Carmel Magazine

094-100 Celebrity Weddings_152-161 Garcia story 4/22/13 4:17 PM Page 3 there are dozens of venues to select from. That Shields and Jim Nantz have chosen to celebrate Lucia Preserve and Pebble Beach make spec- their nuptials in various Peninsula locations. tacular scenes for weddings." Hospitality is the isolation prompted red-hot Academy Award- deep in caterers, photographers, musicians, private Big Sur home as the place to exchange The owner of Colette Cuccia Wedding and Event Designs has been involved in dozens of high-profile weddings in and around town. "I think celebrities are attracted to the exclusivity of this area," Cuccia says, "…the beautiful homes we have up and down the coast and venues such as Post Ranch, Stonepine, Tehama, Bernardus Lodge, the Highlands Inn, the Santa Peninsula's middle name, so the talent pool is florists, decorators—all the vendors necessary to put on an event of any size, from laid-back to lavish. Big Sur is a natural choice if one is pining for a place away from prying paparazzi. There's only one way in and out (CA Highway 1) and winning actress Anne Hathaway to choose a vows with actor-jewelry designer Adam Shulman on September 29 of last year. If word of that ceremony had leaked out, the skies over Big Sur would have been thick with helicopters, long-as-your-arm telephoto lenses poking out of open doorways. Even People magazine got scant details, and that after the fact. According to People.com: " 'The wedding was lovely and Anne looked gorgeous,'" a source tells People of the bride, 29, who stunned in a custom Valentino gown. 'She looked very pretty.'" Another Hollywood notable lured to the locale was Natalie Portman for her recent wed- ding to choreographer Benjamin Millepied. Actor/musician Jack Black also wed Tanya Haydn in that bucolic location. And the quirky comedian got totally into the Big Sur vibe, "They had a package deal where you can get married by a woman named Soaring," Black told Celebritycafe.com writer Angela P. Cobb about his nuptials. "The ceremony was pretty hippie, spacey and non-denominational." Not all wedding ceremonies performed on the Central Coast have escaped the limelight, however. In 1997, all eyes were on the fairy-tale romance between tennis star Andre Agassi and actress Brooke Shields. They were the celebrity couple du jour, so when they decided to tie the knot in Carmel, word naturally leaked out and the tabloids were dangling beaucoup bucks for images of the golden couple's ceremony.Veteran lensman Tom O'Neal was one of four photographers hired by the couple to officially document the proceedings. "There was a last-minute venue change from the Carmel Mission to St. John's Chapel on Mark Thomas Drive in Monterey," he recalls. "In that short amount of time a paparazzi rented a cherry picker and paid off someone at the [Del Monte] golf course so he could have a perfect view of the stairs going Several Peninsula venues provide the kind of privacy and security required of a celebrity wedding. But few can top the Carmel Mission for historical ambiance and sheer romance. 96 C ARMEL MAGAZINE•SPRING/SUMMER 2013 to the church. Security had rented huge ficus trees and lined them around the doorway. He

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