Greg James couldn’t help but offer a few insider details after attending Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding last weekend, revealing the extent of the secrecy and what ceremony keepsakes he pinched.
The BBC Radio 1 presenter was stunned to learn he was invited to what’s been dubbed the “wedding of the decade” at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where the Grammy-winning pop star and her “guy on the Chiefs” threw a huge party for 1,000 guests.
Swift had previously said James was invited when appearing on his radio show last year, but the presenter appeared to assume she was joking.
“I still can't quite believe that it happened,” James said as he returned to his Radio 1 breakfast show on Wednesday (8 July). “It does feel like an amazingly strange but exciting dream. It was unbelievably fun. The main headline is: Oh my god it was really fun.”
Over the course of the show, James proceeded to share a few titbits from the happy couple’s big day, including how he kept his invite a secret from friends and colleagues, who he spoke to at the reception and the souvenirs he “stole” from the ceremony.
When he received the invite
“First thing, when I got the invitation, that in itself was mad because it was ages ago,” James said. “It was the night before the first day of the Comic Relief Challenge (in March)... I looked at my phone and the invitation had come through and I went 'not now, I can't deal with this now.'”
Keeping his invite a secret was a challenge, he admitted, and the only person he was able to tell was his wife, author and journalist Bella Mackie: “I couldn't tell my boss so I just had to take annual leave for it. I couldn't tell the people at the festival why I couldn't do the rest of the weekend. I was like, 'Something's come up.'”
James said he was in fact ratted out by chat-show host Graham Norton on an episode of This Morning; Norton was invited by Swift while she was a guest on an episode of his own show. After he was grilled by the This Morning hosts, Norton suggested they ask James, who happened to be a guest on the programme next.
Norton and James then suggested they have a secret dinner at Norton’s house with their partners: “It was like the Traitors meeting in the tower,” James joked.
He spoke to Swift and Kelce at the wedding
Acknowledging how difficult it is for any couple to speak to all of their guests at a big wedding, James said he did in fact have a brief chat with them and told the “Bad Blood” star how difficult it had been keeping the secret.
“They were having a great time, they looked amazing, they were on the dancefloor,” he revealed.
What it was like inside Madison Square Garden
Following reports that the wedding featured a buffet for guests, James confirmed “it wasn’t a sit-down dinner” as he added that “a lot of the Brits did congregate for a bit”.
“There were multiple cakes,” he said. “There was 1,000 people, there were loads of cakes.”
He added: “'There was an open invitation to get up onto the stage and dance while the DJ was on, and so I did.”
There was “no comment” on whether Swift herself sang at any point during the ceremony, which was officiated by comedian and actor Adam Sandler, or the reception.
“It was a room full of the most famous people in the world,” James said. “It was like going to Madame Tussauds, but the wax was animated and you could interact with the wax and it talked back to you. It was absolutely mad. I think I had a few wees next to NFL players.”
He pinched a few souvenirs
James joked that he “stole two things” from Swift’s wedding, which turned out to be doilies from the backs of the chairs. He gave them to two of his delighted colleagues, both huge Swift fans: “I’m going to wear this in my hair!” one said.
What he and Bella wore
While Bella Mackie apparently brought a few dress options to New York, James revealed that he wore the same tuxedo he sported while broadcasting a special memorial episode dedicated to Long Boi – the duck he helped turn into a viral sensation after learning about its presence at the University of York.
James flat-out refused to reveal any details about what Swift wore other than she and Kelce looked “amazing”, and declined to say whether the “Love Story” singer wore more than one dress.
Fans are desperate for a first look at the custom Christian Dior Haute Couture dress she wore for the ceremony, which was designed by Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Dior Women’s, Men’s and Haute Couture Collections “in close collaboration with the Bride and Groom”.
After spilling the beans, James joked that he was going to check his phone to see if Swift’s lawyers had been in touch.
