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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Meredith Clark

Nicola Peltz Beckham’s billionaire father sues wedding planners

Getty Images for The Met Museum/

It’s been almost a year since Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz were married during a lavish Palm Beach wedding last April, but the drama surrounding the nuptials continues to unfold.

Now, Nicola Peltz Beckham’s billionaire father – Nelson Peltz – is suing one of three sets of wedding planners who he claims failed to meet the “scale” of his daughter’s high-profile guest list.

New documents obtained by The Daily Mail show Peltz and Beckham went through three different wedding planners ahead of their big day – the second of whom Nelson Peltz is suing for allegedly refusing to refund him his $159,000 deposit.

According to the lawsuit, Peltz is suing Nicole Braghin and Arianna Grijalba of the Miami-based firm Plan Design Events, who he and his wife allegedly hired six weeks before the wedding. The couple hired the duo after firing their first planner, Preston Bailey, who planned Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s wedding.

The Peltz’s eventually landed on Michelle Rago to carry out their wedding plans, but the father reportedly had to pay a “substantially higher fee than what Rago Destinations would have charged” due to the last minute time frame.

In the lawsuit, Peltz claimed that Braghin and Grijalba couldn’t handle the expectations of the VIP guestlist, which “included more than five hundred people, including numerous celebrities, athletes, dignitaries and other influential individuals, who travelled from all around the globe to attend.”

His daughter is also described in the lawsuit as a “world-famous actress who has starred in blockbuster movies and television shows, including, among others, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Bates Motel, and The Last Airbender.”

“The celebrity of the wedding couple combined with the anticipated attendance of many high-profile guests required that the wedding planner have the expertise and staffing to plan, coordinate and execute a wedding event of the expected caliber and complexity,” Peltz’s lawyers claimed.

The Peltz family says the owners of Plan Design Events oversold their abilities “regarding their experience, expertise, and capability of planning the wedding.”

“During their nine days of negotiations, PDE failed to book a single new wedding vendor, failed to finalise the terms of any agreements with any of the vendors that had previously been selected by Peltz and his family and failed to attend previously scheduled meetings with Peltz,” it read. “Peltz had presented them with the opportunity of a lifetime – to have their names associated with the wedding of two world-famous celebrities, which would undoubtedly propel PDE into wedding planning stardom. In reality, however, it later became clear that PDE viewed this as an opportunity to take advantage of Peltz by making material misrepresentations on both their website and in person regarding their experience, expertise, and capability of planning the wedding.”

On 4 March 2022, Peltz informed Braghin and Grijalba they had lost the gig, a phone call which his attorneys described as “a day of reckoning”.

Peltz claimed he asked for the $159,000 deposit back from Planned Design Events multiple times after the pair were fired, but alleged they refused to return it.

The lawsuit also revealed several text messages between Nicola Peltz Beckham and the wedding planning duo, one which said that Nicola was “tired of catching” their repeated mistakes.

In one exchange, Nicola texted Braghin and Grijalba about British racing driver Lewis Hamilton, who was invited to the Palm Beach wedding but did not attend.

“Lewis Hamilton did NOT RSVP. So explain why his names on the list please,” Nicola wrote in the group text chain. “We spoke to him. He can’t come so explain why you said he rsvpd yes”.

In response, one of the wedding planners said she was still familiarising herself with the virtual guest list system they were using, and needed to “take a moment to learn the app”.

“I need time to do this,” she said. “I’m going to take a moment to learn the app and send you the information, I hate looking like a fool but I hate the most not giving you what you need ASAP. I will be back soon”.

She added, “By mistake we sent you everyone that entered the link today, I’m learning now how to filter the exact information you need to explain to my assistant and she can dedicate from now on to do this with undivided attention.”

Nicola replied: “That’s not true. He didn’t rsvp At ALL.”

The wedding planner explained that she must have pulled from the wrong database, adding: “I’m a wedding planner not a tech lol.”

The 28-year-old actress said in response, “I’m tired of catching mistakes on this rsvp list honestly.”

On 9 April, Nicola Peltz and Brooklyn Beckham were married in a Jewish ceremony held at Nelson Peltz’s $76 million Palm Beach estate. The nuptials, which reportedly cost more than $3 million, were attended by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams, actor Eva Longoria, and Victoria’s former Spice Girls bandmates, Mel B and Mel C.

Nicola wore a gown designed by Valentino, overseen by creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, which is thought to cost in excess of $100,000. The couple reportedly signed a prenup in the week before the wedding, intended to protect the fortunes of both families. The Beckhams are thought to be worth at least $380 million and Nelson Peltz is worth an estimated $1.3 billion.

Amidst the wedding drama, rumours swirled of a “feud” between Nicola and her now husband’s mother, Victoria Beckham. Tabloid reports claimed the rift began after she didn’t wear a wedding gown designed by her mother-in-law. A source also claimed to Page Six that the Transformers: Age Of Extinction star and former Spice Girls member “can’t stand each other and don’t talk”.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Nicola shut down any rumours of a feud and admitted she doesn’t know why the allegations began. “It’s not a feud! I keep seeing everywhere that word, ‘feud, feud, feud’. I don’t know why they say feud. I mean, maybe they picked up on something? And now they’re labelling it ‘feud’?”

Brooklyn also called the perceived drama between his wife and mother “ridiculous”.

“To be honest, my wife is obviously my first priority and I never want to see her upset ever,” he said. “When people do say ridiculous things, we just talk about it and we just move on. We have each other’s back 100 per cent and we just move on together.”

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