What It Was Like To Report On The Two Biggest Weddings Of The Year

This year, writer Tom Kington found himself reporting from both Kim Kardashian’s May Italian wedding and George and Amal’s bash in Venice – and they couldn’t have been more different…

The bride in Florence was a reality star who shot to fame thanks to a sex tape, and served her wedding guests dinner dusted with edible gold leaf at a table with place settings inlaid in gold. The bride in Venice was an Oxford-educated, Lebanese-born beauty with a high-powered career as a human rights lawyer, who dazzled in designer outfits at the side of Hollywood’s classiest bachelor.

Italy was the place to be in 2014 for the year’s biggest A-list weddings but, having covered both, I can safely say that the bling-heavy nuptials of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West could not have been further removed from the old-Hollywood appeal of Amal Alamuddin’s marriage to George Clooney in Venice.

Kim was reportedly inspired by the elegance of Kate Middleton’s wedding, but her Florence extravaganza in May turned out to be more reality than royalty. Guests handed over their smartphones – thanks to a selfie ban – and eased past the tight security cordon to party at a 16th-century fort commanding stunning views over the Renaissance city.

Kim wore a lacy white Riccardo Tisci ensemble with a sheer back, while Kanye kept it simple in a classic dinner jacket. Guests tucked into delicious beef fillet cooked in lush Brunello wine. But Prince Ottaviano de’ Medici di Toscana, a descendant of the family which built the fort, accused the couple of turning his ancestral haunt into a common ‘ballroom’.

Fast-forward four months to September, when George and Amal made their Venice entrance in a motor launch romantically named Amore. This was one of four sweeps up and down the Grand Canal during a long weekend wedding splurge, giving Amal the chance to dazzle with a number of head-turning designer outfits.

When reporters laid siege to his hotel, George sent out a bottle of tequila as a gift. And that was the big difference between Kim and Clooney. While she kept reporters as far away as possible from her wedding after a lifetime courting publicity, George put on a show. He turned the Grand Canal into a red carpet as guests including Cindy Crawford, Matt Damon, Bono, Bill Murray and Anna Wintour motored up to the palazzo where the wedding was held.

That earned accusations he was grandstanding before launching a career in politics but, in truth, the Hollywood star deliberately put his new bride on a pedestal, with the world’s most romantic city as a backdrop, then took a step back. And that’s not a bad wedding gift.