Celebrity wedding planner David Tutera lifts the lid on high-profile nuptials

Planning a wedding is chaotic enough without the added pressure of being a celebrity getting married in the public eye.

The most recent celebrity couple to have their wedding drama exposed was billionaire heiress Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham.

The 28-year-old actress and the son of former Spice Girl Victoria and soccer legend David Beckham, 23, married in April last year.

It has since emerged that Nicola’s father, Nelson, filed a lawsuit demanding the return of his $159,000 deposit to wedding planners Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba for alleged “mistakes.”

But the couple previously criticized what they say is a “frivolous” lawsuit.

For a glimpse into the high-stakes world of hosting nuptials for the rich and famous, FEMAIL spoke with a Los Angeles-based celebrity wedding and event planner. David Tuterawho has planned ceremonies for Star Jones, Shannen Doherty, Elton John and former NFL player Antonio Pierce.

He also planned events for Zendaya, Ice-T and Coco Austin, Jennifer Lopez, and Shania Twain.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, David, 56, revealed he was just days away from pulling off the most expensive wedding he’s ever done, at almost $4 million.

“In fact, we are wrapping up today and then tomorrow, and we are going to Orlando, and we are going to do the biggest and most expensive wedding in the history of David Tutera. It’s a five-day event in Orlando, Florida,” he said.

“But it’s quite an undertaking and the challenges are that in the world of being a wedding planner, I always say that I’m kind of like the captain on the ship, and all the butlers around me are going to sink and jump out of the water.” . send, or will they be able to manage our client’s expectations.

‘Our clients, you know, sometimes in [these] situations don’t necessarily play off with internal families when you’re doing a wedding, so you’re stepping in as a negotiator, a therapist and a mediator, I’m really good at that.’

The Orlando extravaganza is one of the “most intense” events David has ever planned.

“The client basically gave me carte blanche to create something that had never been done before, which is what I always do anyway,” he said.

And I’m turning this beautiful place into a legitimate forest. We had three trailer trucks. [that left] three days ago from Los Angeles with hundreds of trees that will enter two ballrooms [for the] ceremony and celebration.

‘We have incredible artists…one is a Grammy Award winning artist who is performing, the second is a Grammy and Tony Award winner, and we have this room that is overwhelmingly impressive.

‘It’s like I had a dream and I woke up, because my client said, “Where did you get this?” I said, “I really don’t know, frankly.”

But this is just one of many weddings David has planned in his 30+ years in the industry, while calmly responding to wild requests from brides.

She recalls an 800-person ceremony she planned at Cipriani’s in downtown New York City, where the bride wanted to make an entrance her guests would never forget.

“She wanted to be lowered from a trapeze from an 80-foot ceiling into the center of the room, onto the dance floor, in her ball gown, not an A-line gown.” There were no options here, this is what she wanted,” David told DailyMail.com.

Another amazing feat David accomplished was an Indian wedding with a “large number of guests,” and the couple wanted an elephant for the ceremony, which he took to be tradition.

It required a portion of Beverly Hills’ Wilshire Boulevard to be closed, and David initially thought that would not be possible.

But after working with the police and insurance companies, he and his team were able to make it for the multi-million dollar wedding.

“We managed to close off a part of Wilshire Boulevard, which surprises me and stopped the traffic with the elephant,” David told DailyMail.com.

“It was actually one of the hardest things we had to do just because of all the circumstances surrounding it.”

The wedding planner has also had run-ins with difficult brides.

One that stands out is a “high-profile” wedding she held several years ago in New York City.

Although he declined to name the bride, he said the bride-to-be had a “very high perception of herself.”

“I was on a TV show for many years, five years as an entertainment pundit, and one of the hosts on the TV show was asking to do her wedding on the air, live,” David recalled.

“She went live on TV and decided to tell America or whoever was watching where the actual ceremony was taking place, the day and time it was taking place, which put me in a terrible situation. .

“Now I had to deal with private security, NYPD officers and another company that had to be hired for security reasons because the fans showed up and we couldn’t get the bride, groom and guests to the church, let alone on the spot.

“We ended up having to put her through tunnels to get her from point A to point B. She was one of the toughest clients just because of her lack of reality.”

David also revealed that despite popular opinion, the bride’s dress is not the most expensive expensive item. It is usually the visual design of the wedding.

The second highest cost if you are having a large number of guests is food due to the potential cost of bringing in a celebrity chef and the large amount of food and drink required to cater to the crowd.

And what keeps David going is the challenge of planning an event that most would think is ‘impossible’.

“I actually live for it, I think, just from doing it for so long. It’s almost like, I don’t want to say a game, but for me it’s like I can do something I’ve never done before, unlike most planners who just do the same thing over and over again,” he said.

“That’s why I think we’re doing very well because we stand out in a very messy industry.”