Here come the bridal lawsuits: Wedding planners allege drama behind Brooklyn Beckham-Nicola Peltz nuptials

Hell hath no fury like wedding planners scorned.

My main takeaway after reading about a spectacular suit revealed this week over the elaborate knot-tying between Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz. A $3.5-million (U.S.), ocean-front affair, held in Florida last April, it yielded more than enough headlines at the time — not just for the spectacle and behind-the-scenes kerfuffle — and these new courtroom documents only add to the fizz, handing us not only 24-karat gossip and a magna carta of Bridezilla, but a rare glimpse into the mores of the super-wealthy.

The wedding, as some might recall, was always sort of interesting in the way it was giving modern “Bridgerton”: the eldest son of a soccer star and ex-Spice Girl, David and Victoria Beckham, making it official with the daughter of corporate raider Nelson Peltz, a self-made billionaire, and his ex-model wife, Claudia. A merger of London hustler celebrity and Palm Beach high society, starring two 20-somethings who had milked notoriety through the levers of social media (they have a combined 18 million followers on Instagram), the hoopla had it all: new money, newer money, a clash between the merely rich and the majorly loaded, and the “Insta-famous.”

What it had, clearly, too? Even more drama than was first known, as wedding planners Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba — who lasted only nine days on the job — make official in their 188-page lawsuit. Actually, make it counter-suit. It all started when the father of the bride first sued them for refusing to return a $211,000 Canadian (£129,000) deposit.

For context, Braghin and Grijalba were hired through their firm Plan Designs Events in March 2022 after the first wedding planner, Preston Bailey (wedding planner to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, among others) backed out. No doubt, the job was cursed.

More than $100,000 spent on hair and makeup alone for Nicola, the particular agony and back-and-forth that went on over flowers that were just white enough (sheesh), and the importance of keeping mother-in-law-to-be Victoria out of the loop on some of the hiccups: just some of the allegations made in their suit. With things spiralling more and more out of control — particularly around incomplete guest lists — Peltz even reportedly told the couple on March 1 that he wanted to “cancel the wedding” and that it was “a s— show,” but his wife begged him not to because it would — quote — “destroy Nicola’s career.”

No business like wedding business … right?

Additionally, the court documents seem to contain hundreds of emails, texts and WhatsApp chat trails that trace the insanity around travel arrangements and lack of clarity around the cake. Photographers and videographers had also not been confirmed.

The funniest part of the revelations to me is perhaps the most quotidian: the way Nicola was seemingly overwhelmed by all the electronic exchanges that take up so much of our modern lives. “Can someone just send me a list of yeses PLEASE,” she implores in one text message. “I don’t want it to be so complicated. I just want a list PLEASE.”

Then, finally, this cri: “I’ve repeated myself a lot. I don’t want an app or google doc. Just a text or email. Simple. Old school. That’s the way my mom and I like it!”

I get you, Nicola. I do.

Into the valley of RSVPs the court documents take us, with mother Claudia piping in at one point, “Did Megan (sic) get an invite?” to which Nicola replies: “Who’s megan?” Claudia adds: “And Harry.”

Meanwhile, confusion over the RSVP status of superstar F1 driver Lewis Hamilton puts Nicola fully over the edge. “Lewis Hamilton did NOT RSVP,” she texts. “So, explain why his names (sic) on the list please. We spoke to him. He can’t come so explain why you said he RSVPed yes.”

One particular politician definitely nixed? The anti-woke governor of Florida. “(DeSantis) must be OFF THE GUEST LIST. PLEASE CONFIRM!!” the bride wrote at 1:09 a.m. on March 3, 2022, according to the documents.

The planners claim that they “attempted every which way to get Nicola and Claudia to review the guest lists, but they simply would not co-operate.”

Also, that while the Beckhams’ guest list was “fully organized with all contact information fully revised and nearly ready to go,” the Peltz parents’ list, and the bride and groom’s own lists, weren’t updated and had missing addresses, “making the task of creating a comprehensive and complete guest list a moving target.”

And rather than focus on getting their affairs in order, the planners allege, they seemed to focus on hiding their mess from the Beckhams.

“Both Claudia and Nicola had insisted that Victoria Beckham could not know about any internal mistakes regarding the ongoing planning of her son’s wedding, including any errors with the guest list.”

The wedding eventually went on, of course, courtesy of a third planner, amid rivers of champagne and in front of a star-studded coterie of 500 that included Gordon Ramsay, Eva Longoria and Venus Williams.

But it appears the wedding fireworks go on. For his part, Nelson Peltz — who was, at one point, a major Trump supporter — says in his lawsuit that he was “hoodwinked” by the second planners.

Overwhelmed by emails? Family drama? Weddings bringing out the worst in people? The more I read about the Beckham-Pelzer nuptials, the more it specifically brought to mind what F. Scott Fitzgerald once expressed when he wrote that the rich “are different from you and me.” To which, Ernest Hemingway supposedly retorted, “Yes, they have more money.”

Shinan Govani is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist covering culture and society. Follow him on Twitter: @shinangovani

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