Miley Cyrus and Other A-List Couples Who Chose Surprisingly Intimate Weddings Over Grand Celebrations — Details

Celebrity weddings can bring sprawling venues, designer gowns, and enormous guest lists. Yet some famous couples went in almost the opposite direction, choosing ceremonies so private that even close friends sometimes missed them.

A courthouse room, a Tennessee home, and a rural Ohio farm hardly sound like typical A-list wedding destinations. For these couples, however, those unexpected places became part of Hollywood history.

And the surprises went beyond the venues. One bride arrived in a blue dress and ponytail, another wore black, while one ceremony was over in about five minutes.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth Kept It at Home

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth married on December 23, 2018, at their home in Tennessee, and almost no one saw it coming. The pair confirmed the news by sharing photos on social media the following Wednesday, catching fans completely off guard.

A source close to the couple said the ceremony came together quickly and quietly, with the pair deciding against anything elaborate. They reportedly wanted only their closest circle present, choosing the Tennessee property they had spoken about for years as the setting.

The timing capped off a relationship that started on the set of "The Last Song" in 2010, weathered a broken engagement, and rekindled in 2016. Cyrus and Hemsworth have since divorced, but the ceremony itself remains one of the more low-key celebrity weddings on record.

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard Spent Just $142

Few Hollywood weddings undercut the budget quite like Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's. The couple married in a small room at the Beverly Hills courthouse in 2013, and the entire event came to a total of $142.

Bell later opened up about the day, telling CBS This Morning, "We got married in a tiny room in the Beverly Hills courthouse and it was still one of the best days of my life." Shepard wore a black tux; Bell chose a black dress with a chunky necklace instead of anything bridal.

The number becomes even more striking next to the numbers around it. The average American wedding runs about $26,645, and Hollywood ceremonies routinely start at $1 million — Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries' wedding reportedly reached $10 million.

Bell also shared a black-and-white throwback photo of the ceremony on social media years later, writing, "#tbt to when I cried at our wedding and @daxshepard thought it was really funny." She had broken down in tears during the vows, and Shepard, rather than comforting her, burst out laughing.

Jessica Alba Skipped the Wedding Dress Entirely

When Jessica Alba married Cash Warren in May 2008, there was no gown at all. The couple wed quietly in the ceremony room of the Beverly Hills courthouse, standing beneath an arch of green silk foliage and white flowers.

Alba wore a long blue dress with her hair pulled back into a ponytail. Warren showed up in a white shirt and brown pants. A source described the bride as looking happy but nervous.

The pair applied for their marriage license that morning and waited roughly 40 minutes for the paperwork before a courthouse staff member performed the ceremony. No one else attended.

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher Married Quietly Before the Party

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher kept their actual wedding just as private as their engagement had been. By the time they threw a celebration over the Fourth of July weekend in 2015, the pair were already legally married, and the party served purely to mark the occasion with family and friends.

The former "That '70s Show" costars celebrated at the Secret Garden at Parrish Ranch in Oak Glen, California, a private venue with apple orchards, ponds, and botanical gardens. Guests nicknamed the gathering "Camp KuKu," and the grounds were dotted with tents set up like a luxe campground.

Kunis wore a white dress with her hair up, a look echoed by the couple's baby daughter, Wyatt, who also wore white for the occasion.

Matt Damon Squeezed His Wedding Into a Film Shoot

Matt Damon married Luciana Bozán Barroso on December 9, 2005, in a small private ceremony at Manhattan's City Hall — and he barely had time to attend it. The ceremony took place at 9 a.m., with then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg present.

Barroso's 7-year-old daughter, Alexia, witnessed the vows. The wedding was arranged so quickly that even close friends missed it — Ben Affleck, Damon's childhood friend and fellow Oscar winner, was not there.

Damon and Barroso had gotten engaged the previous summer, after meeting two years earlier while she was tending bar at a Miami nightclub.

There was no honeymoon immediately afterward: Damon was expected back on the New York set of "The Good Shepherd" that same night, with the production moving to Europe the next day and Barroso joining him.

Mary-Kate Olsen Asked Guests to Hand Over Their Phones

Mary-Kate Olsen and French banker Olivier Sarkozy took privacy seriously when they married in Manhattan on November 27, 2015.

About 50 people attended the intimate event at a private residence on 49th Street, according to Page Six. Guests reportedly had to hand over their cellphones before the celebration, limiting the possibility of photographs or details immediately making their way outside.

Cocktails were served in a rear garden before everyone moved indoors for dinner.

One detail made the reception particularly unusual: The decor reportedly included bowls filled with cigarettes, with a source saying guests smoked throughout the night.

The couple had become engaged in 2014. Their marriage later ended, with their attorneys telling a judge in January 2021 that they had reached a divorce settlement.

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick Tricked Their Guests

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick pulled off one of the more elaborate deceptions on this list. On May 19, 1997, the couple invited 100 of their closest friends to New York for what those guests believed was simply a party.

Instead, Parker walked down the aisle in her now-iconic black wedding dress. She later admitted she had never pictured the moment ahead of time, saying, "I never thought about a wedding dress. Never. Had not one daydream about it. At one point I just simply remember thinking, 'God, I really hope he asks me to marry him.'"

The two had dated for five years before marrying and have since raised twin daughters and a son together.

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart Wed on a Farm

Long before courthouse weddings became a trend, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart set the tone. The pair married on May 21, 1945, not in a Hollywood ballroom but at Malabar Farm in rural Mansfield, Ohio — an experimental farm, and about as far from a castle wedding as it gets.

The timing carried weight beyond the couple themselves. The ceremony took place just two weeks after the Allied victory in Europe, during a moment when the country was still bracing for the war's final stretch in the Pacific.

Bogart, whose divorce from his third wife had been finalized only 10 days earlier, celebrated the day by chasing a turkey outside the farmhouse with Bacall before the two cut their wedding cake.

Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow Married in Under Five Minutes

"We decided to be married about 20 minutes ago," Sinatra reportedly told The New York Times at the time. "The plans were made last week." The civil ceremony itself, held at the Las Vegas home of Sands Hotel president Jack Entratter, lasted just five minutes.

The 30-year age gap between the two was matched by an equally unconventional guest list. Neither Sinatra's nor Farrow's family attended; instead, film producer William Goetz and his wife stood in as best man and matron of honor, joined by comedian Red Skelton and members of Entratter's family.

Farrow didn't shop for a bridal look, either. She wore a silk faille skirt suit already hanging in her closet, complete with a cropped jacket and rhinestone buttons, then changed into a separate dress for the Los Angeles reception that friends hosted afterward.

"I wore [a] lacy dress," she later wrote online. "I remember it cost $27." Sinatra gifted her a double-row diamond bracelet for the occasion, while Elizabeth Taylor sent the newlyweds a white Pekingese puppy they named Eliza.

Across more than seven decades, these ceremonies share one striking thread.

Some of Hollywood's most recognizable couples chose homes, courthouses, farms, and secluded grounds instead of making their weddings enormous public productions. Some invited dozens of people, others had virtually nobody there, and one pair finished the ceremony in only minutes.

The smallest detail may say it best: Jessica Alba could walk into a courthouse wearing blue, Kristen Bell could marry for $142, and Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart could spend their wedding day on an Ohio farm.

Fame made their weddings noteworthy. It did not make the weddings grand.