Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s Wedding in Malibu, 2000

At sunset on July 29, 2000, on a bluff above the Pacific in Malibu, the star of Friends married the most famous leading man of the moment. The wedding of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt was private, expensive and closely guarded, and almost nothing about it was officially released. Yet a handful of photographs and a great deal of reporting made it the wedding of its era, and the bride’s pared-back gown, by a designer few people had heard of, set the tone for a decade of minimal bridal style.

The couple

Aniston and Pitt reportedly met on a blind date in 1998. By 2000 she was one of the best-known faces on television, as Rachel Green on Friends, and he had moved from heartthrob roles to films such as Seven and Fight Club. It was the first marriage for both, and the pairing was treated by the press as a sort of American royal wedding.

The ceremony

The couple rented the five-acre clifftop estate of Marcy Carsey, the television producer, and the ceremony was held at sunset. Security was extraordinary for a private event: the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was involved, airspace over the site was restricted and part of the Pacific Coast Highway was closed. A large white tent kept the ceremony out of sight of photographers.

The couple wrote their own vows. The lines that were widely reported afterward were affectionate and domestic: she promised to keep making his favorite banana milkshake, and he promised to split the difference on the thermostat. The bridesmaids wore pale green silk chiffon slip dresses; the groomsmen wore black tuxedos by Prada, and the groom wore a black tuxedo by Hedi Slimane.

The dress

Aniston’s gown was by Lawrence Steele, an American designer working in Milan who was, until that summer, little known outside the fashion industry. It was a slim, floor-length gown in white, low at the back and embellished with beading, and it was notable for what it left out: no ball skirt, no lace sleeves, no enormous train. She wore it with four-inch ivory suede sandals by Manolo Blahnik.

The reaction took Steele by surprise. “Never in a million years,” he told Newsweek when asked whether he had expected it; versions of the dress were soon being copied at lower prices. He said he had spent a long time talking with Aniston before designing it, about where the wedding would be and how she wanted to feel on the day. For more of the gowns that shaped bridal fashion, see our guide to celebrity wedding dresses.

The reception

The reception was a big, generous California party. Reports at the time and since describe a gospel choir, several bands and some 50,000 flowers, and the night ended with fireworks, including heart shapes, over the ocean. The actor Michael Rapaport, a guest, later recalled that Billy Preston performed. The total cost was put at about $1 million, a figure the couple never confirmed.

What came after

The couple announced their separation in January 2005, and the divorce was finalized in October 2005. Both later remarried.

Why it mattered

The Malibu wedding arrived at the turn of the century and confirmed a new direction. Together with Carolyn Bessette’s slip dress four years earlier, Aniston’s gown established a modern American bridal ideal: simple lines, good fabric, bare shoulders or back, and very little ornament. It also popularized the idea of the private estate wedding, under a tent, with a view, and the sunset ceremony timed for the light.

Borrow the idea

Time the ceremony for the light. A sunset ceremony flatters everyone and gives your photographer the best hour of the day. Look up the sunset time for your date and start about an hour before it. Our wedding photography guide has more.

Choose one clean line. A slim, low-backed gown in a heavy satin or crepe needs very little jewelry. Our guide to the wedding dress explains silhouettes and fabrics.

Write vows that sound like you. The best-remembered lines from this wedding were about milkshakes and thermostats. Specific, domestic promises are often more moving than grand ones; see how to write your vows.

Give your bridesmaids a color, not a uniform. Pale green slip dresses in silk chiffon were simple and fresh; choose a fabric and a shade, and let each bridesmaid pick a cut. See how to choose bridesmaids.