, the cars they're driving. So there's a lot of money in one place and they need to think about safety and security. And it might sound like, oh, like chalk it off to champagne problems. But then you think about the CEO from UnitedHealthcare who was killed.

6:36And the fact of the matter is that big business names and big CEOs, they are a security risk. So, yes, it is champagne problems, but also we live in a scary world.

6:51and all of those concerns are fueling an industry javi talked to about a dozen elite wedding planners and security professionals who specialize in privacy for high profile and high net worth clients and there's a lot of strategizing that goes into these wedding bonanzas let's start at the beginning like you're planning your wedding how early in the process does the planning of all of this start? The planning for privacy starts right away. For celebrities and wealthy couples, when they're looking for venues, planners have told me that they're looking for places that are secure. So they have multiple entrances and exits.

7:31You can come and go into the building safely and secretly, sometimes with like a hidden entrance. One planner told me that she basically looks at venues where a president would stay. So you're going to a place where you know that they can handle discretion, that, you know, people at the front door are not going to pick up the phone and call TMZ. Like these are places and institutions that really prioritize discretion. And it's not necessarily like there's a list. You can't like pop on Reddit and find a list of these places. But insiders know where is a safe place for them. Right. So I actually got married last year and Mazel Tov.

8:09Thank you. Thank you. We were like normal people looking at the knot, you know what I mean? And we went to the venues ourselves. I imagine, I mean, do these couples go and check these places out themselves? No. No. That is plebeian. Absolutely not. I would say a lot of these celebrities are leaning on these luxury planners because like, this is their bread and butter, you know? Luxury wedding planners, they know how to throw a beautiful party. Once the venue is selected, it's on to the invites. There was this wedding planner, Jeannie Savage, and she had told me that a lot of her clients are concerned about leaks coming from vendors, right?

8:49The florist, the DJ, the caterer, they're going to leak their information. And most of the time, if information gets out, it's actually family and friends. Can't trust that aunt. Exactly.

9:02To get around this, invites often won't include much information at all, maybe just a date in the name of a city. You're putting me in the mindset of like spy movies. So are there like decoy venues where they tell guests this is where it will be and then it actually is somewhere else? Yes. I interviewed a lifestyle and travel company co-founder, and he told me that in instances where he has booked parties and events for his clients who who are high net worth individuals, they will book multiple venues to sort of like keep outsiders guessing. And he compared it to the Italian job, right? Where you have three trucks, they all go in different directions.

9:38And then when they get pulled over, you don't know which truck has the gold. One friend of Travis Kelsey, who said he's invited to the wedding, said that he's not even sure where the wedding is taking place. I'm half expecting there to just be a jumbo jet on a runway and they put us on a plane somewhere. I don't have expectations. I know it's gonna be amazing. But it's possible that guests wouldn't legally be allowed to say either way. Some planners have told me that guests have to sign NDAs, but a lot of - Guests have to sign NDAs. Wow. Guests have to sign NDAs, but a lot of planners have told me that they actually don't.

10:09When it comes to like inner circles of trust for A-list celebrities or high net worth individuals, they trust their friends and their family and it's sort of understood that the details are gonna be kept under wraps. But again, in order to limit the amount of information that gets leaked out, they give as little as possible. Then, of course, there's the big day itself. When it comes to the actual event, like who actually does the security for these events? Most of these venues have high security. But in addition to that, the couple also brings their own security as well as local law enforcement.

10:48I interviewed one founder of a security company who was a retired police captain from Washington, D.C. His name was Melvin Key. And he told me that sometimes there'll be as many as three different security teams on premise. And they have tactics and strategies and technology that's honestly, it's like it's similar to warfare. They've got drone surveillance. They've got metal detectors. They've got devices that are sniffing out for burner phones that are being used at the wedding. burner phones, because guests' phones are almost always confiscated to avoid unsanctioned photos and video. A no-photo policy is a given.

11:30So a lot of these weddings, they will either take your phone away, or they'll put, like, a sticker on the camera, or they'll give you, like, a pouch where the phone is not usable during the duration of the event. I mean, I know the whole point of all of this is to, like, give the couple and the friends and family privacy, but does all of the security infrastructure make the wedding feel like not a wedding and instead like a spy show? There was one wedding planner who told me that it's actually pretty common for her clients that the mother of the bride and the bride and the bridal party, they wear a lot of diamonds on their ears and necks.

12:09So those jewelry pieces come with their own bodyguards. And I asked her like, doesn't that kind of put a downer on the celebration? And she was like, no, these are bodyguards who are wearing a suit. They sort of blend in. They sit and eat. So they're not like hovering over your neck. So they're sort of like taught to blend in. But their job is to make sure that those diamonds stay where they need to stay. For the record, you know, we are a show about money, business, and power. This is the important question. How much do all these services cost? The price tag is pretty high. Javi says security alone for one of these weddings can cost$350 ,000.

12:49In one case, the security bill hit a million dollars because the venue had to be secured a week in advance. And these kinds of services are in high demand. I interviewed a private security firm based in Phoenix, and the COO, Matt Rogers, told me that at their firm, private security hirings are up 20 % since last year. So, all that money and planning just to keep things under wraps. But how under wraps can a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelsey wedding in the middle of Midtown Manhattan really be? For all we know, it's a decoy. I feel like that needs to be said. This could all be a decoy. An MSG wedding?

13:30Really? That's next.

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14:17If Taylor Swift gets married at Madison Square Garden this weekend, she wouldn't be the first bride to do so. Back in 1982, 2 ,000 couples got married in a mass ceremony there, reciting their vows in unison. Do you pledge to inherit heavenly tradition? Yes! And before that, funk musician Sly Stone and actress Kathy Silva also tied the knot at MSG during a concert in 1974. As Sly Stone, Sylvester Stewart, and Kathy Silver have considered... So it's not out of the realm of possibility. And there have certainly been signs that something is going down at MSG this weekend. What is going on at Madison Square Garden right now?

15:02Like, do we know just generally what's been set up that indicates that this a Swift Kelsey wedding could actually be taking place there this weekend? Yes. So, so far there's been multiple colored carpets that have been rolled out. From what I heard from our friends, tenacious reporters over at Page Six, I think it's worth mentioning that there was a huge freakout a couple of days ago because there was something being set up at Madison Square Garden and everyone's like, this is it. This is the wedding. But it ended up being a party for the Knicks. But the tabloids have been swarming the venue, trying to get information.

15:41And so far, I've seen little tidbits. I mean, apparently there's some sort of castle that's being set up. Crews have already been spotted building an elaborate castle-like set and rolling out the purple carpet at MSG. They might be eating lobster and chicken and french fries that are being delivered to the venue as we speak. Look at these trucks right here. They have been unloading things all today.

16:15But based on your reporting, just taking a step back here, why would Madison Square Garden be a good candidate for a wedding like this, for this wedding? Yeah. It's funny that you say that because when I interviewed Melvin Key, who is the retired police captain who now has his own security firm, and I asked him for his thoughts on the MSG wedding, he was like, this is a decoy. This is fake. It can't be real. They're trying to spoof you. And a couple of the planners had said this too. But the more we got into it, he said, on the one hand, I think it's fake. But on the other hand, it could actually be real because MSG can handle a giant event like this.

16:51They have these huge concerts. They also have dealt with high net worth individuals coming in and out of the venue. They have all these celebrities who sit courtside at the Knicks games. They have musicians who come in and out. So there are hidden entrances, underground tunnels that you get in and out of the venue. So secure venue, multiple exits, hidden tunnels. Check, check, and check. But in order for them to pull it off, I mean, how their cars are going to get down seamlessly. Cruising on 8th Avenue is a mystery to me because that area is so congested. You're right by Times Square. Times Square, I know.

17:29So good luck to them. Maybe they'll block the streets off. Yeah, I mean, it sounds pretty hard to pull off. I think for Taylor Swift, nothing is impossible. This is definitely her moment. We've all watched her go through multiple relationships and then write heartbreaking stories about those relationships. Like she's finally, she's found her man. It's her love story. She said yes. I do want to say, though, holding a wedding at Madison Square Garden on the 4th of July weekend isn't, like it's not giving, I want privacy. Do you know what I mean? For all we know, they're already married. For all we know, they had something really sweet and romantic.

18:09And this is kind of like the big splashy party that you throw, you know, for your fifth cousins who weren't able to fly to Italy for the real thing. You know what I mean? So, again, like, we just don't know. Taylor is also known for, like, making big sweeping gestures for her fans. Like, the Ares tour was basically a big kind of homage to her fans and to all of the music that she's done in the past. Like, why not make her wedding? Kind of one of those things. Exactly. I mean, we don't know if she's going to be releasing any videos or photos or anything about this, but she made her engagement proposal a piece of content, like the flowers and the photos and everything.

18:51It was like a piece of art. So I would not be surprised if the wedding becomes a thing in some way. Well, do you think the wedding is happening this weekend? What is your belief on this, decoy or no? I think it's happening. You think it's happening? Because it's such an outrageous venue that Taylor would pick it. You know, she is someone who enjoys a challenge. So I wouldn't put it past her. Thank you so much. Happy 4th of July weekend. Thank you. Potentially Taylor's version. Yeah, happy 4th of July Taylor's version.

19:39That's all for today, Thursday, July 2nd.

20:32Thank you. Thanks for listening. We're off tomorrow for the 4th of July weekend. See you Monday.