Strict dress code and notable absences at Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s wedding
Some of Hollywood’s biggest names attended Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez’s wedding. But there were some notable absences.
Usually it would be a massive faux-pas to turn up to someone’s wedding wearing white - unless you’re the bride, of course.
But it seems the Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck wedding went all-in on the whole cream, ecru and white palette.
Pictures from the lavish wedding reception at Affleck’s plantation-style estate in the American state of Georgia reveal a strict dress code for guests, with everyone donning snowy threads.
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But when they walked down the aisle for the second time – the two legally wed earlier in Las Vegas – there were two notable absentees, his brother Casey Affleck and ex-wife Jennifer Garner.
Casey Affleck was spotted on a Starbucks run in Los Angeles on Saturday morning, just hours before the older Affleck wed Lopez on the other side of the country, reported Page Six.
Paparazzi seemed surprised to see the younger Affleck on a coffee run and one even asked, “Why aren’t you in Georgia right now, man??”
A clearly uncomfortable Casey, 47, mumbled an unintelligible response that sounded like he said, “I have other things,” before driving away.
The famous brothers have always had a supportive relationship, both personally and professionally.
In 2007, Casey starred in the film Gone Baby Gone, which was directed by Ben, now 50. More than a decade later, he praised a “brave” Ben for checking himself into rehab.
While it is not immediately clear if Casey will manage to fly across the country in time for the pair’s second set of vows, many other family members and friends arrived in Savannah in plenty of time.
Affleck’s ex-wife Jennifer Garner also didn’t attend the nuptials.
Garner, who was married to Affleck from 2005 to 2018 and is the mother of his three children, has no bad blood for Bennifer 2.0, but instead said the issue was a scheduling conflict.
Her children with Affleck, Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 13, and Sam, 11 are expected to attend the celebration this weekend at the actor’s estate in Riceboro, Georgia.
“Jennifer Garner is hard at work on a project in Texas and won’t be attending the wedding celebration, but she’s been totally supportive of her kids being there and is really positive in general about the whole thing,” an insider told Hollywood Life.
“There is nothing more important to her than her kids’ happiness so the fact that they feel welcomed and at ease and have bonded with JLo and her kids is just the best thing she could ask for.”
Security was tight at the entrance to Hampton Island in Georgia on Saturday before the ceremony, as buses loaded with guests began arriving for the celebrations at his plantation-style estate.
Matt Damon and his wife were spotted landing in private jet at a nearby airfield while longtime friend Kevin Smith was snapped at the airport.
A stream of white buses ferrying guests made their way into the secluded estate around 5pm local time for nuptials that were reportedly scheduled for 6pm.
The choice to hold the wedding at Affleck’s Georgia estate has raised eyebrows, given its associations with America’s dark past.
Affleck previously tried to sell his sprawling Greek Revival “imitation” plantation three years after revelations surfaced that one of his ancestors was a slave-owning Georgia sheriff.
In 2015, the Hollywood actor tried to suppress details about Benjamin Cole, a relative on his mother’s side who owned several slaves in Chatham County, near his 87-acre Hampton Island property. Affleck purchased the property in 2003, according to reports.
The revelations about Cole were made on docuseries Finding Your Roots hosted by Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Affleck put the lavish property, which includes a deep water port and a 6,000-square-foot home known as “the Big House,” on the market for $US8.9 million in 2018. He lowered the price to $US7.6 million the following year before taking it off the market, property records show.
Built in 2000, the property was designed by Atlanta-based architect James Strickland to resemble a southern plantation. It also includes a 10,000 square foot guest house and equestrian facilities.
Actors Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds courted controversy when they wed at a plantation-style home. An expert on slavery said she was shocked that Affleck and Lopez decided to have such a splashy wedding at a plantation-style home.
“When he discovered who his ancestors were he tried to squelch it,” Leslie Harris, co-editor of Slavery and Freedom in Savannah and a professor of history at Northwestern University, said.
“It’s clear he didn’t learn his lesson. We’re back at the same place with him. People still build houses that are plantation style. It’s a sign of wealth. It’s surprising that Affleck would choose this place for his wedding when many [historic] plantations have stopped even having weddings.”
There were more than 46,000 plantations in operation in 1860 in the American South, and nearly 4 million enslaved persons in the US, with 2.5 million in the “Cotton Belt” alone. Today, there are about 375 plantation museums in the US, most of which do not hold weddings, according to a report.
Many major wedding businesses have taken steps to distance themselves from the plantation venues.
In 2019, several wedding-planning sites such as Pinterest, The Knot, and Zola, pledged to stop promoting plantation weddings and using language that romanticises them.
Affleck said he fell in love with the area while filming Forces of Nature with actor Sandra Bullock in the late 1990s. He bought the property for $US7.11 million, according to public records.
This article was originally published on Page Six and was reproduced here with permission
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