At the wedding of Paris Hilton guests were treated to a caviar bar and a performance by the pop star Demi Lovato of “I Will Always Love You.” For Sofia Richie, the daughter of Lionel, Hollywood celebrities mustered at a hotel in Antibes to see the bride, in three separate outfits by Chanel and a veil adorned with water droplets that sparkled as she walked down the aisle.
But these weddings now look like village-hall affairs compared with the nuptials of Madelaine Brockway, the daughter of a Mercedes dealer, whose wedding in Paris, chronicled and broadcast on TikTok and Instagram, is being hailed as the most fabulous of all.
At a reported cost of $59 million for five days of celebrations for the American couple and their guests in Paris, the wedding has been one of the most watched on TikTok and Instagram as users flock to see its “dress by Dior”, “planning and design by the Lake Como wedding planner”, videography by an Italian film company and music by Maroon 5.
Brockway, 24, and her groom, Jacob LaGrone, 29, staged a series of events in Paris culminating in a ceremony at Château de Villette, a residence so grand that it became known in the 18th century as “le petit Versailles”. They tied the knot on a stage floating in a fountain before a façade strewn with white flowers.
One astonished viewer spoke for many, writing under a video: “I mean no disrespect at all. Your wedding is beautiful — but… who are you?”
As many puzzled over this question, and asked the same thing of LaGrone, new developments added a piquancy to the affair. The groom, it became clear, had taken part in these splendid celebrations and pledged himself to Brockway while facing charges that could send him to prison for decades.
In March, three police officers had arrived outside a home in Westworth Village, Texas, following reports of gunfire. Upon arrival “they were fired upon”, an official told the local television channel WFAA. An indictment filed in August alleged that LaGrone “did intentionally and knowingly threaten” the officers. Bail was set at $20,000.
Last Thursday, 12 days after the wedding, as the videos were enthralling thousands on social media, LaGrone appeared at a courthouse in Texas. WFAA reported that he had been offered a plea deal that involved 25 years in prison. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
“I mean no disrespect at all. Your wedding is beautiful — but… who are you?”
LaGrone hails from Nashville and graduated from the University of Mississippi, according to his LinkedIn page. It says that he worked for three years with the college’s director of football operations and, more briefly, in the summer of 2018, as a production assistant for the country music singer Jason Aldean.
His new bride is the daughter of Robert and Paula Brockway. Robert is the head of Bill Ussery Motors, which owns two Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Florida, one on the edge of Miami. Miami is “a terrific car town”, he told Miami Today in 2008. A few years earlier he and his wife were said to have spent $50,000 on a single-night “King package” stay aboard the Queen Mary 2, Brockway telling a local paper that the expenditure provided good marketing for his business.
It certainly did not compare to the cost of their daughter’s wedding. In the run-up to the big day, a bridal shower was held in Texas and a model of the Eiffel Tower, at least 12ft high and crowned with an enormous pink bow, was erected in a banquet hall. Guests posed beneath a sign that read “Maddie In Paris” — in anticipation of the wedding itself, and perhaps in an echo of the popular Netflix show Emily in Paris. The hen party was held over five days in Utah and included a series of themed parties, including one in which all of the guests dressed as Marie Antoinette.
Last month the wedding party flew to Paris for five days of events: a visit to the Eiffel Tower, a tour of Versailles and an overnight stay in La Grande Controle, a hotel on the palace grounds. A rehearsal dinner was held in the Paris Opera House, where 25 employees of a florist were said to have worked for a week garlanding the interior with flowers. The reception at Château de Villette was held in two greenhouses erected for the occasion, with Maroon 5 providing entertainment.
Their viral fame brought plenty of online scorn, but some commenters stood up for the newlyweds. “I worked for her parents for almost 20 years. They are good people, in the luxury car business for over three generations,” someone replied. “Whatever happened to just being happy for her?”
Will Pavia is the New York correspondent for The Times of London