Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s 1997 Wedding Was a Surprise Party for Guests
Hollywood’s couples are notorious for huge, lavish weddings and short marriages. However, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick chose a different way. Their wedding was a low-key affair, but after over two decades of marriage, the couple is proving that there are still some happy endings in Tinseltown.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick fell in love on Broadway
Parker and Broderick have both starred in TV and films. The most famous role for Parker was on the popular HBO series, Sex and the City, and Broderick became famous after his iconic role in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
However, their true love is the stage. They started out their career with small roles on Broadway, and continue to be involved with that scene today. In fact, the couple even met on Broadway.
Two of Parker’s brothers started a Broadway theater company called Naked Angels, and at one point, they asked Broderick to direct one of their plays. Parker would sometimes come to visit during rehearsals, catching the attention of her future husband.
They didn’t start dating for another year, in 1992. Soon after that, the couple were in love and planning their future.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick had a surprise wedding
Both Parker, and her famous character Carrie Bradshaw, love fashion. But while she may love to stun on the red-carpet, she didn’t much consider what she would wear down the aisle on her wedding day.
“I never thought about a wedding dress. Never,” Parker once admitted to People. “Had not one daydream about it,”
But while she may not have dreamed about the dress, when Parker met Broderick, she knew that marriage was the right direction.
“At one point I just simply remember thinking, ‘God, I really hope he asks me to marry him.’ I don’t know when or why. It was fairly early on,” she said.
After agreeing on their future, the couple had to decide what kind of wedding they wanted, and they decided to keep it simple. In fact, it was so simple that none of their guests even knew they were at a wedding until the last minute.
On May 19, 1997, Parker and Broderick invited 100 of their friends to a New York City synagogue, for what they described as a cocktail party. However, once the party was in full swing, the couple revealed their true plans: a wedding!
Guests watched the surprise ceremony, and then enjoyed the reception, which lasted until 2am and included plenty of show tunes.
Since Parker had never dreamed about her wedding dress as a little girl, she decided to take a less traditional route. She wore a black, ruffled Morgane Le Fay dress. It was bought off the rack to attract less attention. Parker assumed that purchasing a white gown would alert everyone to her true intentions. And the couple wanted their wedding to be a low-key event because they were uncomfortable with all the attention.
“I was too embarrassed to get married in white,” Parker told Marie Claire in 2006, “and both Matthew and I were reluctant to have people pay so much attention to us,”
Sarah Jessica Parker has regrets about her wedding day
A simple party was what the couple wanted at the time. But Parker has since admitted that if she had a do-over, they’d do things a little different.
“We treated it like it was a big party on a Monday night, and I regret it,” she said, but the dress is probably her biggest regret. “I wore black on my wedding day, and I really regret that,” she said.
Now, the couple shares three children. In 2002, their oldest son was born, and named James Wilkie. Then, seven years later, he got two new siblings. The family added twin girls, Marion and Tabitha, who were born via surrogate.
After over 20 years of marriage, the couple is still going strong. And while she may regret that black dress, we don’t think Parker would change anything about her gorgeous family.
