If the rumors are true, Swift and Kelce’s wedding won’t be the first — or even second — time a couple has gotten married at the massive New York venue.

Are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce the first couple to marry at Madison Square Garden?

If the rumors are true, Swift and Kelce's wedding won't be the first — or even second — time a couple has gotten married at the massive New York venue.

June 30, 2026 10:09 a.m. ET

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Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. Credit:

Taylor Swift/Instagram

- Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are reportedly getting married on July 3 at Madison Square Garden.

- Though the venue hasn't been officially confirmed, many signs point to the A-list couple staging something at the iconic stadium.

- They wouldn't be the first couple to get married at MSG, as it has been home to two prior wedding ceremonies.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's engagement is building up to the celebrity wedding event of the year.

Numerous reports point to a July 3 ceremony at Madison Square Garden, and while those details have yet to be officially confirmed, it's not hard to believe that the mega pop star would choose such a splashy venue for her wedding. In addition to a prolific music career, Swift is known for turning every event into an elaborate spectacle, be it the release of a new single or the latest leg of a never-ending world tour.

Home court to the New York Knicks (whose games Swift occasionally attends), the venue also hosts concerts, comedy performances, and wrestling events, and has the capacity to seat more than 19,000 people — though Swift and Kelce are rumored to have a much smaller list of attendees.

Given the Garden's size and general purpose, and that hosting a wedding there sounds like a potential logistics nightmare, you might assume that such a feat has never been attempted before. However, should the rumors prove true, Swift and Kelce wouldn't be the first — or even second — couple to tie the knot at MSG.

Here's a look back at the previous weddings hosted at Madison Square Garden.

Sly Stone and Kathy Silva’s golden 1974 wedding

Sly Stone and Kathy Silva during their wedding at Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 5, 1974.

Oscar Abolafia/TPLP/Getty

In May 1974, Sly Stone (real name: Sylvester Stewart), frontman of the funk group Sly and the Family Stone, decided it was finally time to marry his partner, actress Kathy Silva. According to an article about the event in the* **New Yorker*, Stone's album sales were declining and he needed a hit. The idea to get married before his own concert at Madison Square Garden came from either Stone or Stephen Paley, his A&R liaison at Epic Records. In Stone's memoir, *Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)*, the musician recalls thinking, "I could do a gig, get paid, and get married at the same time."

"We set the date for June 5, a Wednesday," Stone wrote. "We’d have a ceremony just before the concert, right there on the stage. Then a concert, then a party afterward at the rooftop lounge of the Waldorf Astoria." As for the accoutrements, Stone's team decided on "Japanese and soul food" to honor "the Hawaiian bride and Black groom," along with New York champagne to honor the city, and "A round cake with a gold record on top" to honor the music business.

Iconic fashion designer Halston agreed to make the clothes for Stone, Silva, and the members of their wedding party, as well as The Family Stone band members, three backup singers, and 12 "young Black models who would appear onstage at the wedding" holding gold palm fronds. The outfits were glitzy, gold, and metallic, and, per the *New Yorker*, cost $10,000.

Not everything went according to their initial plans. Joe Eula, a designer friend of Halston's hired by Paley, wanted to have doves fly over the wedding, and Stone wanted to have a traditional march down the aisle. "The ASPCA wouldn’t allow the doves," and, Stone wrote, "The wedding party couldn’t march down the aisle without extra security," which would cost even more.

Stone and Silva's wedding was well attended by friends and fans alike. "We had twenty thousand guests at least, with some of the estimates as high as twenty-five," the singer wrote. "Years later I saw a picture of a ticket someone kept: $8.50 for a wedding and a concert both. A bargain." The reception at the Waldorf Astoria was filled with high-profile guests, including Andy Warhol and designer Diane von Furstenberg.

Unfortunately, Stone and Silva's nuptials didn't last: The pair divorced in 1976.

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The Unification Church’s mass wedding in 1982

The Unification Church's mass marriage ceremony at Madison Square Garden in 1982.

PL Gould/IMAGES/Getty

In 1982, the Unification Church held one of its mass wedding ceremonies at MSG, where over 2,000 couples tied the knot.

Formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the church was founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon. The church's followers, often referred to as "Moonies," adhered to their leader's belief system, known as Divine Principle, which he claimed was revealed to him over nine years by Jesus Christ.

*The New York Times* reported on the event, which followed a mass "matching" ceremony, during which the couples (2,075 exactly, according to the church), many of whom had never met before and spoke different languages, were paired up. Most of the couples were matched by Moon himself. To be eligible for matching, Unificationists needed to be members of the church for at least three years, and they were expected to practice chastity.

Moon, who had been convicted the year prior on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and filing false tax returns, officiated the event. According to the *Times*, "The floor of the arena, carpeted in white for the occasion, was a sea of bridegrooms dressed identically in blue suits and brides in identical lace and satin gowns made by the church." 6,000 guests attended the mass ceremony, including "parents, friends and invited guests who had passed through metal detectors before entering."

After the wedding, known as the "blessing," couples were made to live apart and continue practicing chastity for a 40-day period known as "purification." When a groom from Nebraska was asked if he planned to live with his bride, a Japanese woman who he had only met for a few hours and who did not speak English, he replied, "I think so. Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce might make MSG history

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce kiss during Game Three of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on May 23, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jason Miller/Getty

Again, nothing has been officially confirmed, but signs point to Swift and Kelce getting married at Madison Square Garden on July 3. If so, theirs would be the third wedding at the venue, and the first in 44 years. (Technically, they'd also be the 2,077th couple to tie the knot at MSG, which sounds a little less impressive.)

Several pieces of evidence support a Swift-Kelce wedding at the Garden. Following TMZ's initial reporting on the event, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani recently appeared to accidentally confirm the wedding while addressing safety concerns around the busy holiday weekend. Referring to the World Cup match in neighboring New Jersey on July 5, Mamdani said, "We know it coincides with July 4, America 250, Taylor Swift's wedding all happening at the same time."

Then, on June 24, *The New York Times* published a story confirming several previously reported details while revealing some new ones. There will be a smaller 100-guest event on Thursday, July 2, followed by a larger 1,000-guest gathering, "with possible stage appearances," on Friday, July 3. Permits were filed to request street closures around the Garden from July 2 through midday July 4, and several of Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs teammates have booked hotel rooms nearby.

It's possible that all of this is part of Swift's biggest spectacle yet — a distraction from the real wedding, which could be a much more intimate ceremony, possibly outside of New York entirely. Whatever the case may be, Swift is definitely planning *something* at Madison Square Garden, and her fans are eager to see if they'll get any kind of peek at it.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Celebrity”