By KIMBERLEE KRUESI Associated Press
Are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce really getting married at Madison Square Garden?
Frenzied speculation surrounding the superstar singer and football player’s upcoming wedding has spiked over the past few days as reports swirl that the two are getting married the first week in July at one of New York’s iconic landmarks.
Yet nearly a year after Kelce and Swift announced their engagement with the caption “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” they have disclosed little about their plans.
Here’s what we know and don’t know.
The wedding date is unconfirmed, but reports say early July
Nothing has been publicly confirmed by the couple, despite The Associated Press’ multiple requests to Swift’s representative for comment.
Citing an entertainment industry executive and another person with knowledge of the matter, The New York Times reported that the couple were planning a gathering of 100 people at Madison Square Garden — an arena that seats up to 19,500 people — on July 2 followed by a second event at the arena for about 1,000 guests on July 3.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently confirm those details, but there are no public events planned at the Garden from June 29 until a Bon Jovi concert on July 7.
Public records show that the city issued a permit for loading and unloading theatrical materials at the arena from June 29 to July 4. Winick Productions, a company that has produced red carpet events for the Grammy and Tony award shows and movie premieres, also applied for a permit to set up a canopy or tent outside the Garden for an event involving up to 999 people.
Meanwhile, just a few weeks prior, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani jokingly referenced the reports of Swift and Kelce’s wedding during a press conference. Mamdani was answering questions about safety during the World Cup when he said, “We know it coincides with July Fourth, America 250, Taylor Swift’s wedding all happening at the same time, and we are so excited to welcome the world here.”
Mamdani, however, said he was not invited to the wedding.
“I wish them a lovely wedding. I’ll listen to ‘Only the Young’ at home on my own,” he said, referencing one of Swift’s songs.
MSG is a fortress, but has hosted weddings before
Madison Square Garden may not scream “bridal,” but the venue is available for private rentals, advertising a banquet capacity for 1,250 — or 2,000 if you are only serving cocktails. And it has hosted weddings before. Sly Stone got married to Kathy Silva there in 1974 before thousands of fans. And more than 2,000 couples were wed in a mass ceremony at the Garden officiated by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in 1982.
Located above Penn Station, the busiest rail hub in the U.S., the Garden doesn’t scream “privacy” either.
But it does have guarded entrances, a secure garage and a lack of windows, which would allow Kelce, Swift and celebrity guests to stay out of sight of photographers or camera-equipped drones.
That need for privacy popped up earlier in June when a large tent appeared next door to Swift’s Watch Hill estate in Rhode Island. Despite organizers denying the event was for Swift, a wave of speculation bubbled up online as photographers and some Swifties headed to the town to see if they could catch a glimpse of a possible wedding.
Yet others have theorized that the MSG buzz could be an elaborate smoke screen to throw off attention to the couple’s real wedding plans. Swift did once write, “No, you can’t come to the wedding,” in her song “But Daddy I Love Him,” which some fans have been reupping lately as a reminder that the wedding isn’t supposed to be a public spectacle.
Friends, family, and plenty of celebrities expected to attend
Swift joked in October that “anyone I’ve ever talked to” would be invited to the wedding, telling Graham Norton that she believed “the only stressful weddings” are those that are small and force people to make aggressive cuts to the guest list.
Yet just who exactly will show up is to be determined. Aside from family, Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany Mahomes, will likely be in attendance. For Swift, close friends like Selena Gomez, Abigail Anderson Berard, the Haim sisters, Emma Stone and Gigi Hadid will all likely attend.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he couldn’t talk about it when asked by The Associated Press if he was going to the wedding.
“If it’s like when I got married, my wife did everything, so I just kind of followed her lead on it, showed up, right? Maybe he’s doing more but he looks like he’s pretty focused in on this job here, too,” Reid said in early June.
Swift has a history of Fourth of July parties
Perhaps another clue why the week of the Fourth of July makes sense for Swift and Kelce’s wedding is that the popstar has long been known for throwing elaborate parties over the American holiday.
It wasn’t too long ago that fans dubbed her Fourth of July events as “Taymerica,” where celebrities showed up at her Rhode Island estate wearing red, white and blue swimsuits, waving American flags and eventually shared some social media photos with the public.
The timing also works with Kelce’s football schedule, given the tight end once joked on his “New Heights” podcast, “Don’t make my friends have to choose whether or not they have to sell their tickets that week.”
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Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre and Maria Sherman in New York and David Skretta in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed reporting.