Justin and Hailey Bieber’s Weddings, 2018 and 2019
A quiet courthouse wedding in New York, then, a year later, a chapel in South Carolina and an Off-White gown by Virgil Abloh with a veil that spelled out the vow. Two weddings, one marriage.
Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin married twice, a year apart, and the order in which they did it is part of the story. First came the legal wedding, a private civil ceremony at a New York courthouse in September 2018. Then, in late September 2019, came the wedding for everyone else: a chapel in South Carolina, 154 guests, and a gown by one of the most talked-about designers in fashion. The two-step wedding has since become one of the most practical patterns a modern couple can follow.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Date | September 2018 (civil ceremony); Monday, September 30, 2019 (chapel ceremony) |
| Place (ceremony) | A New York courthouse (2018); Somerset Chapel, Bluffton, South Carolina (2019) |
| Reception | Following the 2019 ceremony; details were kept private |
| The dress (designer) | Virgil Abloh for Off-White (2019) |
| Guests | 154 at the 2019 ceremony |
The couple
Bieber proposed in July 2018 at a resort in the Bahamas, where, according to guests, security asked people to put their phones away because something special was about to happen. Within about two months, and without announcement, they were married. Bieber confirmed the marriage publicly that November.
The courthouse wedding
The first wedding was a civil ceremony at a New York courthouse in September 2018. Speaking to Vogue the following year, the couple were frank about what came next. “The thing is, marriage is very hard,” Hailey said. “That is the sentence you should lead with.”
The chapel wedding
A year later, the couple held a second ceremony for family and friends at Somerset Chapel in Bluffton, South Carolina. There were 154 guests. Among the bridesmaids were Hailey’s sister, Alaia Baldwin, and her cousin, Ireland Baldwin.
The dress
Hailey’s gown was a custom design by Virgil Abloh, the founder of Off-White and, from 2018, artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear, the first person of African descent to lead the line. It was off the shoulder, with long sleeves in lace and a long, sweeping train, and she wore her hair in a simple center-parted updo with drop earrings. The veil was the detail everyone remembered: embroidered with the words “Till death do us part” in Abloh’s trademark quotation marks, a knowing play on the traditional vow and on his own graphic style.
“Thank you for making my vision come to life and creating my dream dress,” Hailey wrote to Abloh afterward. Abloh died on November 28, 2021, at the age of 41. For more gowns that changed the conversation, see our guide to celebrity wedding dresses.
What came after
The couple have spoken openly about the work of marriage. “You don’t wake up every day saying, ‘I’m absolutely so in love and you are perfect,’” Hailey told Vogue. They announced the birth of their son, Jack Blues, in August 2024.
How the two-step wedding works
The Biebers’ approach is a familiar and sensible one. The civil ceremony comes first, usually at a city clerk’s office or courthouse, with the license, an officiant and one or two witnesses. The celebration comes later: weeks, months or, as here, a year afterward. A few practical points follow from that.
The legal date is your anniversary on paper. Many couples celebrate both dates, or choose one for the ring engraving and the other for the party.
The second ceremony can be anything you like. Because the marriage is already legal, the later ceremony can be religious, symbolic or entirely personal, led by a clergy member or a friend.
Tell people plainly. Guests invited to the celebration should know it follows a legal wedding; a line on the invitation or the wedding website does it.
Why it mattered
The Biebers showed that a legal wedding and a celebration need not happen on the same day, and that there is no shame in doing the paperwork first. Couples who want to marry now and celebrate later, for reasons of timing, budget or simple impatience, now have a well-known model. The veil, meanwhile, opened the door to personal, even witty, text on bridal accessories. For other courthouse weddings with lasting style, see Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco City Hall.
Borrow the idea
Marry legally first. A city hall ceremony with two witnesses takes care of the paperwork and lets you plan the celebration without deadline pressure. Our guide to how to plan a wedding walks through timelines.
Put words on your veil. A line from your vows, your wedding date or a phrase in a meaningful language can be embroidered along the edge of a veil by most bridal ateliers. For ideas, see our ring inscriptions.
Choose a small chapel. A chapel that seats about 150 keeps a big guest list feeling intimate. See the guest list.
Keep the first wedding yours. No announcement is needed for a courthouse ceremony. Tell your families first, then everyone else, when you are ready. Our announcement wording samples help when you do.
Written and edited by the Today’s Weddings editors. How we research and check what we publish is set out in our editorial standards. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
