- Celebrities love crashing weddings. Everyone from Brad Pitt to Amy Schumer has done it.
- It’s especially nice when they serenade the bride and groom, like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have.
- Here are 31 celebrities who’ve busted into weddings uninvited.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
No one wants a wedding crasher. But a celebrity wedding crasher? Well, that’s a different story.
In general, celebrities do weird things and seem to live by a different set of rules. Often, that’s a bad thing. But when the greatest basketball player alive or the Queen of England herself and taking selfies with you and wishing you the best, it’s hard to complain.
Here are 31 times celebrities crashed other people’s weddings.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z stumbled on a quiet seaside wedding.
The power couple spent Beyoncé’s 2014 birthday weekend vacationing in Portofino, a small and scenic Italian fishing village also known for its resorts.
According to Elle, they passed by a small church while taking a stroll. Noticing a wedding was inside, they crashed it, and Beyoncé took a few photos with the bride that made their way online.
"I didn't know that Beyonce and Jay-Z were there! It was a big surprise!" the bride, Sara Carafa, told E!. "I only asked them if they would take a photo with me...Jay-Z told me 'No, we are on vacation'...Bey was super nice! She told me 'Suuuureee! Come here!' And she gave me a hug! She told me that I was 'so beautiful' and my dress was gorgeous...And then she congratulated me... I love her!"
A wedding photographer convinced Snoop Dogg to step in.
Snoop didn't so much crash this wedding as get roped into it. In a late summer wedding in 2014, a photographer for a wedding at Chicago's Hard Rock Cafe saw Snoop stepping out of his limo. The photographer - who was "Snoop's biggest fan," the groom's mother told ABC - convinced the rapper and his entourage to say hello.
"They had a great conversation and a ton of laughs inside the bar," the groom's mother said. "Snoop was a blast to be around."
Snoop later posted a photo with the couple on Instagram.
Taylor Swift crashed a ceremony and sang "Blank Space."
Swift's surprise wedding appearance is a perfect example of how celebrities can do it right. Swift attended the summer 2016 nuptials after weeks of coordinating with the groom's sister, who knew the couple were both huge fans.
The sister told Swift that the couple wed earlier that year in the hospital where the groom's mother spent her final days, so they could share the moment with her.
The wedding ceremony's DJ, Michael Klebacher, told Billboard that Swift's appearance and performance was "cathartic."
"I didn't know anything really until about an hour beforehand," Klebacher said. "If I wasn't a Swiftie before this weekend, I am now."
Because Swift took the time to dress nicely and perform a song at the couple's request, Swift's appearance also came off as an altruistic move. She wasn't someone who was trying to look cool for the press.
"There are already people all over the internet who are saying, 'Oh, this is such a cold and calculated move by Taylor for promotion,' but nothing that I've seen would indicate that at all," Klebacher said. "I'm not seeing anything other than complete altruism."
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were strolling down the beach when they heard one of Bieber's songs nearby.
In 2011, the couple heard Bieber's single "One Less Lonely Girl" blasting from a building near the Malibu beach. They dropped in, partied for a few minutes, and Bieber made a wedding speech.
"I was actually wiping cake off my face," the bride told ABC. "So to see Justin Bieber was just a surreal experience."
Bradley Cooper surprised a couple while visiting the college he went to.
On a 2016 trip visiting Georgetown University, where Cooper graduated from college, he congratulated a couple taking photos around campus on the weekend of their wedding ceremony.
"Here's a sneak peek from Meg and Nick's private ceremony this past weekend!" the wedding photographer wrote in an Instagram post. "Their friend, Bradley Cooper, was visiting Georgetown and made sure to congratulate the newlyweds as they walked around campus."
Tom Hanks took a break from a Central Park jog.
Tom Hanks is the ideal wedding guest because everyone loves him. The actor was jogging in Manhattan's Central Park when he noticed a wedding going by. He stopped to take a selfie with the bride and groom and take a few photos.
"He took off his hat and sunglasses and just leaned right in and said, like, 'Hi, I'm Tom Hanks,'" Miller told INSIDER. "He offered to do the ceremony for them; he said he was an officiant."
Hanks posted the selfie he took with the couple on Twitter a little later.
This isn't the only time Hanks crashed a wedding. A few years earlier, while filming "Angels & Demons" in Italy, Hanks crashed a wedding and personally escorted a bride to the church, according to People.
Jon Bon Jovi sang "Livin' on a Prayer."
The problem with being a rock star is that everyone wants you to sing all the time. At a 2016 Florida ceremony, the wedding's jazz band singer, Lourdes Valentin, knew Bon Jovi would be there and launched into a rendition of his 1986 classic "Livin' on a Prayer."
She pulled a sheepish Bon Jovi on stage to sing the song with her, with a trumpet filling in for the guitar solo.
Kevin Hart and Josh Gad both crashed a wedding while making a movie about weddings.
The comedy duo was shooting photos for their 2015 movie "The Wedding Ringer" next door a West Hollywood venue. They showed up and gave a mock speech before launching into an impromptu song and dance.
A Beach Boys sound check almost ruined a party — until everyone was invited to the concert.
Every detail was seemingly planned for Mark Kent and Jaime Diadium's wedding. That's until they heard a few notes of "God Only Knows" floating from the Cleveland stadium next door.
The band heard about it and invited the couple and all their guests.
"It couldn't have been more perfect," Mike Love told Cleveland News 5. "We felt a little awkward about making a little noise during their wedding, so we invited their whole wedding party to the concert."
Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow crashed a wedding after-party in Dublin.
No, this isn't a movie premise. In 2015, the "Trainwreck" star and director stumbled upon Eithne McAdams and J.P. Swine celebrating their marriage in an Irish pub. They joined in and sang a few ballads.
Jennifer Hudson surprised a same-sex couple in Houston and sang "I Still Love You."
A month after the Obergefell case that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States, Hudson dropped by a same-sex wedding in Houston. She said her visit was inspired by her work in the TURN IT UP FOR CHANGE campaign, which promoted LGBT marriage equality.
Her performance brought the house down.
Barack Obama just happened to be at the same golf course.
Stephanie and Brian Tobe got married at San Diego's Torrey Pines Golf Course in October of 2015. They knew Obama would be golfing the same day, but they were surprised when he showed up to congratulate them.
Wedding videographer Samantha Starkey told Insider how it happened.
"The bride and groom were waiting in the suite to come down for the start of the ceremony, but instead ran down as quick as they could to meet President Obama," Starkey said. "They were so overjoyed!"
Macklemore's mom convinced him to do it.
In May 2016, Macklemore was at the same Washington, DC hotel where a wedding was taking place. He crashed it and documented the whole thing on Snapchat.
"When your mom tells you to crash a wedding," read one of the snaps.
According to E!, his 2013 song "Thrift Shop" was played during the party.
Justin Timberlake appeared out of nowhere.
At a New Hampshire wedding in 2016, Justin Timberlake, dressed in a T-shirt and khaki shorts, surprised the bride and groom by showing up before the ceremony started.
So we were taking the first-look photo and all of a sudden Justin Timberlake appears out of nowhere, shakes my husband's hand and congratulates us, and takes a photo," the bride told Entertainment Tonight.
Ed Sheeran sang "Thinking Out Loud."
Ed Sheeran's wedding crash was organized by the Sydney-based radio show Kyle & Jackie O. The duo paid for a couple's wedding after learning they had to postpone the ceremony for financial reasons, according to People.
Kyle and Jackie O surprised the couple by showing up themselves and bringing Ed Sheeran in tow to sing their first dance song.
"Available for weddings, birthdays and bar mitzvah's, contact your local super market for details," Sheeran posted in an Instagram photo with the couple.
Maroon 5 crashed a bunch of weddings for a music video.
The video for band's 2015 single "Sugar" is framed as a stunt where the band tries to crash as many weddings as possible in Los Angeles one day in 2014.
There were accusations that many of the crashes were staged, which may be true. But USA Today interviewed several wedding photographers who said that at least a few of them were legitimate surprises.
Serena Williams wore a leopard-print swimsuit to a wedding.
During Ruth and Sam Kormoi's wedding in Miami Beach, in 2014, a few people noticed that Serena Williams was hanging out on the beach nearby.
Sam told People that he asked his friend to talk to Williams, and she came by to take photos.
"She said congratulations, and she gave me a hug - that was the first thing she did," Ruth told People. "That was when she was like, 'Let's take pictures!' Everyone was so ecstatic."
A bridesmaid gave Conan O'Brien an invite, and he actually took it.
Wes and Torre Hoffman were getting married in Atlanta's Four Seasons hotel in March 2013. When one of the Bridesmaids learned that Conan O'Brien happened to be staying at the same place, she tweeted at him and asked him to come.
To everyone's surprise, he actually showed up.
"I was standing in Park 75 [the restaurant in the Four Seasons] and looked up and saw this towering man with big, red hair and a black leather jacket walk in," Wes, the groom, told E!. "He just gracefully walked in, and I walked over and met him and introduced myself. We joked around for a bit, and he showed me how to do his string dance that he does."
According to E!, O'Brien stayed for around an hour, drinking and chatting with the bride and groom about their families.
"He was super personable, walking around and taking pictures with everybody," Wes told HLN News.
Brad Pitt took a break from a series of meetings to stop by a wedding ceremony.
Hotels seem to be the best place to have a wedding if you want them crashed. While in a series of meetings for his film "Fury," Brad Pitt crashed the ceremony in his hotel in Berkshire, England.
"My husband said to me Brad Pitt was at the bar and you have got to come with me so he dragged me across the hotel," the bride told the local paper, Maidenhead Advertiser. "I thought he was joking."
John Travolta dropped by a wedding after hearing about it the previous night.
Travolta ran into a to-be groom in 2013 while he was renewing his pilot's license, according to Yahoo! News. The groom told him about the wedding the next day, and Travolta popped in while wearing a black T-shirt and baseball cap.
The photos went viral when they were later posted on Reddit.
It's not the first time Travolta crashed a wedding. In a 2009 interview with USA Today, he and Robin Williams talked about how they crashed a wedding while having a drink next door to the venue. That was way back in 1977, before it could go viral.
Robert Pattinson and Katy Perry made themselves guests at a rehearsal dinner.
While preparing for a 2013 wedding at a ranch in Montecito, California, the guests noticed "Twilight" actor Robert Pattinson and pop star Katy Perry hanging out nearby.
"They were just sitting quietly and talking," one relative told People. "We were on the lawn nearby. We respected their privacy."
The celebrities acted as guests, to everyone's surprise, watching the whole ceremony rehearsal happen without talking to anyone.
Jeremy Renner arrived uninvited and everyone got mad about it later.
Hawkeye's wedding crash incident in 2015 was the rare one that didn't go well. TMZ reported that he was "standoffish with the guests" and refused to take pictures with the bride and groom, though Renner said he just didn't want to overshadow the couple. Gawker later reported that the bride and groom didn't ask him for photos in the first place. A source also told Gawker that Renner brought a female friend with him, stayed for at least an hour, and drank from the open bar.
Queen Elizabeth II stunned a couple of commoners by accepting their invite.
John and Frances Canning knew the Queen would be nearby when they were getting married at Manchester Town Hall in 2012, so John wrote a "lighthearted letter" to Buckingham Palace to invite her.
Minutes after they exchanged vows, she came in to congratulate them and wish them well.
"She was so nice and gracious," Frances Canning told the BBC. "She was beautiful, a really nice woman, and wished us all the best."
LeBron James took a photo with a couple right before their wedding.
He was staying in the same Ritz Carlton hotel in Coconut Grove, Florida, for the June 2012 wedding.
At first, LeBron's crew tried to shoo the bride and groom away when they approached, but they eventually relented.
"At some point, [the bride] looked at [her brother] and said, 'Okay, you're more excited that LeBron James is here than you are for my wedding!" a guest told The Huffington Post.
Gary Barlow sang at a bunch of weddings in 2015.
In January of 2015, British singer Gary Barlow promised he'd sing at the weddings of three different fans, according to the BBC. All of them were surprises.
"The DJ started playing Rule the World, I heard screaming, turned 'round and Gary Barlow was on his knees singing to me. I asked him, 'Are you real?'!" the bride at an Oxfordshire wedding told the BBC.
Meryl Streep gate-crashed while dressed as Margaret Thatcher.
While filming her biopic "The Iron Lady" in 2012, Streep dropped into a Manchester Town Hall wedding. She brought cast members with her and led them in applauding the bride and groom as they walked down the aisle, according to the BBC.
Bill Murray is a serial wedding event crasher.
In 2014, he crashed Kanye West's bachelor party, another random bachelor party, and an engagement photo shoot.
Chris Hemsworth took photos with a couple and the bride had no idea who he was.
The "Thor" actor crashed a couple's wedding day shoot at Byron Bay, Australia in 2018. The couple's best man spotted the actor surfing nearby and asked him to come over for a photo.
The bride was puzzled as they took photos together.
"I was wondering, 'Why we were getting a photo with a random person?' I was saying, 'Who is this person?'" she told news.com.au. "[My groom] was getting embarrassed that I kept asking who this person was and he said, 'Chris Hemsworth.'"
Emilia Clarke and Nathalie Emmanuel accidentally crashed a "Game of Thrones"-themed wedding.
"Game of Thrones" isn't exactly known for its cheerful weddings, but someone had one anyway. At a hotel that Clarke and Emmanuel were once staying in, there was a themed wedding going on without their knowledge.
Clarke talked about the event on "Conan" in April 2016. She said that she, Emmanuel, and Peter Dinklage - who later showed up - stumbled upon it and then fled. They wanted to avoid the whole thing because they were afraid of getting mobbed by fans.
"We would just chill in the corridor with a bottle of wine, being like, 'This is the saddest day in the world.'"
Adam Sandler photobombed a couple's wedding shoot.
While a couple was taking photos at the Mount Stephen hotel in Montreal in July 2018, the bride noticed Adam Sandler walking nearby.
"My wife yelled his name," groom Kevin Goldstein told the BBC. "We were taking photos. He came over and wished us well, he was just chatting to us."
Sandler came over to congratulate them, and the photos were captured by the photographer.
"My wife invited him to the wedding - he couldn't make it, but she was ecstatic, absolutely over the moon," Goldstein told the BBC. "We couldn't believe it."
Rod Stewart serenaded a couple after their wedding plans were almost ruined.
Liverpool-based couple Sharon Cook and Andrew Aitchison's wedding was almost ruined in October after the collapse of travel operator Thomas Cook.
Fortunately for them, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Delta airlines made sure the event was kept on track, according to the New York Post. It all became much more magical when Stewart crashed the wedding and sang "Have I Told You Lately" to them.
