Mindy Weiss has been the brain behind some of the biggest celebrity weddings, including Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello and Ciara and Russell Wilson, but it was Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi’s 1997 nuptials that put her on the map.
“I was so naive to it,” Weiss told Page Six at the Shutterfly Holiday Gift Guide event. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is so cool,’ but I didn’t know what was going to come from it. It was my first experience with paparazzi, which was a big deal at that wedding and it was a double celebrity thing, so that kind of opened the door to my celebrity clients.”
Weiss told us that Shields finding her was a bit of a fluke. The model’s assistant had heard of Weiss and booked an appointment for her; Weiss didn’t even know Shields was coming in.
“I was so inexperienced,” Weiss admitted, adding that at the time she had a staff of just three people and she’d brought her husband and nephew in to help put the wedding together.
Looking back on that first celebrity wedding, there’s one major memory that sticks out in Weiss’ mind.
“I didn’t know paparazzi, I didn’t know they’re so aggressive. This was a long time ago,” she told us. “The venue had a yellow Rolls Royce that was on the property and I said, ‘What if we take a piece of tulle and we have it hanging out of the door so they’ll think we closed her veil in the door.’ They drove out like that and turned right and all the paparazzi followed it and then we turned left in a really ugly, little Nissan car and [Shields] was ducked down in the back. That was my first [time] problem-solving.”
With over her 30 years in the business, Weiss says when it comes to planning events for A-listers, trust and remaining calm in high-stress environments are the most important things.
“If I got uptight and out of sorts and I panic, it spreads like wildfire to the vendors, the helpers, the waitstaff, everyone gets panicky,” she said. “So people always ask me what drugs I’m on. Always.”
She added that there’s nothing like the feeling of being in the room of a successful event.
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