How Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck’s Las Vegas Wedding Compares to Canceled 2003 Ceremony

Credit: Shutterstock

How Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's Las Vegas Wedding Compares to Canceled 2003 Ceremony

What might have been. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are now happily married, but their Las Vegas ceremony was very different from the one they planned during their first engagement. The Oscar winner, 49, and the "Get Right" singer, 52, were originally set to tie the knot in September 2003 after a whirlwind romance that began on the set of the movie Gigli. The wedding was poised to be a massive affair, with hundreds of guests and a veil of secrecy so thick that even attendees didn't find out where it was happening until days before the ceremony. When the duo called off the event, they hinted that they'd lost control of what should have been a romantic day. “Due to the excessive media attention surrounding our wedding, we have decided to postpone the date,” they said in a joint statement at the time. “When we found ourselves seriously contemplating hiring three separate ‘decoy brides’ at three different locations, we realized that something was awry.” [jwplayer XnXARBl7-zhNYySv2] Earlier this year, the Good Will Hunting star admitted that their first attempt at marriage was overshadowed by the excitement surrounding their relationship — and their collaboration on Gigli. “It became a story in and of itself," he told Entertainment Weekly in January. "The funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure of that, it was kind of a perfect storm." Nineteen years later, their actual wedding was far simpler than the bash they'd planned the first time around. Instead of having an audience of hundreds, they tied the knot in a small Las Vegas wedding chapel — and didn't even spring for an Elvis Presley impersonator. Lopez hinted that her 14-year-old twins, Max and Emme, were present for the ceremony, but it wasn't immediately clear if any of their other family members witnessed the event. The Grammy nominee shares the twins with ex-husband Marc Anthony. Affleck, for his part, shares Violet, 16, Seraphina, 13, and Samuel, 10, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner. While the Vegas ceremony was worlds away from the one Affleck and Lopez planned ahead of their January 2004 split, an insider told Us Weekly that it was exactly what they wanted. "They both thought it was a fun and casual way to tie the knot,” the source said of the wedding. “They both are so comfortable with each other and make each other so happy, so they don’t want to wait any longer." Keep scrolling for a breakdown of how Affleck and Lopez's Vegas wedding compares to the one they would have had in 2003. [podcast_block]

Credit: Shutterstock (2); Courtesy of Jennifer Lopez/Instagram

The Guest List

Attendees were tight-lipped about wedding details, but according to reports at the time, the pair had invited many of their famous friends and former costars, including Matt Damon, Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Alec Baldwin and Matthew Perry. The Justice League star's brother, Casey Affleck, was reportedly ready to serve as his best man.

For the Vegas wedding, however, the biggest name in attendance besides the bride and groom was celeb hair guru Chris Appleton, who styled Lopez's tresses for the event. The Shades of Blue alum also noted that she and Ben stood in line with "four other couples" when they got their marriage license on Saturday, July 16. “Behind us two men held hands and held each other," she wrote in her "On the JLo" newsletter. "In front of us, a young couple who made the three hour drive from Victorville on their daughter’s second birthday — all of us wanting the same thing — for the world to recognize us as partners and to declare our love to the world through the ancient and nearly universal symbol of marriage.”

Credit: Lindsay Feldman

The Venue

Rumors about the 2003 wedding venue swirled for weeks before the ceremony, but the reception, at least, was set to take place at what is now The Ritz-Carlton Bacara in Santa Barbara, California. Rooms at the hotel start around $800 per night. A ceremony at the Little White Wedding Chapel, where Lopez and Ben tied the knot, starts at $75. (The most expensive package includes a helicopter and starts at $1,255.)  

Credit: Shutterstock (2); Courtesy of On The JLo

The Diamond

If there's one area where the 2022 wedding might be more lavish, it's the engagement ring. The 6.1-carat pink diamond Harry Winston ring Ben proposed with in 2002 was worth $2.5 million, but the bauble he gave his love in April is even bigger — and more rare. In April, the Boston native got down on one knee with an 8.5-carat green diamond, which Bloomberg estimated could be worth up to $7 million.

Credit: Dan Steinberg/BEI/Shutterstock

The Subterfuge

The Dogma actor and Lopez took mind-boggling precautions to make sure the details of their wedding didn't leak ahead of time. All of their guests were initially notified of the ceremony by phone, but they didn't get all the details right away. Attendees were supposed to receive a hand-delivered invitation four days before the nuptials that would have included more concrete info about the time and place. They also hired "decoy brides," seemingly to stop paparazzi from guessing where the wedding was really being held. (Options included Hawaii, Georgia and California, though Affleck joked at one point he was moving the whole thing to South America.)

Credit: Courtesy of Jennifer Lopez/On The JLo (2)

The Dress

No photos of the dress Lopez planned to wear in 2003 have ever surfaced, but it's safe to bet that it would have been very elaborate. The Hustlers actress had hired Vera Wang to make the custom gown, which the Today show reported was worth between $15,000 and $20,000.

Lopez wore two dresses for her Vegas wedding, but one of them was something from an "old movie" that she said she'd "been saving" for the big day. The other was by Zuhair Murad, but it appeared to be a look that was shown with the rest of the Lebanese designer's spring/summer 2023 bridal collection, meaning it wasn't custom.