Venus Williams and her partner, Andrea Preti, have officially tied the knot, with an initial ceremony followed by a five-day celebration in Florida.
The 45-year-old tennis star opened up about her lavish September 18 wedding ceremony in Italy, where Preti was raised.
“We had this dream to do our wedding in Italy,” she said during an interview with Vogue, published Tuesday. “But we didn’t have enough time to do the paperwork, because I’m a foreigner, it can take about eight months. So we decided to have a second wedding.”
Their next round of wedding festivities took place in mid-December in Palm Beach, Florida, where she and her sister, Serena Williams, grew up.
“They always say weddings go so fast, and they do,” Williams, who confirmed her engagement in July, added. “We started on Monday. Serena gave us this gift of a beautiful yacht, and she arranged all the food, everything. We had 10 to 12 of our closest family and friends who were in town on the boat, and we were singing, dancing, gossiping, and just enjoying each other.”
The rest of the week continued with four more wedding celebrations in Florida. Family and friends enjoyed a bridal shower on the back patio of the couple’s home one night, complete with an Asian fusion dinner, followed by Williams and her bridal party dancing to Beyoncé songs.
On Wednesday, Williams, Preti, and their closest family and friends went down to Miami, Florida, for a romantic dinner. That was then followed by a sports day, filled with volleyball, tennis, dodgeball, wheelbarrow races, and pickleball.
“I didn’t want to be the team captain—I just wanted to be on the team with my husband,” Williams said.
The five-day celebration came to an end Friday with the couple’s courthouse wedding in Palm Beach at 6:45 a.m. They chose this time so they could have the entire courthouse to themselves.
“I can’t describe how beautiful, calm, sacred, exciting, and exalting it was,” Williams said. “It was just a dream.”
“For me, the courthouse ceremony was very unique, emotional, and deep. It was the second-best day of my life,” Preti added, noting that the best day of his life was their Italian wedding.
Williams and Preti were first romantically linked in July 2024, after they were spotted on a boat in Nerano, Italy, along the Amalfi Coast. They were rumored to be engaged in February, with photos, obtained by People, showing Williams wearing a sparkling diamond ring on her left hand during a tennis practice session.
During her interview with Vogue, Williams spoke about the start of her relationship, noting that she and Preti met in 2024 during Milan Fashion Week. After they spent some time texting and meeting up in London, Williams invited Preti to meet her family.
She also confirmed that she got engaged at the start of this year, with the model popping the question to the tennis pro on January 31, 2025, in Tuscany, while he suggested they wish on a star.
“He asked, ‘Do you want to hear my wish?’” she explained. “I said, ‘Yes, great!’ And when I turned around, he had the ring in his pocket. He said, ‘Do you want to marry me?’ And I couldn’t stop jumping up and down and laughing and smiling because that’s what I do when I win big matches.”
