Date: Aug. 20, 2011
Where held: Montecito, Calif.
Number of guests: 450
Cost: $10 million
Has any American family ever made more money by just being (a semblance of) themselves than the Kardashians? Still, even by Kardashian standards, Kim's wedding to NBA journeyman Kris Humphries set a new standard for cashing in on one of life's most private moments.
Thanks to reality TV and celebrity magazine contracts, the couple's celebration raked in almost $17 million: $15 million for the two-night TV special, "Kim's Fairy-tale Wedding: A Kardashian Event" (which they split with producer Ryan Seacrest and the E! Network) and $1.9 million from People magazine for exclusive engagement, wedding and bridal shower news and photos.
"I thought they hired a great planner, Sharon Sacks, who also did Khloe's wedding and a couple of other events for them. I thought she did an amazing job," says Souza. "It looked beautiful, well-executed, and it fit what I know of Kim's persona."
The black-and-white affair had a lot of lucrative "gray area" backstage, where products and services were deeply discounted or donated outright for publicity.
"That's the case with most celebrity weddings," says Souza. "I do not do free events, but when your client is the producer, and they're getting paid to produce their show and wear a certain stylist's clothing, there is an opportunity for it to be a profit-making event. Does that come with a certain amount of headaches? It certainly would."
Sadly, this union wasn't ready for prime time: Kim K. filed for divorce on Halloween.