New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed this week that Taylor Swift paid New York City more than $160,000 for the security permit tied to her wedding weekend with Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden, addressing questions from reporters about who covered the added police presence around the event. The mayor made the disclosure during a Friday press conference.
Asked whether Swift would be reimbursing the city for the police overtime, Mamdani laughed before confirming the singer had already settled the bill. He said the fee covered “that event and for the response to that event,” noting the permit itself had only been finalized in the days leading up to the wedding. Permits of that kind are standard practice whenever a private event requires street closures or additional city services, with organizers billed for the extra costs.
This isn’t the first time Mamdani has weighed in publicly on the Swift-Kelce wedding. Weeks earlier, discussing the NYPD’s readiness for a stretch of overlapping major events — the World Cup, the Knicks’ championship run, the Fourth of July and the wedding itself — he told reporters the city was “used to big events” and welcomed the attention. Asked directly if he’d scored an invite to the ceremony, he said no, adding that he’d be listening to Swift’s music at home instead.
A booked out show at MSG
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce married last Friday night at Madison Square Garden, where actor Adam Sandler was the surprising officiant at a ceremony and Stevie Nicks performed among a crowd packed with stars of sports and entertainment. The deep secrecy that surrounded the buildup to the nuptials lifted when a marquee outside the Midtown Manhattan arena proclaimed “JUST&T MARRIED” once the deed was done.
The couple did not have bridesmaids or groomsmen, instead having Swift’s younger brother Austin Swift serve as her man of honor with Kelce’s big brother and podcast co-host Jason Kelce his best man, Swift’s publicist Tree Paine said in an email.
The bride and groom’s outfits came from Christian Dior Haute Couture and its designer Jonathan Anderson with shoes custom-made by Christian Louboutin. She wore Cartier jewelry.
An almost-royal wedding
The long anticipated union of sports and song brought hype to new heights at a venue made more for historic NBA games and bucket-list concerts. The Kansas City Chiefs’ superstar tight end and the music megastar married as fans and spectators gathered outside in blistering heat, eager to be part of the occasion, even though the event was almost entirely hidden.
Actors Bradley Cooper, Zoë Kravitz, Hugh Grant and Ethan Hawke; models Gigi Hadid and Karlie Kloss; comic Chris Rock; director Steven Spielberg; singer Camila Cabello and author Jenny Han were among the guests from the world of arts and entertainment. Kelce’s coach Andy Reid and Chiefs teammates including running back Kareem Hunt were among the sports figures in the arena, along with retired NFL superstar Tom Brady, Seattle Seahawks receiver and recent Super Bowl champ Cooper Kupp, New York Giants receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and ESPN personalities Joe Buck and Stephen A. Smith.
In a culture obsessed with famous couplings it may have been the apex celebrity wedding, with perhaps only royal unions getting more attention. Holding such a ceremony in a huge, iconic space that sits at the center of the U.S. media universe while keeping all the details secret made for a surreal scene, but it was a mix of hype and hush that is not out of character for Swift.
A shrouded ceremony headed by Happy Gilmore
An Associated Press camera outside the arena showed a long line of black SUVs dropping off wedding-goers in tuxedos and evening gowns, surrounded by New Yorkers in shorts and Swifties amassing for the occasion. Rain briefly cut the heat shortly after the marriage was announced.
There was a seemingly total lack of social media posts from guests once they had entered the arena, with phones apparently banned.
However, on Saturday, hosts of Good Morning America who had been invited to the wedding, confirmed that Nicks performed and described the space as “intimate.”
“As intimate as it could possibly be given it was Madison Square Garden. Really this garden inside the garden, just so beautiful,” said George Stephanopoulos. “It’s hard to imagine a place that big and a wedding with such stars could feel so personal and so intimate.”
Robin Roberts added that both Swift and Kelce wrote their own vows.
Weddings have been a constant subject in Swift’s songs since she was a teenager, and her actually walking the aisle for the first time at age 36 added to the drama. It was also the first marriage for the 36-year-old three-time Super Bowl champ Kelce, who could have been one of the jock characters in Swift’s early hits.
Sandler, star of “The Wedding Singer” and many other hit comedies, can’t have been high on anyone’s betting list for who would marry the couple, though he’s become an increasingly warm and paternal cultural figure with age. The email announcing the marriage described him as “a friend” of the couple. Kelce was one of the many athletes who appeared in “Happy Gilmore 2,” Sandler’s 2025 sequel to one of his first hits, and Sandler appeared last year on the Kelce brothers’ “New Heights” podcast.
Welcome to New York — Taylor’s version
The Swift-Kelce relationship has thrilled and fascinated millions around the world — particularly the Swifties, the pop star’s enormous and ardent fan base — ever since the pair first started dating in 2023 after he showed up at her Eras Tour concert at the Chiefs stadium.
Happy fans mixed with frazzled tourists outside the arena.
Lori Powers, who lives an hour north of Manhattan and rode the train in to be near the nuptials, said Swift’s “music is the soundtrack behind so many amazing moments in my life. Relationships, friends, like my husband and my kids.”
She stood outside the arena before the marriage was announced with her friend Cecily Hall.
“Just being here and witnessing all the energy and the excitement, it’s so much fun,” Hall said. “The combination of sports and music makes perfect sense as to why they’re at Madison Square Garden today.”
