The best of reality weddings
Editorial feature
With all the hype around Love Island, Checklist has decided to celebrate the very best reality TV weddings. From long-lasting Love Island unions, to Made in Chelsea’s first-ever small screen wedding, we’ve got it covered. Read on for a comprehensive list of our favourite reality “I dos”.
Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey
The course of true love never did run smooth, and that’s certainly the case with Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey.
The Love Island season two winners scooped the £50,000 prize in 2016 then went on to welcome the ultimate gift, a baby boy called Freddie, a year later. They’re now also proud parents to daughter Delilah, who was born in July 2020, but very nearly didn’t make it down the aisle after splitting before Freddie’s birth. Admitting they initially stayed together because they were scared of letting the public down, the couple managed to put their hurt behind them when they tied the knot in a lavish ceremony in Canterbury in front of family and friends in 2019. Dressed in a Christine Dando gown, Cara made it clear she’s in it for the long haul in her ‘Wifey for Lifey’ embossed Sophia Webster shoes.
Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen
There must have been something in the water in the 2016 Love Island villa, because season two runners up Olivia Buckland and Alex Bowen are also married. In fact they beat Cara and Nathan down the aisle by nearly a year. They even documented the big day for TV show Olivia and Alex Said Yes, as well as Olivia’s gown search in Say Yes to the Dress.
The loved-up pair exchanged their vows at a star-studded Essex wedding in 2018, in front of famous pals like TOWIE’s Pete Wicks and 2017 Love Island star Gabby Allen, as well as co-stars from their own series, family and friends. Former close friends Cara and Nathan were noticeably absent though, with Olivia later revealing she was grappling with trust issues around the time of her nuptials.
The two have since reconciled and are back on friendly terms.
Jess Shears and Dom Lever
Appearing on the third season of the hit ITV2 show, Jess Shears and Dom Lever proved their naysayers wrong and wasted no time in getting hitched – marrying just over a year after first meeting.
They opted for an intimate ceremony on the Greek island of Mykonos in front of just 22 of their close friends and family at an exclusive 13-bedroom villa which overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. Jess and Dom mostly kept their wedding plans under wraps, choosing not to invite any showbiz pals and revealing their happy news in a glossy magazine spread after the big day. However, the pair weren’t so coy earlier in 2018 when they stripped down to white swimwear for a spoof wedding ceremony on Good Morning Britain, with showbiz reporter Richard Arnold acting as registrar for the Valentine’s Day prank in front of Jeremy Kyle, Kate Garraway and Charlotte Hawkins.
Jess and Dom became parents in September 2019.
Jamie and Camilla
We know they’re not technically married, but they are engaged and Jamie and Camilla rank among Love Island’s most adorable couples of all time. Nabbing season three’s runner up spot, behind victors Amber Davies and Kem Cetinay, they won the hearts of the nation with their sweet romance. After a few failed couplings, former Miss Edinburgh winner Camilla found fairytale love with Essex model Jamie.
Pre reality fame, Camilla was a bomb disposal expert working in Explosive Ordance Disposal – and a former fling of Prince Harry’s! Since they met and fell in love, the two have thrown themselves into charity work and parenthood after they welcomed daughter Nell in October 2020. Earlier this year, Jamie decided the time was right to ask Camilla to be his wife, getting down on one knee in February. The bride-to-be of course said yes, and shared the news with her 1.6 million followers by posting a photo of the ring Jamie designed and Nell wearing a vest with the words “Mummy will you marry my daddy?”.
Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling
Rounding off our Love Island unions is this perfect pair. We couldn’t miss out on the marriage between the face and voice of Love Island now could we!
Taking over the reins from her friend, late TV host Caroline Flack, for the winter 2020 edition, Irish beauty Laura is currently fronting her first summer season alongside hubby Iain, the show’s resident voiceover.
It was while they were in South Africa for Love Island duties early last year that Iain popped the question. They secretly wed at Dublin’s City Hall in November of that year in front of 25 guests, in keeping with Ireland’s lockdown rules.
Fans speculated about their marital status after Iain was spotted with a wedding band, but Laura only came clean at the start of the year, telling her Instagram followers they’d had a “magical” and “perfect” day, which they’d happily managed to keep private. Their 2021 has been just as exciting with the arrival of their first child, a daughter named Stevie, and Love Island back on our screens.
Hugo Taylor and Millie Mackintosh
Beginning the best of the rest portion of our reality weddings list is original Made in Chelsea co-stars Hugo Taylor and Millie Mackintosh. The two met as teenagers, and were one of the E4 show’s main love interests when MIC began in 2011, but split after Hugo cheated with fellow cast mate Rosie Fortescue. Leaving the past behind them, they reunited in 2016, went on to marry in June 2018 and had a baby in 2020. The Taylors, who are currently expecting their second daughter, recently celebrated three years of wedded bliss and marked the day with a cute Instagram post.
The union is Quality Street heiress Millie’s second marriage; she was wed to Professor Green and not long after calling it quits with the English rapper, Millie fell back into Hugo’s arms. The rest, as they say, is history.
Ollie Locke and Gareth Locke
Long-term friends and sharer of the same surname, Made in Chelsea star Ollie and fashion commercial director Gareth cemented their romance in front of only a handful of people, and the MIC cameras, in early November before the second lot of Covid-19 restrictions came into force. They’d already had to postpone their nuptials twice, so decided to seize the day while they could, tying the knot at London’s Natural History Museum with just 13 guests, including Binky Felstead, Liv Bentley and Sophie Hermann. The romantic ceremony, planned in just 48 hours, was aired as part of the Made in Chelsea season 20 finale and marked the show’s first-ever wedding.
Sadly Gareth’s mum, who’s in a care home suffering with Alzheimer’s, and coronavirus at the time, was unable to attend so they left an seat empty in her place.
Billie Faiers and Greg Shepherd
It’s totes surprising The Only Way is Essex is yet to produce a wedding, though it came close with childhood sweethearts Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger, whose glitzy engagement party was a focal plot point way back in season two. Sadly their love was not meant to be.
However, TOWIE alum Billie Faiers’ wedding to businessman Greg Shepherd did make it to the small screen, featuring in her ITV2 spinoff show, The Mummy Diaries. Shunning a traditional Essex knees-up in favour of a beach bash in the Maldives in 2019, Billie let fans see all the action during a special one-off. Her famous sister Sam and friend Ferne McCann were both there, as were Billie and Greg’s children Nelly and Arthur, who held the important roles of flower girl and page boy, along with Sam’s kids, Paul and Rosie. The luxury resort cost upwards of £200,000 alone, making it one of the priciest reality weddings of all time.
Katie Price and Peter Andre
The OGs of reality weddings, could there be a more infamous TV couple? Meeting on the third series of I’m a Celeb in 2004, Katie ditched fiancé Scott Sullivan after falling for the Insania singer-songwriter in the jungle. They married in 2005 in a typically over the top bash at Highclere castle, aka Downton Abbey, with the likes of Sarah Harding, Michelle Heaton and Kerry Katona among the bridesmaids, which surely helped them secure an eye-watering £1.75million exclusive with OK!.
Not content with their respective careers of glamour modelling and pop stardom, Katie and Peter, who have children Junior and Princess together, set their sights on conquering the still fledgling world of reality TV, with multiple seasons of their namesake fly on the wall series and even a short-lived late-night chat show. Their love wasn’t destined to last though, and despite being one of Britain’s most-loved couples, they split suddenly in 2009.
Jodie Marsh and Matt Peacock
Katie Price’s one-time rival Jodie Marsh wanted to get in on the TV wedding act too, and ended up saying I do to Matt Peacock, a one-time fling of Katie’s, for poorly received and crudely titled 2007 MTV show Jodie Marsh: Who’s Going To Take Her Up The Aisle? The audition process didn’t go quite as planned, with less people than expected showing up and, unsurprisingly, the honeymoon period was over practically by the end of the honeymoon, with the couple splitting after just three months.
Mancunian model Matt went on to romance Rhian Sugden and then marry and start a family with a model agent, while Jodie moved on with a hairdresser called Nina, TOWIE’s Kirk Norcross and then another failed marriage to personal trainer James Placido. She’s now happily dating musician Billy Collins and keeps mostly out of the limelight.
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